@NAHC Snapshot of HIPAA at NAHC By, Natalie Aguilera Director of Human Resources Why is HIPPA important?
HIPAA, or the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, is important because it is a major federal law that protects the security and privacy of patients’ health information. HIPAA is more important than ever as we increase the ability to share patient information across the continuum of health care. HIPAA or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is a Federal Regulation designed to:
• Protect the privacy of individually identifiable health information; • Grant individual rights with respect to health information; • Ensure the security of information that is electronically collected, maintained or transmitted
Privacy and security measures must be in place to comply with HIPAA regulations. As an employee at NAHC, it is our job to abide by the NAHC policies to meet HIPAA requirements. Protected Health Information (PHI) is individually identifiable health information in any form (electronic or non-electronic) that is held or transmitted by a covered entity. This includes information that is written, printed, spoken or transmitted electronically.
The Minimum Necessary information rule means: don’t look, don’t listen, and don’t disclose PHI unless it is necessary for you to do your job. Only provide the minimum amount of information necessary for the purpose of any disclosure. Why is protecting privacy and security important?
We all want our privacy protected when we are patients – it’s the right thing to do. Additionally, HIPAA and California law require us to protect a person’s privacy. If you need a refresher, please review the HIPAA Self Study Guide is also saved on the NAHC shared drive: S:\_Shared Bulletin Board\Forms and Instructions\HIPAA
If you have any questions about HIPAA, do not hesitate to ask your Supervisor, ask the Privacy Officer (Director of Human Resources) or the Security Officer (IT Director). Remember that NAHC expects everyone to protect patients’ information; protect another employee’s information and follow NAHC Privacy and Security policies!
HR Buzz November Anniversaries
Thank you for your service to our agency Cecilia Tso WIC
Start Date: 1/28/1986 27 Years of Service
Lucinda Spencer Central Registration
Start Date: 1/11/1989 24 Years of Service
Angelena Tsosie CWD
Start Date: 1/18/12002 11 Years of Service
! C H A N @ s e New Hir
Samantha McCraw Central Registration
Start Date: 1/3/2005 8 Years of Service
Bhrett Lash Medical
Start Date: 1/2/2006 7 Years of Service
Yael Karchmer Dental
Start Date: 1/12/2009 4 Years of Service
Christine Kopf WIC
Start Date: 1/26/2009 4 Years of Service
Alexis McBride WIC
Start Date: 1/2/2010 3 Years of Service
Esther Lucero CWD
Start Date: 1/29/2010 3 years of Service
Kristin McKean-Brown Medical
Start Date: 1/31/2011 2 Years of Service
Ana O’Connor Administration
Start Date: 1/6/2012 1 Year of Service
Bonney Hartley CWD
Start Date: 1/9/2012 1 Year of Service
Yuan Li Medical
Start Date: 1/17/2012 1 Year of Service
Julius Taladiar IT
Start Date: 1/17/2012 1 Year of Service
Andrew Lopez Contract Administrator Community Wellness Department
Nazilat Ahmed On-Call Medical Assistant Medical 7D
Cara Little Program Assistant, Temporary Community Wellness Department
Georgina Dakis, Dental Assistant, Tempor SF Dental
Ashlyvette Martinez On-Call Medical Assist Medical 7D
Lauren White On-Call Pediatric N Practitioner Medical
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The Waiting Room Documentary: A Review By, Sandra Tavel Grants and Contracts Administrator
Maria Lovenia Byars On-Call Medical Assistant, Medical 7D
The Waiting Room is a social media/documentary project that chronicles 24 hours in Alameda County Medical Center’s (ACMC) waiting room, otherwise known as Highland Hospital. The documentary captures the endless ebb and flow of the waiting room as well as the Sisyphean task of medical staff who work tirelessly to empty the waiting room. Only to have it fill back up again.
This movie felt particularly poignant because Native American Health Center and ACMC are both solid members of Alameda County’s Safety Net. Both organizations serve many of the same patients—those who are under-insured and uninsured. We also share the same challenges of serving people whose larger socio-economic issues eclipse and escalate their medical and health issues. For example, an older, homeless gentleman with substance abuse problems lands in the waiting room, gets treated and can’t be released because he has nowhere to go. The doctors know him and have empathy for his situation, which is overshadowed by the fact that they can’t legally or ethically release him if he has nowhere to go; he’s taking up valuable space and in essence, delaying the treatment of someone else in the waiting room. His pastor is done with him (because of his recurring behavior around substance abuse) and neither the doctor nor the social worker can negotiate with the pastor to offer this gentleman a place to stay. A row of hospital staff vigilantly monitor brightly blinking, complicated, color-coded screens that show all the rooms, beds and patients. They strategize how to best move the patients through the system and empty the beds and in turn, the waiting room. Another touching story is of a young girl whose strep throat has become life-threatening because her throat swells to the point where she almost can’t breathe. Her parents are both uninsured, both working poor. They are treated by an African-American, female physician who explains the girl’s illness and treatment in everyday terms; she calms the whole room with the humble and dignified way she treats her patients. This interaction shone a tiny beacon of hope onto a messy patchwork of what public health looks like right in our backyard. The task of fixing it seems daunting. People with preventable health issues that are exacerbated to a sometimes lethal degree by social-economic factors go to the emergency room for lack of a better place to go. Something disappointing but understandable about the movie was that it ended with no further instruction. It didn’t refer its audience to resources where one can become involved. The movie is worth watching since for NAHC, the subject matter sits right in the center of our Mission. Where and how do we continue to address the social problems that present themselves in the waiting room as individuals and also as an agency? NAHC has understood and executed the concept of holistic care during its entire existence from the beginning. How do we continue to serve such a great need under a broken system that is slowly changing? For one, NAHC continues to work to integrate services so patients receive quality care in a timely manner. We are also implementing Electronic Health Records and creating a Member Services department so that our patients can be at the center of our care. Our health education classes are always full of patients who want to learn about how to improve their health. NAHC intends to continue moving forward into the future with our patients in the center of our actions, initiatives, and advocacy.
JOY FOR THE HOLIDAYS!
This year’s Holiday Celebrations were a success! The staff holiday party took place on the 14th of December and gave our staff the opportunity to have their picture taken in front of a winter themed backdrop, as well as enjoy a meal together, and dance the night away. The raffle prizes this year were very generous and plenty of staff went home with an unexpected gift. The community holiday party was well attended, and featured holiday music, a chance to take pictures with Santa, and the Grinch, as well as plenty of holiday food and cheer. There was even some spontaneous holiday karaoke at the end of the evening. Special thanks goes out to the staff and community holiday party committees this year for their hard work and thoughtfulness, and for making the NAHC holidays so special.
Join us
next year!
Encinal High Health Center Gets a Federally Funded Boost By, Michele Ellson Reproduced from The Alamedan
Link to original article here: http://www.thealamedan.org/news/encinal-high-health-center-gets-federally-funded-boost
When Alameda High School became home to one of Alameda County’s first school-based health centers, in 1993, its arrival aroused a storm of protest. “There were certain elements who thought it was a place to distribute condoms,” said Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan, who said she led the early effort to establish a similar center at Encinal High in 1999. “But it’s much more than that.” Alameda’s schools now host three of the centers, with the addition of a center at Island High in 2010. And Encinal High’s health center will be getting a new home that may expand to serve the middle school students that will be coming on campus next fall, with the aid of a $412,000 federal grant. “We’re very excited,” said Irene Kudarauskas of Alameda Family Services, which has partnered with Native American Health Center and the school district to provide medical, dental and behavioral health services to all of the Island’s high school students. The Affordable Care Act – also known as Obamacare – included $200 million to build new school-based health centers and upgrade existing ones, the first time the federal government has provided capital funding for the centers, a spokesperson for the agency handing out the grants said. Over the past three years, the government has awarded grants to 520 school-based centers, with 31 California-based centers getting more than $14 million in this latest round. The centers’ goal is to provide care for teens who aren’t getting it in order to keep them healthy – and in school. A spokesperson with the Health Resources and Services Administration, which distributed the grants, said the centers help children with acute or chronic illnesses stay in school and improve students’ overall health. “Students can be served on campus without having to find a bus or get out of wherever they are to find
some other resource,” said Oona Gilles-Weil, schoolbased health center program director for Alameda Family Services. She said about a third of the students on each of the three campuses where the centers are located use their services. In addition to improving student health, the centers are credited with boosting student achievement. In making its case for the centers, the California School Health Centers Association cites studies saying the health care services the centers provide – particularly mental health care – help to boost attendance and student achievement, and also help lower dropout rates. They are also filling an unmet need for care. GillesWeil said that 23 percent of the students who attended a recent dental screening for students at Island High School and the Alternatives in Action High School needed urgent care, as did 13 percent of those who attended a similar screening at Encinal High. “When the economy dips the way it has now, dental insurance is one of the first things to go,” she said. Chan said the clinics began popping up at middle and high schools in the 1990s after research showed that adolescents were the least likely segment of the population to receive health care. The clinics, she said, are a convenient, safe – and private – place for youths to obtain medical, dental and mental health care. She said the number of school-based clinics in Alameda County has surged from a half-dozen in the 1990s to more than two dozen now. California’s schools host 200 of the centers, serving 205,000 youths, and at least 40 more are in the works, according to the California School Health Centers Association; there are more than 1,900 nationwide. The services available through Alameda’s clinics include immunizations, vision and hearing screenings, reproductive health care and sports physicals, as well as dental exams and mental health assessments and
counseling. Oakland-based Native American Health Center provides medical care, while Alameda Family Services offers one-on-one and group therapy and drug and alcohol counseling. “Anything you would go see a doctor for, they provide those services on campus for free,” Gilles-Weil said. In addition to serving students on each campus where they’re located, the centers are also open to students attending the Island’s charter schools and the Alameda Science and Technology Institute magnet. Services provided also include enrollment in insurance programs and health education, some of which is provided by youths trained by center staff. “Nobody says it better than a youth, to a youth,” GillesWeil said. Services are funded in part through Medi-Cal and other government-funded health care programs; students receive the care free of charge. Alameda’s clinics get additional funding from the county, and they also receive support from the school district, Alameda Hospital and local community groups like the Alameda Welfare Council and the local Rotary club. The grant will be used to replace the dilapidated portable that houses Encinal’s clinic with a new modular building from which Gilles-Weil hopes to also be able to serve middle school students who will be attending Encinal through a new “Junior Jets” magnet program starting in the fall. The building’s design would be reflective of the broader age range of students using the center’s services, she said. “The reason for a 12- or 13-year-old to come seek our services are different than a 17-year-old,” she said.
Idle no More By, Shunkila Black Calf Intake Coordinator, CWD When I was a little girl, my grandmother used to say that as human beings we had to keep moving forward. But she also said that sometimes things would be hard. That maybe the best we could do then is just stand there. But it didn’t matter, as long as we were still standing. Then when we had gathered our strength, we could begin to move forward, one step at a time, one foot in front of the other. My grandmother went home sometime back but that has always stuck with me. And when I see the pictures of peoples, of first nations, who have gathered their strength so that they can move forward once again, I think of her. She is there among the chorus of voices, some flying high above the crowd, some near to the earth where the children play. Moving in unison, a dancing migration. Standing in a throng of brown faces, waiting for the round dance to start, I see her face in the laughing babies on strong hips. In the deep horizons of aunties’ eyes remembering La Brava. And I think she would have danced. This woman who never learned to speak English, who wove the intricacies of her heart into wool and sang earth songs with her feet. I know she would be standing here beside me holding my hand while we stepped side to side. Because strong hearted women idle no more.
Basketball Sign ups!! $15 per child includes registration and end of season celebration (Multiple Child Discount Available)
Register at Taking Sign ups for the following teams: Pee-Wee 4– 7 year olds Co-Ed Elementary 3-5 Grade
3124 International Blvd. Oakland, CA 94601
Middle School Boys 6-8 Grade
Between Call for more9:00aminfo: 510-
Middle School Girls 6-8 Grade
434- 5330 5:30pm