Access to Care Team Meets Oct. 9
MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital supports the Healthy St. Mary’s Partnership’s Access to Care Action Team, which will meet from 3 to 4 pm Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, at Health Connections on the second floor of the Outpatient Pavilion at MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital in Leonardtown.
The team will be discussing the following action points from the Hispanic Needs Survey. Please brainstorm ideas for next steps:
- Access to routine health care
- Physical health needs
- Dental care
- Weight management
- Mental health needs
- Stress
- Depression
- Substance abuse (alcohol/drug addiction)
Read the minutes from the August 2018 meeting here.
Access to health care in a community is critical to promoting the health of its population. Several factors influence how well residents can access the health care they need, including:
- The availability of health care providers — primary care, specialty care, behavioral health, and dental
- Residents’ access to affordable health care, needed medications, health insurance, and the availability of health care providers that take their health insurance
- Reliable and easily accessed transportation to health care providers and institutions
- Cultural sensitivity of health care providers and the ability of residents to understand their health needs and health plan of action
Access to Care Action Team
This team of the Healthy St. Mary’s Partnership is dedicated to improving access to health care in the county.
Get involved. New members are always welcome to join the team. To be notified of upcoming events and meetings, please sign up for membership in the Healthy St. Mary’s Partnership and indicate “Access to Care” as your interest.
While numerous measures can be used to assess access to care, two objectives in the Healthy St. Mary’s 2020 Plan are presented. One, ambulatory care sensitive conditions, highlights conditions for which good outpatient care can potentially prevent the need for hospitalization, or for which early intervention can prevent complications or more severe disease. The second focuses on youth oral health care access. This indicator shows the percentage of children (aged 0-20 years) enrolled in Medicaid who had a dental visit during the past year. Diseases of the teeth and gum tissues can lead to problems with nutrition, growth, school and workplace readiness, and speech. Adoption and use of recommended oral hygiene measures are critical to maintaining overall health.
For more information and one-click access to a full list of resources available at MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital, visit their Leader Page.
