Latest news with #CentralHealth
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
‘Astonishing': HIV screening policy change normalizes getting tested, experts say
AUSTIN (KXAN)– An HIV screening opt-out policy suggested by Central Health, a Travis County Hospital District, helped break the barriers that stemmed from HIV testing– and the numbers were astonishing. Central Health Senior Director Megan Cermak told KXAN's Tom Miller, that the campaign helps their patients not 'slip through the cracks' because some Illnesses and conditions were not being properly detected until it was too late. In 2018, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) identified Central Texas as a 'hot spot' for new HIV diagnoses, Cermak said. A policy change in HIV screenings, however, made a difference to save lives. Back in the day a positive HIV diagnosis felt like it was the end of the world- especially during the AIDS epidemic in 1995. However, a press release from Central Health stated in 2025, that fear has been shifted due to the accessibility and lifesaving treatment options made available for patients. 'Today, a person with HIV can manage the condition properly with the right care,' said the release. Although the fear over HIV diagnosis has slightly simmered, life-threatening gaps still continue to exist and a big part of the problem is due to screening. Central Health's implement in policy changes for HIV screening made efforts to raise awareness and increase testing. The health center created a policy that included HIV testing as part of any blood screenings; mandating HIV screening on blood tests unless patients opted out. For more than 30 years the CommUnity Care's David Powell Health Center has provided HIV treatment and prevention for all Central Texans, including Travis County, the release said. Cermak shared with KXAN the impacts Central Health leads through its HIV screening policy and how it combated the stigma around it. 'The HIV screening policy, it's exactly what it sounds, so we make HIV screening a routine part of healthcare. So in your annual exam when you get a blood draw and you're screened for diabetes or cholesterol, you're also screened for HIV,' Cermak said. Cermak added that this helps patients reduce the stigma around HIV screening because it becomes a routine part of healthcare. 'Patients and the providers have responded so positively because it helps reduce stigma, and it makes what could have been an uncomfortable conversation a normal part of healthcare,' Cermak said. Cermak told KXAN the outcome from this policy change to implement HIV screenings as part of the routine exams was 'astonishing.' 'HIV screening rates for our Medical Access Program (MAP) patients in Travis County were 64 percent higher than the state average and 84 percent greater than the national average,' Cermak said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBC
12-05-2025
- CBC
Woman who impersonated nurses pleads guilty to fraud, identity theft
A woman who worked at various long-term care homes in Newfoundland without proper credentials has pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and identity theft. All told, Lisa Driscoll pleaded guilty to five charges in a St. John's courtroom Monday. That includes two counts of fraud over $5,000, two counts of unlawfully obtaining or possessing another's identity with intent to commit an indictable offence, and one count of failing to comply with a probation order. Driscoll was not in the courtroom, but was represented by lawyer Candace Summers. The Crown was represented by lawyer Scott Hurley. Driscoll was charged in January 2023, when investigations by Central Health — a former regional health authority for central Newfoundland — and CBC News revealed she had worked as a registered nurse in several locations across the province under the identity of multiple nurses between March 2021 and July 2022. She was also on probation when she worked at three nursing homes in St. John's. CBC News also confirmed Driscoll — while going by the alias Lisa Strickland — was convicted of negligence causing death in Hamilton, Ont. in 2017 after her four-year-old son died. She was sentenced in 2021 to 2½ years in prison, but only served an additional 75 days due to time served before sentencing. Driscoll's sentencing hearing is scheduled for Sept. 25.
South China Morning Post
27-04-2025
- General
- South China Morning Post
Are Hong Kong's tiger parents harming their children's futures by pushing them too hard?
Maths on Monday, taekwondo on Tuesday, piano lessons on Wednesday, creative writing on Thursday and swimming on Saturday. No, this isn't a schedule of activities offered at your local community centre, but a typical week of extracurriculars for a student in Hong Kong on top of their regular academic curriculum, usually planned by a so-called 'tiger parent' or 'helicopter parent'. Advertisement Used to describe parents who are too strict, protective and intensely involved in their children's lives – with an extreme focus on academic performance and high-status extracurricular activities (ECAs) – tiger parents are especially prevalent in Hong Kong and the rest of Asia, where huge value is placed on academic achievement. 'When I first moved here 13 years ago, tiger parenting was more ubiquitous, thanks in part to Amy Chua's book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,' says Dr Melissa Ortega Giglio, clinical psychiatrist at Central Health's child development team. 'However, new parenting styles have emerged and become more attractive and mainstream.' Tiger parents are still very common in Hong Kong, according to educators. Photo: Dickson Lee For Brenda (whose name has been changed for privacy reasons), a mother of three and international school educator in Hong Kong, 'Tiger parenting is still very common. Parents send their children to all sorts of classes from a young age, even when they're just one or two years old. I'd say that 80 per cent of our students are involved in some kind of ECA.' Despite its negative connotations though, Brenda also points out that tiger parenting usually comes from a good place. 'Parents genuinely care and want their kids to have a head start in life,' she explains. 'Some are more relaxed than others and send their kids to ECAs because they want them to spend their time more productively than just playing video games at home. Others are a lot stricter and have high expectations – wanting them to get into exclusive programmes like a school's gifted programme, for instance.' Tiger parenting can be gruelling for children, who are often put through many hours of private tutoring, which are crammed into after-school hours and weekends, not only for academic subjects but for sports, music, languages and the arts as well. Those who perform well could consider themselves lucky to receive praise, given the stereotypical cultural reluctance of Asian parents to heap compliments on their children, while those who fall short of their parents' exceptionally high standards might be scolded, or even worse, shamed. Invictus' Fiona Chan says parental pressure has long-term effects on children. Photo: Handout 'Hong Kong students face a lot of pressure to meet society's expectations – whether it's the school's, their teachers' or their parents' – and I feel for them,' says Brenda, who has seen these scoldings first-hand. 'It breaks my heart, and we try as much as possible to encourage parents to be supportive and positive instead of judgmental and overly critical.'
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Central Health is creating a bridge in medical care with new clinic for homeless patients
Daniel Perez says he almost died three times a year ago because of an opioid overdose. One time he ended up in a hospital intensive care unit. After the hospital, Perez relapsed and was jailed before being sent to Integral Care's diversion program. Integral Care is the public mental health, substance use and intellectual disabilities services provider for Travis County. The diversion program brings people to mental health and substance abuse care centers instead of the hospital or jail. Integral Care has converted a former Ronald McDonald House into a 24-bed respite center that opened in October and where participants receive mental health and/or substance abuse care for up to 90 days. Beginning in February, the respite center also started receiving weekly medical care from Central Health's Bridge Clinic program. Central Health, which is the hospital district for Travis County and provides medical care for people making less than 200% of the federal poverty level by using property tax dollars, launched a physical Bridge Clinic in June at Central Health's Capital Plaza Specialty Clinic at 5339 N. Interstate 35. The Bridge Clinic's focus is on providing medical care to the unhoused population instead of sending them to a hospital emergency room for treatment that a primary care doctor should provide. The clinic is a partnership with Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services. Patients can either find their way there, or often EMS will bring them to the clinic instead of the emergency room. Central Health's 2024 demographics study, which came out in March, includes statistics on the unhoused population it serves, as well as populations based on U.S. Census tracts. That report collected data from July 2022 through June 2023, before Travis County and Integral Care formally created the diversion program and before Central Health started the Bridge Clinic. The data shows a huge gap between being admitted to the hospital and having a safe place afterward, said Jessie Patton Levine, the analytics quality manager with Central Health, during a March board meeting in which the demographics study was presented. In that study, behavioral health, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and substance use disorders were the most common chronic conditions treated in people experiencing homelessness. They had two to four times higher rates of behavioral health, substance use disorder and kidney failure compared with all enrollees in Central Health's Medical Assistance Program, which is similar to an insurance program through the hospital district. Chronic respiratory illnesses such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease also were higher. The unhoused population also had a high reliance on going to the emergency room for their care vs. going to a primary or specialty care clinic. Trips to Dell Seton Medical Center, the safety net emergency department for Travis County, were twice as much as any of the other clinics or hospitals for these Central Health patients. The patients who are unhoused also had lower rates of cancer and diabetes care than other Central Health populations, which doesn't mean they didn't have those conditions. It just means they were not being diagnosed with them as often, in part because of a lack of continual care from a primary care doctor. The report states: "The data underscore persistent disparities, particularly among racial and ethnic groups, as well as the increased medical complexity of the unhoused population." The Bridge Clinic focuses on making it easy and less stressful to get medical help. Patients don't have to have an appointment or be an established patient with the clinic. They can come anytime from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. There is a side entrance to avoid a traditional waiting room, which is another obstacle to seeking care. "We are meeting patients' needs without asking them to conform to traditional medical models or a traditional primary care model where they have to show up on time and there's a wait period and there are all these barriers," said Dr. Pheba Thomas, the physician lead for the clinic. Sometimes patients are exhausted by the time they arrive at the clinic, said Dr. Audrey Kuang, Central Health's co-director of high-risk populations and founder of the Bridge Program. It makes a difference that they can come to the clinic, take a rest and then see the doctor, she said. If the team comes at the patient right away about fixing their blood pressure, "we're not gonna accomplish anything and that patient's going to leave being like, 'I just got berated at this office and nobody's helpful,' versus if you say, 'take your time, have a snack, soak your feet, do what you need to do first, and then we'll talk about everything else later," said Dr. Jennifer Nunes, a physician at the clinic. The clinic has four patient rooms but is housed in the same building as the specialty care clinic, which means the clinic's doctors can consult with gastroenterology, hepatology, infectious disease, a dietician and palliative care, as well as having a pharmacy and an ultrasound available down the hall. CommUnity Care also has a substance abuse clinic in the same building. One of the things that makes Bridge Clinic doctors most happy is the over-the-counter medications and supplies they keep to give to patients. These include pain relievers, fungal cream, iron pills and antacids. "What's hard for us, it's not being able to give things to our patients we know they need. ... Knowing our patient needs it, deserves it, it would make them feel better, it's part of their treatment plan." Kuang said. "I think that's why we get so giddy with this." Once they have created a connection with patients, Kuang says they are seeing them return for follow-up visits or the next time that they have a health concern. The clinic can arrange rides for patients to get to the clinic if they know what area of town the patient will be in at what time. "There are so many people lost in the system," she said. "I feel like we're one family looking out for our neighbors and our community," she said. While patients can come to the physical Bridge Clinic any Monday through Friday, on certain days the clinic staff also brings care to the community: the Integral Care respite center on Mondays and the city of Austin's Eighth Street Shelter for Women on Wednesdays. A nurse and medical assistant pack up all the supplies they will need from the Central Health offices at 1400 N. Interstate 35, the site of the old Austin Children's Hospital, and drive it to the location. Then a doctor helps them unload and set up the clinic for the day, including a secure internet service for logging patient records. At the Integral Care respite center, one room becomes where patients arrive and get their vitals checked, as well as talk to the nurse and the medical assistant about any services they might need. Another room is the doctor's office. On a Monday in March, Jalen Reasonover, a medical assistant, is taking Perez' blood pressure and blood oxygen level, as well as taking some blood for basic lab work. Perez asks if there is any way they could get him some eyeglasses. Nurse Lana Sherrill tells him they will have a voucher for an eye checkup and a pair of glasses when they come back next Monday. Inside the doctor's office, Dr. Tim Mercer, Central Health's co-director of high-risk populations and an associate professor of Population Health at Dell Medical School, examines Perez with a stethoscope and feels Perez's ankles for any swelling. They talk about Perez's improved blood pressure and run through the other things Mercer has been working on with Perez: pain in his back, difficulty using one of his hands and wrist, and a boil from a stab wound in his knee that doesn't seem to want to go down. Mercer then looks at the boil, which will need an ultrasound and a follow-up appointment with a surgeon. The clinic will schedule those for Perez. Mercer also sends a prescription for a year's supply of blood pressure medicine as well as Narcan, should Perez choose to use opioids again, and talks to him about using fentanyl test strips and not using drugs alone. He advises against using Xanex on the street because most likely it has been laced with Fentanyl. Mercer talks without any judgement, making Perez feel more open to not hide his past drug use. Documents, interviews show how agencies responded to rash of deadly overdoses in Austin Perez's goal when he leaves the respite center is to work in construction, after he gets new copies of his Social Security card and his driver's license, which he lost. The clinic has its own social worker to help patients get what they need and connected to programs and resources they might want. This includes making sure they have medical care through either Medicaid or Central Health's MAP program. Housing is one of the biggest wants. In Kuang's ideal world, the Bridge Clinic staff would have housing vouchers they could hand out. Perez has been on wait lists for housing, he says, since 2022. Mercer's big picture goal is for Central Health to have the agencies providing the care work in partnership and continue to break down barriers to health care. "We have a lot of work to do," he said. Do you know how to use Narcan? Austin health officials demonstrate This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Central Health establishes Bridge Clinic for homeless patients
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
‘Arctic front' potentially deadly for those living outside — here's what to look for
AUSTIN (KXAN) — As light rain makes way to bitter cold overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, the city of Austin is once again opening its overnight cold weather shelters to protect people from potentially dangerous conditions. Arctic front arriving driving temperatures down The last major cold snap Austin experienced in January resulted in at least 12 cold exposure calls, including two 'fatal incidents,' according to Austin-Travis County EMS. The city of Austin's Homeless Strategy Office (HSO) used its text alert system to push out information about the overnight cold weather shelters and inform people about the danger of frostbite and hypothermia. Signs of frostbite may include: Initially, one may experience redness or pain of skin Other signs include a white or grayish-yellow skin that feels 'unusually firm or waxy' Numbness Signs of hypothermia include: Exhaustion Confusion, memory loss or slurred speech Drowsiness The city said hypothermia happens 'at very cold temperatures, but can occur at cool temperatures (40°F) if a person is wet (from rain, sweat or cold water) and becomes chilled.' You can find more information about hypothermia here. Those conditions are projected to take place overnight. You can find details on how to get to overnight cold weather shelter here. Happening this winter, Austin-Travis County EMS and Central Health — Travis County's health care district — have partnered on a bridge clinic program. It may very well come into play during winter weather like this. Central Health, EMS partner on 'bridge' care model for people experiencing homelessness The bridge clinic is a place for people experiencing homelessness that need specialized and inexpensive care, that may otherwise end up in an emergency room or jail. Most of the patients of the clinic are brought in by EMS. That clinic has been open since late last year. 'It's really designed for people experiencing homelessness or who are otherwise vulnerable or marginalized, who are disconnected from our care system who we can rapidly engage in care,' said Dr. Tim Mercer, co-director of high-risk populations at Central Health. The bridge clinic off Interstate 35 does not currently have extended hours during winter events like this, but for people who may end up with hypothermia, frostbite or even need an amputation due to cold weather, the bridge clinic is where folks may end up to get a follow-up or long-term treatment. Signs of hypothermia as arctic cold front arrives The bridge clinic will also be an option in the coming days as an alternative to the emergency room. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
