Spectrum Health Honored for Community Programs

Spectrum Health Healthier Communities has been awarded the 2012 Building Michigan’s Healthcare Award for Community or Regional Collaboration by the Michigan Health Council.

The Spectrum Health Healthier Communities programs were honored for their outstanding efforts to collaborate among health care organizations in underserved communities and for actively addressing health education challenges in Michigan. The programs include Core Health, School Health Advocacy, MOMS, Programa Puente, and Commit to Be Fit.

“We believe that relationships formed from community partnerships are the key to providing greater medical access for the under-served and we are thrilled to receive this recognition from the Michigan Health Council for these programs,” said Erin Inman, director, Spectrum Health Healthier Communities.

About the programs:

Core Health is a free, 12-month program for adults with diabetes or heart failure. It provides one-on-one visits to patients’ homes from a registered nurse and community health worker. Working with their doctors, staff provides education, mentoring and access to community resources to help patients:

Understand their health condition and how to access care
Manage their condition and learn how to work with the health care system
Improve their health through lifestyle changes
Set personal health goals

The School Health Advocacy Program is a unique collaboration between Spectrum Health and area schools to improve the general health and well-being of students while facilitating school attendance and learning. As a health care team of school nurses, school community health care workers and school secretaries, the program provides on-site clinical services and health education. These services are available to all students who attend a school that participates in the School Health Advocacy Program. Program expenses are shared by Spectrum Health and the school.

Mothers Offering Mothers Support (MOMS) is a state-certified, maternal-infant health program. The goal of MOMS is to lighten the stressful effects of pregnancy and help moms deliver healthy babies. The program matches pregnant women with a registered nurse, counselor, nutritionist and community health worker. Working with moms, they make home visits and telephone calls throughout their pregnancies and their babies’ first year. MOMS is available to eligible participants at no cost, depending on the participant’s health insurance.

Programa Puente (Latino Network) is a program devoted to improving the health of the Spanish-speaking population in the Greater Grand Rapids area. The program provides health navigation services to individuals and families; health promotion community groups through Colectivos de Salud; and community agency partnerships, reducing possible disconnect that can occur among agencies serving the Spanish-speaking population.

Commit to Be Fit Workplace Wellness program is a collaborative effort of Spectrum Health Healthier Communities and The SOURCE, Grand Rapids that was launched in 2006 to help improve the health status of working poor in the manufacturing sector. Annual health risk assessments, quarterly health screenings, goal setting for health and wellness goals and health challenge events and education, give participants information and incentives to improve their health. Goals focus on improving nutrition, physical activity, tobacco cessation, reducing obesity and preventing and managing chronic disease.

The Michigan Health Council created the Building Michigan Health Care Workforce Awards in 2009 to recognize the efforts Michigan health care employers and professionals make to expand, diversify, and improve the quality of Michigan’s health care workforce.

Awards are given to recognize excellence in education and training, inter-professional education, health care workforce recruitment and retention, and community and regional collaboration.

The awards were presented at the Michigan Health Council’s annual luncheon on November 13 at the University Club in East Lansing.

Spectrum Health is a not-for-profit health system in West Michigan offering a full continuum of care through the Spectrum Health Hospital Group, which is comprised of nine hospitals including Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, a state of the art children’s hospital that opened in January 2011, and 183 service sites; the Spectrum Health Medical Group and West Michigan Heart, physician groups totaling more than 700 providers; and Priority Health, a health plan with 600,000 members. Spectrum Health is West Michigan’s largest employer with 19,000 employees. The organization provided $204 million in community benefit during its 2012 fiscal year.