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Winston-Salem, N.C., Official Seeks More Public-Health Services From Hospitals

Posted on: Tuesday, 20 December 2005, 15:00 CST

By M. Paul Jackson, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.

Dec. 19--Acute-care hospitals need to provide more public-health services for patients, and one Winston-Salem health-care official says he's is trying to make that happen.

Michael Clements, the director of the Downtown Health Plaza, said that hospitals -- and not county health departments -- need to take a greater role in immunizing children, giving flu vaccines and offering disease-screening programs.

Clements was named the president-elect of the N.C. Public Health Association in October.

Bridging the gap between private, nonprofit hospitals and public-health departments could ultimately trim health-care costs for providers and patients, he said.

"In our community and our society, we fail to understand the importance of basic public-health functions," he said. "Basic public-health functions affect all of us."

The new position leading the state association is just one more change in Clements' career. Juggling the needs of the health plaza's patients with the operational requirements of the health plaza was initially difficult for him, he said.

Clements, who has a background in social work, said that it took him about four years to adjust to the demands of managing the health plaza, including overseeing its 100 employees and making sure that the plaza stays financially healthy.

"It was challenging because the philosophies are just so very different," he said.

The public-health association, based in Raleigh, is a nonprofit advocacy group created in 1909 to promote public health throughout the state. The association's 750 members include county health departments from throughout the state, as well as the Institute of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Clements has been a member of the association for about 20 years. Barry Bass, the association's president, said that Clements was asked to become the president of the association because of his experience running the Downtown Health Plaza.

The health plaza, on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, is part of N.C. Baptist Hospital and provides health-care services for indigent patients. It had formerly been the Reynolds Health Center.

Baptist Hospital took over the health center in 1998, renaming it the Downtown Health Plaza in 2000. The health plaza celebrated its five-year anniversary Friday.

As president-elect of the state public-health association, Clements is responsible for planning the association's annual public-health conference, Bass said. The next conference will be Oct. 4 through Oct. 6 in Asheville.

"Michael's been involved in all the different aspects of public health over the last several years," said Bass said. "He's very approachable."

Clements will stay at the top of the association for three years, he said. He will be the association's president next year and the past-president in 2007.

Clements said he ias well suited to help lead the association. A New York City native, he is a graduate of Shaw University in Raleigh and has master's degrees in social work and public health from UNC Chapel Hill.

He worked in the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services from 1978 to 1995, before becoming the health plaza's director in 1998. Clements said that his main focus next year will be to strengthen the link between public health and nonprofit hospitals.

Creating more public-health programs within hospitals is an example of the shift toward preventive medicine within health care, Clements said. Keeping patients healthy through more public-health programs such as diabetes-screening services will save hospitals the cost of their care later, he said.

"There has to be a partnership between the state and the private sector," he said. "There has to be. There's a benefit for hospitals to be involved in public health and public-health initiatives and incorporate that in their overall mission."

Still, Clements' goal could run into a snag. Some hospitals might not be willing to shoulder the additional cost of providing extensive public-health programs.

Generally, hospitals do not receive enough Medicare reimbursement to provide many public-health programs, said Freda Springs, the spokeswoman for Novant Health, the health system that operates Forsyth Medical Center. Instead, the federal government -- which administers the Medicare program -- gives that money to county health departments.

Forsyth Medical Center does provide some programs similar to those administered through county health departments, she said. The hospital provides prenatal-care programs through its Woman Health and Wellness Center for example, she said.

Clements said that hospitals such as Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte and the Moses Cone Health System in Greensboro also maintain public-health programs for residents. He said he would try to persuade other state hospitals to follow their lead.

"More and more of the public-health functions are being picked up by the private sector," he said. "We're so closely aligned its unreal, but most people don't see that."

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Source: Winston-Salem Journal

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