EBNHC Receives Harvard Pilgrim Grant to Improve Patient Care
East Boston, MA, June 11, 2009—The East Boston Neighborhood Health Center (EBNHC) has received a Quality Grant award from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care to improve clinical quality and patient safety.
“Harvard Pilgrim is proud to enter its 10th year of the Quality Grants Program with another strong round of projects that will improve the way health care is delivered at practices throughout New England,” said Dr. Roberta Herman, Harvard Pilgrim’s Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President. “The grants we are funding this year will focus on increasing preventive care, ensuring medication safety, coordinating patient care, and managing chronic diseases. Many of the projects will be supported by the use of health information technology such as electronic medical records, which enables safer, more efficient care.”
EBNHC will use the grant to develop a chronic disease management program for patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The program will provide high-quality, evidenced-based, and guideline-driven care to adult and pediatric patients. The focus will be on ensuring that patients with asthma and COPD receive recommended medications, preventive care, and appropriate testing.
Peter Smith, MD, oversees the Chronic Disease Education and Management (CDEM) Department at EBNHC. He says, “We are excited about the opportunity this grant will give us to improve the care of patients with asthma and COPD at EBNHC. Asthma and COPD diagnoses are common among the patients we serve, and caring for patients with these chronic illnesses can be a challenge. This grant will make it easier to care for these patients by allowing us to create an electronic database of patients with asthma and CPOD. With that information, we can reach out to patients with these medical problems, especially to patients who have not been in to see their doctor recently, and/or to patients who may benefit from additional medication.”
Dr. Smith observes that the grant funding enables a vital collaboration. “We will also use resources from the grant to provide on-site lung function testing at EBNHC, and to train providers in up-to-date asthma and COPD care. Because these illnesses affect people of all ages—from infants to the elderly—they provide an opportunity for medical staff from different departments and different disciplines within the health center to work together. The projects funded by the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Quality Grant are examples of innovative and collaborative efforts by EBNHC to improve the health of our patients,” he says.
The East Boston Neighborhood Health Center has been a vital part of the community for over 35 years. It provides easily accessible, high-quality health care to all who live and work in East Boston and the surrounding communities, without regard to age, income, insurance status, language, culture, or social circumstances.
