Georgia to Receive 28 Grants for Community Health Center

Georgia is set to receive $6,964,291 for an anticipated 45,191 new patients at Community Health Centers.

HHS Releases $338 Million to Expand Community Health Centers,
Serve More Patients

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced
the release of $338 million to expand services offered at the nation's
community health centers. The money was made available by the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act and comes as more Americans join the ranks
of the uninsured.

"More Americans are losing their health insurance and turning to health
centers for care," said Health Resources and Services Administrator
(HRSA) Mary Wakefield, Ph.D., R.N. "These grants will aid centers in
their efforts to provide care to an increasing number of patients during
the economic downturn."

The grants -- titled Increased Demand for Services (IDS) grants -- will
be distributed to 1,128 federally qualified health center grantees.
Health centers will use the funds over the next two years to create or
retain approximately 6,400 health center jobs.

Grantees submitted plans explaining how the IDS funds would be used.
Strategies to expand services may include, but are not limited to,
adding new providers, expanding hours of operations or expanding
services. The funds will provide care to an additional 2.1 million
patients over the next two years, including approximately 1 million
uninsured people.

Health centers deliver preventive and primary care services to patients
regardless of their ability to pay; charges for services are set
according to income. Health centers served more than 16 million
patients in 2007, about 40 percent of whom had no health insurance.

The IDS awards are the second set of health center grants provided
through the Recovery Act. On March 2, President Obama announced grants
worth $155 million to establish 126 new health centers. Those grants
will provide access to health center care for 750,000 people in 39
states and two territories.

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Dr. Dodani Receives Community Service Award

Dr. Sunita Dodani, assistant dean for research in the Medical College of Georgia School of Nursing, has received a community service award for a program using churches to disseminate healthy lifestyle information.

Her Fit Body & Soul study promoted behavioral lifestyle change through weight loss, exercise and nutrition through 12 weeks of sessions in black churches.

Dr. Dodani will receive the 2008 Community Service Award from the International Society on Hypertension in Blacks at a July 18 awards ceremony during the society's annual conference in New Orleans. She also will present findings from the study and two studies of coronary artery disease in South Asian immigrants at the conference.

Dr. Dodani, an epidemiologist and cardiologist, came to MCG in 2006 from the University of Pittsburgh, where she received a doctoral degree in epidemiology and a certificate in global health. She earned her medical degree from The Aga Khan University in Pakistan and completed a cardiology fellowship at the University of Colorado Denver. She earned a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.

In 2001, Dr. Dodani received the National Gold Medal as the youngest researcher in Pakistan. She is a reviewer for nine journals, including American Journal of Public Health, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition and Globalization & Health. She is a fellow of the American Heart Association and a corresponding member of the Cardiovascular Diseases Expert Group for the World Health Organization’s new Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study.

Secretary Leavitt Names Georgia EHR Demonstration Site

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Michael Leavitt, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), joined Governor Sonny Perdue and the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH), to kick-off Georgia’s efforts as a Medicare Electronic Health Records (EHR) Demonstration Site. The Medicare EHR Demonstration Project will provide Georgia physicians support for the adoption of electronic health records into their clinical practice.

“I am excited that Georgia has been chosen to take part in the electronic health records project,” said Governor Sonny Perdue. “Georgia's selection is the product of DCH and our stakeholders’ hard work and collaboration throughout the application process. Implementing this type of technology will allow our healthcare professionals to provide the appropriate treatment with greater speed and precision.”

In February 2008, Secretary Leavitt joined Governor Perdue at a monthly meeting of the Health Information Technology and Transparency (HITT) Advisory Board where he encouraged Georgia to submit an application for participation in this first-of-its-kind Medicare EHR Demonstration Project.

“I congratulate the state of Georgia and Governor Perdue on this achievement, which demonstrates their strong commitment to improving health care starting at the local level,” Secretary Leavitt said. “Indeed, the use of electronic health records, and of health information technology as a whole, has the ability to transform the way health care is delivered across our nation. We believe that EHRs can help physicians deliver better, more efficient care for their patients, in part by reducing medical errors. This project is designed to demonstrate these benefits and help increase the use of this technology in practices where adoption has been the slowest – at the individual physician and small practice level.”

In March 2008, Dr. Medows, Commissioner, DCH, convened a group of physicians, heath insurance companies, medical associations, and other stakeholders, through a series of meetings to create the Georgia Medicare Electronic Health Records (EHR) Community Partnership.

“The Georgia EHR Community Partnership looks forward to working with CMS to help physicians in Georgia address the barriers to EHR adoption,” said Dr. Rhonda Medows, Commissioner, Georgia Department of Community Health. “The Georgia EHR Community Partnership believes that the benefits of EHR far outweigh the challenges associated with implementation and the community recognizes the need to improve the quality and efficiency of Georgia’s health care system, in order to meet the growing demand for health care services in our state.”

Over a five-year period, the Georgia EHR Community Partnership program will work together to advance the goal of establishing a statewide strategy to enable health information to be readily available and transparent.

For more information about the Georgia HITT Initiative, visit www.dch.georgia.gov/gahitt.