Part of the equation of providing good care while keeping cost affordable is to bring medical care away from hospitals and into communities. Live Healthy OC, a program comprised of Santa Ana-based Coalition of Orange County Community Health Centers and the University of California-Irvine’s School of Medicine and Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine, reported positive one-year data by way of incorporating a more integrative approach to improve wellness and educate patients in economically disadvantaged and underserved communities. The three-year program officially launched last year and will run through December 2018.
It’s funded with a grant primarily from the UniHealth Foundation.
Primary issues addressed include diabetes and obesity. Project manager Rhonda Smith said improvements include lowered BMI and glucose levels.
She said that as the program expands with two additional clinics, bringing the total to seven, Live Healthy OC can reach more than 33,000 patients.
“The Live Healthy OC Initiative is groundbreaking and unprecedented. While our clinics are not the first to incorporate integrative health modalities into their model of care, we are the first to do so with this magnitude through a network of clinics,” said Smith.
Integrative approaches include nutrition, yoga, acupuncture, tai chi and meditation.
Local community clinics check in on patients through group medical visits, where facilitators and physicians meet regularly with nine to 12 patients to discuss health topics. Patients’ progress is charted on a monthly basis, keeping track of both mental and physical improvements.
Group medical visits are designed to help with feelings of loneliness and isolation that patients with chronic conditions and related complications often experience.
Other organizations supporting the initiative include Health Founders Partnership of Orange County, UC Irvine School of Medicine, Samueli Foundation, Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine, The Kay family Foundation, Blue Shield foundation of California and Children and Families Commission of Orange County.
Broadcom co-founder Henry Samueli and his wife Susan gave UCI a $200 million gift, the biggest in UCI history, to expand nonconventional and complementary treatments. Amount will be paid in four installments of $50 million by Dec. 31 of this year, 2020, 2023 and 2025.
The participating seven clinics include Children’s Hospital of Orange County.
Cash for Cardiac Care
St. Joseph Hospital in Orange raised $450,000 this month at its annual fundraiser gala, held at the City National Grove of Anaheim. Proceeds will help build a next-generation cardiac catheterization lab, according to the hospital.
The lab will expand room capabilities, including introducing advanced imaging technology and less radiation exposure for patients, staff and physicians. It will be used to perform technologically advanced procedures, including cardiac interventions, transcatheter aortic valve replacements and other cardiovascular procedures.
“Heart disease is our country’s leading cause of death for both men and women,” said Chief Executive Jeremy Zoch. “Support for better technology and improved ways to treat heart disease is a top priority for all of us.”
The 463-bed hospital is part of the Irvine-based St. Joseph Hoag Health alliance, a network of seven hospitals in OC.
Bits & Pieces
Children’s Hospital of Orange County named Dr. Lucy Morizio director of its Orthopaedic Institute, effective Oct. 22. She joined CHOC last year as part of its population health efforts, first serving as a quality improvement specialist and later as manager of population health quality. Separately, S&P Global Ratings upgraded CHOC from A- to A+ … In a joint initiative with Los Angeles Education Partnership, Kaiser Permanente is awarding $2.5 million to the 33-year-old nonprofit to implement a mental health and wellness program in select public schools across the U.S. to teach students, staff and teachers how to cope with stress and other mental health challenges. Eight schools in Southern California will participate in the Resilience in School program, including McFadden Intermediate School and Cesar Chavez High School in Santa Ana … Six companies that traced their foundation to Applied Innovation at UCI presented last month at the 19th Annual SoCalBio Conference at Hilton Long Beach. Participants were Anvyl LLC, which develops therapies to treat cognitive-deficit disorders; Aspire BioScience, which makes endocannabinoid-based drugs for treatment of opioid addiction and nonaddictive pain management; GlyTR Therapeutics, which develops immunotherapy for different types of cancer; PhageTech Inc., maker of an electrochemical biosensor platform for low-cost diagnostic testing; Syntr Health Technologies, which develops stem cell therapy targeting diabetic foot ulcers; and Velox Biosystems, which makes devices used for rapid diagnosis of sepsis and antibiotic resistance.
