In a statement yesterday celebrating Community Health Center Week, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called Community Health Centers “a proven health care model,” and “one of the best investments our country can make in its future.”

In contrast The Washington Post, reporting on a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published an article this morning illustrating the failure of family-practice and internal medicine physicians to implement sufficient preventive care and immunizations. In the study, conducted around 500 visits with 64 Michigan-based physicians, two-thirds of possible immunizations were not scheduled, and half of all counseling services and over a quarter of screening tests were not initiated.

The Post offered a variety of likely explanations: prevention doesn’t pay like treating disease does, doctors are not sufficiently trained in initiating those conversation, which can be awkward (especially around weight issues), and everyone has limited time.

This comparison helps to make clear what Secretary Sebelius means when she says that Community Health Centers are a ‘model’ for health care: Community Health Centers are always working to get the most out of very limited resources. In order to keep operating and to continue to serve the communities we serve, we have to invest the majority of our efforts in prevention, in health coaching, in health education and in chronic care management. That is how we keep our costs low and keep our community members out of the emergency room. It is also how we keep our Community Health Center focused on the community.

St. Anthony Medical Clinic is proud to offer a wide range of wellness and prevention resources, including: bilingual education groups on Asthma, Diabetes and Obesity, Nutrition Counseling, Healthy Living classes, Self-Management and Goal Setting appointments, Smoking Cessation, Acupuncture, Women’s Support Group, Behavioral Health and Stress Reduction, Allergy Treatment and Group Counseling.

Last November, St. Anthony Medical Clinic received a $10,000 grant from Diabetes Hands Foundation in recognition of our participation in the Big Blue Test and to support our work with uninsured and underinsured diabetics in the Tenderloin. (You can read about that here, here and here.)

This Spring, Diabetes Hands Foundation selected St. Anthony Medical Clinic to be featured in their annual Big Blue Test video. The result is a wonderful portrait of a lesser known program at St. Anthony’s. If you are not aware of the work done here in the Clinic, this video will give you a great sense of who we are, what we do and of our strong bond with our community.

Since 2004 UCSF Medical Center and San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center have operated a mobile eye service, the Eye Van, which provides screening services for underserved patients at eight Department of Public Health Clinics. A few years ago the Eye Van began making stops at St. Anthony’s, and recently those stops became regular, monthly occurrences. SAMC Diabetes Care Coordinator Jaime Martinez expressed what a benefit this is to our patients, “This is a great service because our patients can get their screening done here, rather than wait a long time to get an appointment at General.” Our patients, like so many of the most vulnerable residents of San Francisco suffer disproportionately from chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. With limited access to primary care, low-income, underserved patients often miss out on these preventive, vision-saving screens.

Efficient, dynamic partnerships like these help us provide our patients with meaningful preventive services which ensure a better quality of life for all.

Today, Diabetes Hands Foundation announced the donation of $75,000 to six diabetes charities that help people with diabetes in need in the United States and Latin America. The money was raised through a grassroots online diabetes awareness campaign called Big Blue Test, supported by Roche Diabetes Care.

The Big Blue Test takes place every November leading up to World Diabetes Day on Nov. 14. The campaign reinforces the importance of exercise in managing diabetes. Through Big Blue Test, Diabetes Hands Foundation (DHF) called on people with diabetes to test their blood sugar, get active for 14 minutes or more, test again, and share the results at Bigbluetest.org. In the last three years, exercise decreased participants’ blood sugar level between 15 and 20 percent.

Roche’s support enabled DHF to provide critical funding to six nonprofit organizations. Five of those nonprofits are focused on helping underserved areas with a high incidence of diabetes in the United States. An additional grant will support the International Diabetes Federation’s Life for a Child Programme for the organization’s work in Latin America. As a result of reaching 8,000 entries in the Big Blue Test, Diabetes Hands Foundation granted the following:

• $25,000 to International Diabetes Federation’s Life For a Child program.
• $10,000 to Moundville Medical Clinic, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
• $10,000 to LIFT For Teens/Walk and Play For Wellness in San Rafael, CA
• $10,000 to University of Colorado Denver
• $10,000 to St. Anthony Medical Clinic, St. Anthony Foundation in San Francisco, CA
• $10,000 to Pecos Valley Medical Center, Inc. Pecos NM

“Because of these six extraordinary charities, thousands of people will have the insulin, supplies and care they need to survive,” said Manny Hernandez, founder of TuDiabetes and President of the Diabetes Hands Foundation (DHF).  “I am honored and humbled for DHF and the partners that helped us in the Big Blue Test to have a role in something so important.”

DHF will also share the anonymized results submitted by people with diabetes with two academic research groups, to help us analyze the data and learn more from The Big Blue Test. For more details, visit www.BigBlueTest.org.

The Diabetes Hands Foundation has selected St. Anthony Medical Clinic to be one of 5 recipients of Big Blue Test grant money from Roche Diabetes Care. The more participants there are worldwide, the more support St. Anthony Medical Clinic will receive from Diabetes Hands Foundation.

The Berkeley-based Diabetes Hands Foundation created the Big Blue Test in 2009 in order to raise awareness of the dramatic role exercise can play in helping diabetics control their blood sugar and manage their diabetes. In 2009 and 2010 tests, a mere 14 minutes of exercise consistently resulted in a 15 to 20% reduction in blood sugar for patients across the board.

The test is conducted worldwide between November 1st and November 14th, National Diabetes Day. For each participant who takes the test at Big Blue Test, a life-saving donation of supplies is made to a diabetic in need, as well as cash support to non-profits working with low-income diabetics. Everyone can participate, so test early and often, enter your results at Big Blue Test, and help St. Anthony Medical Clinic support diabetics in need.

St. Anthony’s and Walgreens offer 200 free flu shots at St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA November 10, 2010 To celebrate National Diabetes Awareness Month, St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic will be offering free blood sugar check ups, foot exams, body mass index calculations, and tips for learning how to control the risk of becoming diabetic. In addition, the first 200 participants will receive a free flu shot courtesy of Walgreens Pharmacy.

St. Anthony’s effort to address the staggering rate of diabetes in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district comes at a time when nearly 24 million Americans, 8 percent of the population, are reported to have Type II diabetes. Diabetes can also lead to kidney failure, blindness and heart disease. The CDC estimates that by 2050, 1 in 3 people in the U.S. will have diabetes. (more…)

As Week of Caring continues, today is Diabetes Outlier’s Day at St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic — a day where we dedicate the entire afternoon solely to diabetic patients to make sure they are caught up on all their medical needs. Outliers are patients who have uncontrolled high blood sugar or who have not been in to fulfill a variety of preventative health checks like mental health visits, glaucoma screenings, or foot screenings. St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic has one of the most state of the art chronic care facilities in the San Francisco Tenderloin — and all of our patients can access this care free of charge.

Our podiatrist will be on site today screening diabetic patients for potentially limb-threatening foot problems. Diabetics are at high risk for foot complications such as nerve damage, foot ulcers, and poor circulation which, if left untreated, can lead to irreversible foot damage and in the worst cases amputation. Our patients do not have health insurance they often come in with untreated injuries or illnesses that have compromised their foot health and are in need of podiatric management and custom orthotics.

In response to the orthotic needs of our community, SuperFeet Orthotics has stepped up and made an incredibly generous commitment to our patients here at St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic. Every month, SuperFeet Orthotics donates standard and custom orthotics to The Clinic so that our patients have access to the medical supplies they need to maintain their mobility and stay healthy.

A big thank you to SuperFeet Orthotics for their tremendous donation, and to our volunteers who are here to help out Clinic staff during Week of Caring!

According to a UCSF study, obesity rates have dropped in Caucasian and Asian children and leveled out for Hispanic/Latino children for the first time in 30 years. Though this may point out successes in recent public health campaigns aimed at reaching youth it also highlights the fact that campaigns are not reaching all children: obesity rates in African American and Native American children continue to rise.

The study states that 20 percent of California schoolchildren were obese and 3.6 percent were severely obese as of 2008. Severely obese children are at high risk of experiencing life-threatening health complications such as diabetes and hypertension.

At St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic we now have an obesity treatment and management program for our pediatric patients and their families in response to the growing number of overweight children in our community. Diet and nutrition are crucial in healthy childhood development; limited access to nutritious food and poor education on how to make healthy food choices leave many in our community at a disadvantage.

Clinicians here at St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic have begun focusing care on children who qualify as overweight and obese in order to medically manage their health and weight-loss plans. We recognize that children are impacted by the health of their family members, thus families of overweight children are also enrolled in the obesity management program. We believe treating families holistically so that all who are involved in a child’s life receive the tools necessary to make healthy lifestyle choices, such as nutrition education and weight management education, is vital to successful weight management for our low income, uninsured pediatric patients.

… is worth a pound of cure. “Let’s Move”, First Lady Michelle Obama’s new campaign to curb child obesity, puts an encouraging focus on public health. The campaign focuses on improving school lunches, enhancing availability and awareness of nutritious food options, and encouraging daily exercise. Childhood obesity is the root of many problems later in life, such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

The campaign could potentially mean change for neighborhoods like ours here in the Tenderloin: “Let’s Move” campaign is rolling out “$400 million in tax breaks to encourage grocery stores to move into ‘food deserts,’ areas with limited supplies of nutritious food, and spending $5 million more to establish and promote farmers’ markets” according to SF Gate. Our neighborhood has not one single grocery store but is dominated by corner stores (over 179 active liquor licenses!), making the Tenderloin an ideal candidate.

With any luck, tax incentives will move store interest towards areas like our own. If the campaign is successful, we may be taking our firsts steps on our way to making preventative health an American priority.

According to the American Optometric Association, early detection is a key factor in effective treatment of glaucoma — an eye disease that is often a complication of diabetes. Diabetics are 40% more likely to suffer from glaucoma, but with the help of early detection, symptoms of glaucoma can be treated to prevent nerve damage and blindness.

We see many low-income patients here at St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic who suffer from diabetes as a result of poor diet and food insecurity. In an effort to reduce health disparities experienced by these men and women in our community we offer free eye screenings during designated diabetes days, during which care is focused diabetic medical and educational needs. These free optical screenings make it possible for uninsured diabetic patients to receive the specialized care they need.

To learn more about diabetes, check out diabetes.org or speak with your healthcare provider.