The CHC Model of Care

Saturday, CHC President and CEO Mark Masselli sent an email which illustrates the CHC Model of Care nicely wrapped up in the events of a single day at CHC:

Wow – what a Friday at CHC – our model of care continues to draw people to the work we are doing.

The morning started off with Grand Rounds with Bill Rubenstein, Commissioner of Consumer Protection for the State of Connecticut. Bill’s Department is overseeing the implementation of the Medical Marijuana legislation that passed the General Assembly . Bill is a well know litigator and former Assistant Attorney General . The presentation was comprehensive, engaging and our staff had many questions and if you missed his presentation – I am sure the link will be up very soon.

Next up was a visit from Dr. Alice Chen, Chief Integration Officer, Director of the Center for Integration at the University of California. Alice had flown in for a presentation and learning session with our expanded leadership team. We had a great exchange of information on the work she is undertaking as well as an opportunity to hear about our Quality Improvement Department’s multi-dimensional approach to care transformation. Alice and our Chief Medical Officer Nwando Olayiwola both went through the Commonwealth Fund Harvard University Fellowship program. Hopefully, this will be a long term partner for CHC.

Later in the day, our Clinical Director, Margaret Flinter, was one of the 3 featured guest on “Talk of the Nation: Science Friday” a national Public radio show.  In addition to the host, Ira Flatow,  former head of the Office of the National Coordinator, Dr David Blumenthal, and author Dr Marc Siege were guests.  This is a very popular show and we heard from a number of friends around the country. This is a link to their web site and the show: Needless to say which of the guest was the superstar.

http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/11/30/2012/what-obamacare-means-for-patients-and-their-docs.html

Finally we ended the day with a visit from Glide Health Services, which is a “ radically inclusive, just and loving community mobilized to alleviate suffering and break the cycles of poverty and marginalization”.  They operate a nurse-managed community health center and were here to visit with our Health Center staff and learn about our model of care. They visited the Meriden, New Britain and Middletown sites. If you had the chance to encounter any of our three guest; Patricia Dennehy, J.P Perino or Karen Hill you will have met some very spirited leaders. So we had two different groups from San Francisco floating through the building.  They knew of each other’s work, but had to come to Middletown to meet!

That was just one day in the life of our Health Center.  We are always moving forward because of the dedication of a great staff and a vision of building a word class primary care system for people that everyone else gave up on.  Onward!