Oh, and if you are curious about what is currently in season and available at the North Carolina Farmers Market, check out this availability chart.  Also, NC Farm Fresh is a great site to find a farmer’s market near you.  You can even search by type of produce.

Laura Aiken is a community health specialist with WakeMed and director of Advocates for Health in Action.

Congratulations to Maral Akridge, the Chamber’s president, for accomplishing this important task and for holding such a successful event.  Based on yesterday’s turnout from congressional offices, state legislators, county commissioners and local elected officials, you already have the ear of key policy makers. Way to go!  WakeMed is proud to sponsor organizations like the Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce as your efforts are truly making a difference throughout our community.

The custom trailer will serve as a mobile pharmaceutical processing and distribution facility for the Capital City and surrounding region in times of emergencies. Should WakeMed’s pharmacy or any area hospital pharmacy become damaged due to natural or manmade circumstances, this mobile unit will ensure patients are still able to receive their medications. Hurricane Katrina taught us many important lessons, like this one, as she crippled hospitals in her path.

The vehicle can also be deployed in the community to conduct mobile mass vaccination clinics.  Hopefully we won’t have another H1N1 scare but thanks to our federal and state elected officials, our area will be better prepared.

Christine Craig is WakeMed’s director of government affairs.

Are you interested in what the federal Wake County delegation has to say about health care reform? Stay informed by checking their web sites.

“This is the best chance we have to reduce sky-rocketing health care cost for North Carolina families.”  Congressman Bob Etheridge

“Health insurance reform is essential to ensuring coverage and controlling health care costs, now and in the future.” Congressman Brad Miller

“We must pass health care reform that invests in our nation’s future by providing families with high-quality care, giving businesses access to affordable plans for their employees, and reining in government spending.” Congressman David Price

“Currently, health care expenditures account for 16% of our nation’s GDP.  This is unsustainable, and one goal of reforming health care must be to enact sound policies that drive health care costs down so that all Americans can access quality and affordable health care.” Senator Richard Burr

“Here is why we need reform: ten years ago, North Carolinians paid $6,000 in annual family premiums. Today they pay $12,000. By 2016, it is projected that families will pay $24,000. North Carolina’s families deserve better than this.” Senator Kay Hagan

Yesterday, Inclusive Health hosted an event in the Andrew’s Center on WakeMed’s Raleigh Campus to enroll North Carolina residents who have had trouble securing a health insurance policy due to pre-existing medical conditions. 

At the event Judy Dixon, an Inclusive Health Enrollee, shared her story.

Judy has been covered by three different health insurance organizations this year alone. Several years ago, Judy explained that she was at the top of her game in her career with a local newspaper. She began struggling with various health issues such as asthma, spinal degeneration and sleep apnea. After several years of dealing with short-term disability, exhausting her sick days and vacation time, and growing medical challenges, Judy ended her employment. She then faced the challenge of securing health insurance independent of her job.

When her COBRA plan ran out, she transferred to her husband’s insurance plan. When her husband retired, she transferred to his COBRA plan. When his COBRA plan expired, she turned to a private insurer but was rejected after only a seven-minute interview on the basis of pre-existing conditions. Then, she turned to Inclusive Health.

If your story is similar to Judy’s and you missed the enrollment event, don’t worry.  Learn more about Inclusive Health and see if you qualify by visiting their web site or viewing a WRAL story on yesterday’s event. This program is another great example of the opportunities available in our community that make health care affordable.

Stan Taylor, Vice President of Corporate Planning

The Cary News included a story yesterday quoting me and profiling two Holly Springs residents on their desire to have a hospital built in their town.  Every community wants a hospital for convenience, choice, access, and yes, competition throughout the region.  But it is not feasible for every community in an urban county like Wake to have a $100,000,000 hospital every few miles.

A community hospital generally needs at least 80 to 120 beds in order to attract the physician specialists and clinical staff necessary to ensure a wide breadth of services. Specialty hospitals, like the 60-bed women’s hospital WakeMed is planning to build in North Raleigh, or a cancer hospital, or even a hospital specializing in surgery, can thrive with fewer beds because of its single focus. 

However, a non-specialty, community hospital with fewer than 80-beds typically serves as a referral source. In other words, if a patient presents to the emergency department with a serious ailment for which they need inpatient care, chances are very likely they will be immediately transferred to a tertiary care center with more specialties and services.

There are many areas of our county where it takes more than 9 miles to get to a hospital. In fact, most communities in Wake County are at least that distance from a hospital, including some areas within Raleigh – a city that has 3 hospitals.

But, the question of the allocation of health care resources never has had an easy answer.  The challenge for state regulators is to strike a balance so all citizens of North Carolina have access to facilities and services that provide high quality, affordable health care - without unnecessary duplication and overlapping services in an area.  An exact recipe makes for a strong health care community where all citizens are served.

Health Care Reform

U.S. Representative Etheridge is hosting a discussion on the impact of health care reform on senior citizens this afternoon from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm at the YWCA on Hargett St.  The event will take place downtown Raleigh YWCA (554 E. Hargett St., Raleigh).

The discussion is slated to cover Medicare shortfalls in prescription drug coverage, access to preventative care and coverage, and the need for increased Medicare reimbursement rates for primary care doctors.  Congressman Etheridge has invited three local experts, including a physician that practices at WakeMed, to address these issues and discuss how reform must provide solutions for seniors.

H1N1

Also today, Dr. Mark Piehl, WakeMed pediatric intensivist and Medical Director of the WakeMed Children’s Hospital, will participate in a Wake County press conference about H1N1.  Dr. Piehl will talk about WakeMed’s surveillance data to date and the importance of the visitation restrictions.  Tune into your local news tonight to learn more about H1N1 in our community.

The news conference is part of the partnership, ReadyWake! Flu, that brings Wake County leaders from different organizations together to provide public information.   The county’s ReadyWake web site and Twitter feed are also great resources.

T u e s d ay,  S e p t e m b e r  2 9

WakeMed North Healthplex

5 to 8 pm – Screenings only

T h u r s d ay,  O c t o b e r 1

WakeMed Cary Hospital

3 to 7 pm – Screenings and Seminars

Seminars

4:30 pm – Male Health: Sexual and Urological Issues

5:30 pm – Understanding Low Testosterone, BPH & Prostate Cancer

6:30 pm – Surgical Options for Treating Urological Issues

To register, go to events.wakemed.org. For more information, please call 919-350-7827.

Since opening in February 2008, WakeMed Apex Healthplex has surpassed projected volume by 10-15 percent.  And, ED volume for this fiscal year is 50 percent greater than what we saw last year. David will discuss WakeMed’s plans for the future in Apex.  Other panelist include

-Michael Murphy, Director of Manufacturing Engineering, EMC Corporation

-Brenda Steen, Executive Director, Apex Chamber of Commerce

-Tom Hendrickson, Developer, Lookout VenturesWally Bowman, Division 5 Engineer, North Carolina Department of Transportation

To learn more, see the article in the Apex Herald.

Alliance Medical Ministry is a faith-based medical ministry that serves uninsured working families in Wake County. For the most part, Alliance operates like any other private doctor’s office. Board certified physicians provide general primary care to patients who pay a set fee up front, however they don’t bill insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. The fee covers time with a physician, any necessary lab work or x-rays, most medications and health education. Alliance links with many community partners to provide the highest quality treatment available. The comprehensive care provided includes acute and chronic medical care, urgent care appointments, preventive and health education, monthly screening eye exams for diabetic patients, all necessary lab work, free or reduced priced medications, monthly ENT and GYN clinics, bilingual services and 24-hour coordination of care including a bilingual after-hours answering service.

Approximately 25% of Alliance patients are direct referrals from local hospital emergency rooms who need follow-up care or a medical home. Over 60% of these referrals have never had health insurance or have been without it for over a year. Ninety seven percent of Alliance patients have an annual household income of less than $25,000; 49% are Latino, 29% are African-American, 4% are Asian-American, and 60% are women. All have a working adult in the household but have no insurance.

A survey of Alliance Medical Ministry patients clearly demonstrates the success of this medical home model:

• Better Care, Better Health: 100 percent of patients experienced an improvement in their overall health. Before being treated at Alliance Medical Ministry, these patients often ignored medical issues due to concerns about high costs. More than two-thirds of those surveyed said they had refused to address medical issues at least three times in the year before becoming a patient.

• Fewer Missed Workdays: 90 percent of employed patients missed fewer days of work due to illness.

• Reduced Medical Costs: 86 percent of patients visited the hospital emergency department less frequently, resulting in 68 percent fewer emergency department visits. This results in significant savings to the patient, as a visit to Alliance Medical Ministry typically costs $10 while a visit to the emergency department frequently bills for $1,800 or more.

Establishing a national network of primary care providers will take significant time and resources, requiring changes in reimbursement for primary care physicians and a renewed commitment to develop a strong pipeline of these important, but often undervalued, physicians.

The Alliance Medical Ministry – and hundreds of other successful models across the country – demonstrates that pursuing the medical home concept is worth the effort.