Published: February 02, 2011
Alzheimer's health initiative wins national Premier healthcare alliance award for integrating care of patients and caregivers
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - (BUSINESS WIRE) - MemoryCare
of Asheville, N.C., has been honored by the Premier
healthcare alliance with the 19th annual Monroe E. Trout Premier
Cares Award for helping families successfully care for their loved
ones with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.
MemoryCare received the Premier
Cares Award and $70,000 on February 1 for providing an unhurried,
humane approach to care for older people suffering from dementia while
addressing the needs of their caregivers.
Sponsored by Premier and its member hospitals, the Cares Award
recognizes exemplary efforts by not-for-profit community organizations
to improve the health of populations in need. Representatives of
MemoryCare received the Cares Award during Premier's annual Governance
Education Conference, January 31-February 2 in Hollywood, Fla.
Since 2000, MemoryCare's three-fold mission has been to provide
specialized medical care to older adults with memory loss; support
caregivers with education, counseling, and improved access to services;
and provide community education. The program serves individuals and
families affected by Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia from
17 counties in western North Carolina. This underserved region already
exhibits the aging demographic our country will face in the next two
decades.
A panel of national healthcare leaders selects the winner and five
finalists, which all receive cash awards for use in further improving
their programs. The Cares Award program spotlights these community-based
healthcare initiatives and helps other organizations learn to replicate
these best practice programs by featuring information about them on the Cares
Award website.
"These organizations represent the spirit of what social responsibility
truly means," said Susan DeVore, Premier's president and CEO. "Each
program truly makes a difference in their communities by helping
medically underserved populations gain access to healthcare and
knowledge that they may not otherwise receive. The Premier alliance is
honored to recognize them for transforming the way healthcare is
delivered."
Following are award finalists, each of which received $24,000 for use in
further improving their program:
Alexa's Playful Learning Academy for Young Children of Rady
Children's Hospital, San Diego (www.rchsd.org/alexasplayc)
Founded in 1995, this educational toddler inclusion program is designed
to integrate early education for typically developing toddlers and
toddlers with autism spectrum disorders. These children are 18 months to
3 years old and receive intensive services in the inclusive classroom
three and a half hours a day, five days a week. The classroom has a
1-to-3 teacher-to-child ratio and is arranged like a typical toddler
classroom. Interaction with typically developing toddlers is facilitated
throughout the school day. Family education consists of weekly two-hour
home visits with a teacher to help the parents learn naturalistic
behavioral techniques.
CHOC Children's Breathmobile of CHOC Children's Hospital, Orange
County, Calif. (www.choc.org/breathmobile)
Developed in 2002, the CHOC Children's Breathmobile is a mobile asthma
clinic dedicated to delivering asthma specialty care, diagnosis,
education, and treatment to children in medically underserved areas of
Orange County, Calif. The CHOC Children's Breathmobile program provides
preventive care, treatment and wellness services to children ages 0 to
18. The comprehensive medical staff travels on a 36-foot mobile unit
equipped with two fully functioning exam rooms for assessments and
treatment. The only regional asthma specific pediatric healthcare
provider, the Breathmobile visits 24 inner-city school and community
sites (with a high percentage of children qualifying for federal reduced
meal program) each month.
Memorial Hermann Health Centers for Schools of Memorial Hermann
Community Benefit Corporation, Houston (www.memorialhermann.org)
For 14 years, the Memorial Hermann Health Centers for Schools program
has worked within three school districts in the metropolitan area of
Houston providing a medical, mental health and dental home to
underserved at-risk children. The centers are placed on the campuses of
schools with high percentages of uninsured students. They are located on
middle school campuses and also serve elementary and high school
students so that uninsured children have the opportunity for the
school-based clinic to be their medical home from kindergarten through
12th grade. Because the primary goal of the Health Centers for Schools
program is to keep children in school where they can learn, all services
are provided free of charge.
Sinai Pediatric Asthma Program of Sinai Health System, Chicago (www.sinai.org)
Since 2000, 995 children with asthma and their families have been served
through direct services of the Sinai Pediatric Asthma Program. This
program implemented four successful pediatric asthma interventions using
community health educators and/or case managers and well-defined study
designs. Through these efforts, they collected extensive process
measures describing different aspects of the community health workers'
activities, such as number of home visits, time spent in visits,
activities during the visit, time spent on medication instruction, and
referrals made. They have also collected, analyzed, demonstrated
improvements, and disseminated results in outcome measures such as
emergency room visits, hospitalizations, quality of life indices, and
cost-effectiveness.
St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Crime Victims Treatment Center of St.
Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York (www.cvtc-slr.org)
The Crime Victims Treatment Center (CVTC) of St. Luke's-Roosevelt
Hospital Center was established in 1977 as a small, grassroots program.
It is now one of the largest and most comprehensive hospital-based
victim treatment centers in New York. CVTC is located in a home-like
setting on Manhattan's Upper West Side. This program offers a full range
of free services including crisis intervention, individual, family and
group counseling, as well as holistic therapy and psychiatric
consultation. The majority of referrals (more than 80 percent) are
survivors of domestic violence or sexual violence. However, the program
provides services to all crime victims, as well as to their significant
others, including victims of stalking, assault, human trafficking,
torture and murder of a loved one.
About the Premier Cares Award
Premier has presented the Cares
Award annually since 1992, when it was created by Dr. Monroe E.
Trout, former CEO of American Healthcare Systems, one of Premier's
heritage organizations. The program has provided more than $3 million to
more than 100 organizations nationwide. The Cares Award winner receives
a cash grant of $70,000, while five runners-up receive $24,000 each. The
competition is open to not-for-profit organizations that have been in
existence for more than two years, are providing creative solutions to
health status improvement, can provide documentation of outcomes and
impact on a specific population, and have programs that can be
replicated in other communities.
About the Premier healthcare alliance, Malcolm Baldrige National
Quality Award recipient
Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,400 U.S.
hospitals and 72,000-plus other healthcare sites using the power of
collaboration to lead the transformation to high quality, cost-effective
care. Owned by hospitals, health systems and other providers, Premier
maintains the nation's most comprehensive repository of clinical,
financial and outcomes information and operates a leading healthcare
purchasing network. A world leader in helping deliver measurable
improvements in care, Premier works with the Centers for Medicare &
Medicaid Services and the United Kingdom's National Health Service North
West to improve hospital performance. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C.,
Premier also has an office in Washington. http://www.premierinc.com.
Stay connected with Premier on Facebook,
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and YouTube.
Premier healthcare alliance
Alven Weil, 704-816-5797
alven_weil@premierinc.com
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