Community Benefits are services, such as charity care, community outreach, health counseling, and transport, that are beyond the regular services provided for payment. They entail an approach to meeting identified community health needs and priorities in collaboration with the community to benefit its residents – particularly the poor and minorities, and other underserved groups – by improving health status and quality of life.
At the
ETSU Department of Family Medicine, these
community service initiatives target physical, mental, emotional
or spiritual health, as well as community well being, involving
funding and/or in kind contributions, including personnel, time,
space, and other resources.
The wide scope of Community Benefit services
provided by the ETSU Department of Family Medicine include:
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Non-Billed Services
These services include such activities as free clinics, patient education, screenings, immunizations, health promotions, support groups, and free outreach programs. Examples include:
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Providing free medical care at our clinics
for uninsured patients, such as to uninsured OB patients, and
assisting them in requesting discounted services form other
providers, such as laboratories; procedures that may include
vasectomy, mole removal, toenail removal or any procedure that
can be done in the office setting.
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Providing monthly medical home visits to
patients who are either homebound, or have transportation
problems and inadequate community supports.
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Faculty physicians regularly see patients
at
Healing Hands, a free clinic
for uninsured patients in Bristol, and perform chart reviews
for assisted living facilities.
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Full participation in a wide variety of
Health Fairs, including those sponsored by ETSU Family Medicine,
and other entities, such as the
Sullivan County Health
Department;
the Bristol Health Initiative Project; Carver
Recreation Center in Johnson City. These include six three-day
rural health fairs each year.
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Performed medical evaluations for Hurricane
Katrina evacuees at the Tri-Cities Regional Airport.
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Providing voluntary pre-participation
sports physicals, including those for
King College in Bristol and in Johnson City
with
Watauga Orthopedics; physicals for the
Boy Scouts and
Salvation Army; and serving as the Medical
Director for the
River Ways Camp, a camp for special needs
children.
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Our Social Workers provide free counseling,
support, and education to patients, including providing drug
assistance at our clinics.
- The Family Medicine Interest Group, in cooperation with the Department of Family and Community Nursing has a long history of reaching underserved migrant farm workers in Northeast Tennessee with the mobile Migrant Camp Clinics. Quillen College of Medicine students participate in screening blood pressure, blood glucose, BMI, etc., delivery of primary care and outreach programs such as ESL instruction and health prevention education. Family Medicine faculty are actively involved in supporting the camp clinics and extending student opportunities.
Community Collaborations
Collaborating with other community entities and organizations in quality of life or healthy communities initiatives that create the conditions in which people can be healthy, such as:
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Serving as medical advisors / consultants
for
Adult Protective Services /
Frontier Health; for both The TRAUMA and CART investigative
teams for the Children’s Advocacy Center for Bristol /
Washington County, Virginia, and the
Children’s Advocacy Center of Sullivan
County, serving Bristol and Kingsport; and for the
Washington County Virginia Schools Student
Health. Bristol Program Director Dr. Burton Banks was
appointed by the
Virginia Department of Criminal Justice
Services to serve on the Virginia Forensic Medical Work
Group.
- Participation on the Infant Mortality Committee of the Sullivan County Health Department; serving as Chair of the Bristol Regional Medical Center’s Physician Wellness Committee and as a member of its Bylaws Committee; Participation in the Bristol Health Initiative Project; member of the Pregnancy Crisis Advisory Board; Members of the Advisory Board for the Comprehensive Health Investment Project (CHIP), organized by People, Inc.
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Health Education
Supporting, providing, and advocating for health education,
health promotion, and disease prevention. Examples
include:
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Conducting health presentations for such
venues as at the Bristol Slater Senior Center; and the
Bristol Wellness Center.
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Manning booths at the Women and
Children’s Expo at Wellmont Bristol Regional Medical
Center, as well as the Baby Fair at the
Bristol YWCA.
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Guest appearances by various department
faculty on regional television news shows; and Dr. Burton Banks
of ETSU Family Physicians of Bristol co-hosted a weekly,
one-hour medical talk show, “Doctor in the House”,
on the BVU cable network (From July to October 2006).
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Our social workers provide patient
education on such topics as domestic violence and mental
illness.
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Pre-Med Education Programs directed by the
Department of Family Medicine have included diabetes education
and research, and have involved health education at the grade
school, middle school, and high school levels.
- Our Rural High School Medical Camp, now in its sixth year, is an effort to increase the number of primary care physicians who choose to practice in rural areas, by encouraging students to consider a career path that previously may have appeared out of reach and gives them a set of experiences to guide them for preparation for entering medical school.
Providing Direct Assistance to Community Services and Facilitating Enrollment in Health Care Coverage for Vulnerable Populations
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Our social workers help patients with other
community resources, educating them on what is available to
them, and assisting them in accessing these resources, such as
filing for disability.
- Residents work within the health department, do home visits with Hospice nurses, and have participated with the Meals on Wheels program.
Contact Information
To learn more about the contributions of the ETSU Department of Family Medicine to the health and welfare of our program communities, please explore this web site, or contact:
Bristol
:
Zelda Bartee, M.E.d., LCSW
bartee@etsu.edu
(423) 990-3025
Johnson City
:
Karen Malone, LCSW
malonek@etsu.edu
(423) 439-6419
Kingsport
:
Elizabeth (Betsy) Anderson, LCSW
andersea@etsu.edu
(423) 245-9611