The Community Data Scorecard, conducted by the Data Review Subcommittee, focuses on the collection and assessment Genesee County data to both inform and validate the activities of the Greater Flint Health Coalition as well as assist with the identification of community health needs. A major activity of the Subcommittee is to compile data from federal, state, and local resources including the voluntary sharing of data from its insurance, purchaser, provider, and government representatives into its Community Data Scorecard, which measures ongoing changes and impacts on the healthcare delivery system and health status in the Genesee County community. Partner organizations that contribute data for integration into the Scorecard include Genesee County’s primary health insurers (Health Alliance Plan, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Blue Care Network, and McLaren Health Plan), all three Genesee County hospitals (Genesys Health System, McLaren Flint, and Hurley Medical Center), safety-net providers (Hamilton Community Health Network, Mott Children’s Health Center, and Genesee Health System), the City of Flint, Genesee County Health Department, Genesee County Medical Society, Genesee Health Plan, Genesee Intermediate School District, and Genesee County Department of Human Services.
The Scorecard incorporates a wide range of data components to effectively monitor and analyze health trends occurring Genesee County, including data related to:
Population, socio-economic, and economic Status;
Physician capacity and access;
Health plan utilization;
County health status;
Health care economic impact;
Child and birth measures; and
Collective impact measures.
The Scorecard serves as a useful tool in guiding areas of joint opportunity throughout the community.
The Commit to Fit! Cooking with Kids is a free program that teaches families about healthy eating and preparing affordable foods from diverse cultures. This evidence-based program empowers children and families to make healthy food choices through hands-on learning with fresh local foods and simple recipes. Participating families are provided with weekly incentives, nutrition resources, and a cook book at the end of the four week program that focuses on preparing health meals on $4 or less a day per person. The classes meet once week and days as well as times vary throughout the year.
Commit to Fit! Cooking with Kids Recipes Include:
• Cuban beans with yellow rice, pineapple-banana salad, and green salad with lime dressing
• Potato pancakes with homemade applesauce
• Vegetable paella with Mediterranean flatbread
• Minestrone with breadsticks and fresh spinach salad
• Ethiopian lentils and cucumber yogurt salad
• Japanese rice bowl with crunchy cabbage salad
Parent’s Favorite Parts of the Commit to Fit! Cooking with Kids Program
• “My favorite part of the program was trying new foods with my family without the commitment of buying a lot of groceries and being able to see what my son will eat. I enjoyed the class, it gave me new recipes and veggies to try.”
• “I loved how kids can help in chopping and stirring of meals. Now my kids look for healthy foods to eat.”
• “My favorite part was seeing my children willing and eager to cook and eat different foods.”
• “Everything especially that we got to try new foods and learn new things.”
Children’s Oral Health Baby Those Baby Teeth Campaign
The Children’s Oral Health Baby Those Baby Teeth Campaign seeks to implement interventions to eliminate the access barriers to dental services for children ages zero through five years.
After assessment of the current system of children’s dental care and existing barriers to dental services, the Children’s Oral Health Task Force focused on oral health education as its central activity. The Children’s Oral Health Baby Those Baby Teeth Campaign seeks to increase parents’ and caregivers’ recognition of the importance of oral health, educate them on good oral health behaviors to practice with their children, and raise providers’ awareness of children’s oral health issues while promoting best-practice related prevention.
The Baby Those Baby Teeth Campaign places a special emphasis on strategies for the population most at risk for developing tooth decay – low income children covered by Medicaid insurance. Successful strategies that have been adopted by other communities include the Children’s Oral Health Education Wheel (of which over 100,000 have been distributed) and Dentist Referral Guide for Infants & Toddlers.
The Group Visit Project is available to assist healthcare providers in implementing the best practice of medical group visits. Group visits, also known as shared medical appointments, are commonly used to treat diabetes, asthma, heart failure, chronic pain, and obesity/overweight. They have been demonstrated to improve the quality of care and patient outcomes, increase patient satisfaction, enhance the engagement of patients as partners in the management of their health, increase physician productivity and practice efficiency, increase provider satisfaction rates and reduce emergency department visits and hospitalization rates.
Group visits support the patient centered medical home (PCMH) model and are reimbursed utilizing the same evaluation and management (E & M) codes as traditional office visits. Group visits support the attainment of additional reimbursement through quality incentive programs, pay for performance programs and PCMH payment for added value.
The Group Visit Project has assembled a number of resources to assist physicians and their staffs in implementing group visits including: the Medical Group Visit Implementation Guide, a diabetes group visit progress note template, a rack card for patient recruitment, and a sample curriculum for obesity group visits. The Group Visit Project can arrange for interested healthcare providers to observe a group visit and its physician experts are available to assist with the design, implementation, and initial facilitation of group visits within any Genesee County medical practice. The Group Visit Project Workgroup, composed of hospital, physician, and health insurer representatives, meets regularly to support the adoption of group visits by offering guest presenters to provide patient education during a group visit and problem solving capabilities to eliminate any challenges or barriers to group visit implementation. For additional information contact the Greater Flint Health Coalition.
This community-wide communications campaign was designed to inspire hope and promote health of Flint area kids. The message of the campaign is that Flint Kids Are strong, smart, healthy, creative and capable of achieving anything that they set their minds to – and they are going to prove it to you.
The Flint water crisis has had a significant impact on the lives of Flint children. The Flint Kids Are campaign gives kids a way to tell their own story, using their own words.
“Our Flint Kids amaze and inspire me every day,” says Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, Director, Michigan State University and Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative. “This campaign is critically important because it allows Flint kids to share with other Flint kids their incredible message of hope, strength and positivity.”
The campaign belongs to the community and was developed in collaboration with the Greater Flint Health Coalition, Michigan State University and Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative, National Basketball Players Association, and the United Way of Genesee County. Funding for the campaign is provided by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
If you or your organization would like to get involved or receive campaign materials, contact the United Way of Genesee County at 810-232-8121. You may also learn more about the Flint Kids Are initiative at flintcares.org/flintkidsare or by using the hashtag #FlintKidsAre online.
The Commit to Fit! Prescription for Health program is an evidence-based program that seeks to improve the physician-patient relationship and create or increase use of community-based tools. These tools will not only improve resident physical activity, nutrition, and wellness, they will also aid physicians to better assess, review, and promote physical activity to patients.
Through the Commit to Fit! Prescription for Health Program, patients and residents will be provided with disease-specific activity plans. Additionally, they will be provided linkages to community-based physical activity, health maintenance, and wellness resources, such as opportunities to practice physical activity in safe, affordable locations.
Materials for Adults Available Include:
• Exercising with High Blood Pressure
• Exercising with Type II Diabetes
• Exercising with Anxiety and Depression
• Exercising with Osteoporosis
• Exercising with Obesity
• Exercising with Cancer
• Exercising with Osteoarthritis/Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Exercising while Pregnant
• Guidelines and Type of Physical Activity
• Prescription Pads
Materials for Children Available Include:
• Children and Obesity
• Physical Activity Guidelines for Children
• Physical Activity Guidelines for Children with Asthma
• Prescription Pads
Commit to Fit! offers all of these resources to physicians for free!
Regional Perinatal System Planning Committee 2008-2009
The Regional Perinatal System Planning Committee’s vision sought to develop a
consensus-based, comprehensive concept and plan for a regional perinatal system including structure, design, and organizational/physician commitment. This plan was to be inclusive of Genesee, Lapeer, and Shiawassee Counties. The desired outcomes included:
Develop a comprehensive plan to establish standards of care, levels of care, and standards of practice for transfer and return of patients among the three labor and delivery units in Genesee County;
Establish a formal peer review process for morbidity and mortality data review to facilitate quality improvement. This process was to share and report on outcome data for each level of care, diagnosis, gestational age, and birth weight (or any other parameter deemed pertinent by the participants);
Assess and determine hospital baseline data in order to determine opportunities for improvement and prioritization of areas where improvement is feasible;
Engage an external consultant to assist in planning a system which may have extended beyond the three Genesee County hospitals.
The Greater Flint Health Coalition is devoted to dealing with racial and ethnic
disparities in health care, especially in those areas in which the Coalition has committees/task forces working on a specific health issues; i.e. diabetes, sedentary lifestyles, and infant mortality.
As a partner in the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (R.E.A.C.H.) 2010 grant from 2000 to 2007, the Coalition coordinated “Undoing Racism Workshops” conducted by the People’s Institute for Survival & Beyond, a New Orleans based organization.
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health CareThis principle based 2½ day workshop is designed to help participants develop their own analysis of history, culture, and power relationships. While the Institute’s training and mentoring are specific to each community, the process of “Undoing Racism” has consistent principles and practices that make up a model for social transformation through community organizing and leadership development. If racism in our country has been consciously and systematically constructed, it can—and should—be deconstructed and eliminated. That is the goal of Undoing Racism Workshops.
Funding from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation helped support the workshops from 1997 to 2000, when the now-defunct Community Coalition led the effort. From 2000 to 2007, the Greater Flint Health Coalition organized and sponsored 23 workshops, with $400,000 in funding assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of the REACH 2010 grant led by the Genesee County Health Department.
Since the workshops began in 1997, almost 1,400 community members have participated. Many of the area’s major organizations encouraged their employees to participate in the project. Those who have participated in the workshop believe it has been inspiring, educational, eye-opening, and effective. An evaluation of the preliminary 12 workshops hosted by the Coalition indicated a number of this area’s leaders intended to move forward with anti-racism efforts within their own organizations. Nonetheless, at an evaluation presentation of the workshops held in 2006, nearly 30% of attendees indicated they believe people in Genesee County are becoming more racist. Clearly, more work needs to be done if we are to reduce racism in our community.
While REACH 2010 has ended, the Coalition remains a dedicated partner committed to addressing Racial Disparities and Anti-Racism Activities.
