By RANDY GRIFFITH
JOHNSTOWN — A partnership of Memorial Medical Center and Highmark will extend preventive medicine programs into rural areas of Cambria, Somerset, Indiana and Bedford counties.
Memorial has received a $500,000 grant from Highmark Foundation to establish the Center for Community Health to launch
education, screening and intervention opportunities in small communities across the region, said Dr. David Carlson, chief medical officer.
The outreach will address weight management, cancer, osteoporosis, nutrition, cardiovascular disease, sleep disorders and smoking cessation. Many of those areas are cited in last month’s County Health Rankings report that put Cambria County 64th among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
“We take the report seriously,” Carlson said.
“We are going out and doing screenings in outlying areas. It will make people aware of their risks and get them plugged into resources to help them.”
Memorial’s office of community health will be working with community organizations serving at-risk populations to get the word out on clinics and screenings to be held in fire halls, community centers, churches or health care facilities.
Each event will include both a health screening to identify risk for certain diseases and an educational program on the disease. Those screened will be provided with results and given recommendations for appropriate follow-up.
All participants will also receive information about Memorial’s outpatient smoking cessation and Right Weigh anti-obesity programs. Both are free to qualified individuals who are willing to commit to participation in the group classes.
Seward, Johnstown, Richland, Loretto, Bedford, Carrolltown, Meyersdale and Somerset are being considered for events.
Dates are still being worked out.
“Given the cost of these risk factors to the nation and the individual, prevention and early intervention is a public health imperative,” Carlson said. “We are very pleased the Highmark Foundation has provided this opportunity to reach out to those in our community who can benefit from education and early detection. We know lifestyle changes such as smoking cessation, diet and weight management can make a significant difference.”
Cost is also a barrier health systems trying to address public health issues such as those raised in the County Health Rankings, Carlson said. In fact, financial issues cut both ways in preventive care.
“The old saying is ‘follow the money,’ ” Carlson said. “In an area with low socioeconomic status, the health outcomes are
bad. People who have less resources have worse health. When you don’t have money, it is really hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle.”
Low income people are more likely to be overweight, smoke and skip preventive care, he said.
“The second piece of this is: Our health care organizations are not funded to do population-based health care,” Carlson said. “That is the key to managing risk.”
All government funding for public health is administered through the Department of Health and stays in government programs, he said.
“The government and organizations like Highmark (normally) do not pay us to be preventers,” Carlson said. “They pay us to be treaters. I personally believe we could do it quite well.”
