HCMC program recognized by America’s Essential Hospitals

HCMC recognized for work to improve health in the Latino community

Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) has been recognized by America’s Essential Hospitals for its work to reduce health disparities for Latino youth through culturally sensitive, integrated care.

America’s Essential Hospitals, a national organization representing hospitals committed to high-quality care for all people, including the vulnerable, awarded HCMC a 2014 Gage Award honorable mention for population health.

“Health care disparities among minority and other underserved populations is a persistent problem that requires creative solutions, such as those at Hennepin County Medical Center,” said America’s Essential Hospitals President and CEO Bruce Siegel, MD, MPH.

The Gage Awards, named after association founder Larry Gage, honor and share successful and creative programs that improve patient care and meet community needs. The Gage Award for population health recognizes activities that improve delivery, access, or value for specific populations in the recipient’s community and, as a result, have improved health outcomes. Last year HCMC’s  Coordinated Care Center was recognized for improving population health.

HCMC’s Aqui Para Ti (APT)/Here for You program is a family centered, clinic-based youth development program that seeks to reduce health disparities for Latino youth using a culturally sensitive, bicultural, bilingual, integrated approach. Among other achievements, upon completion of the Beck Depression Inventory – a rating inventory that measures characteristic attitudes and symptoms of depression – APT patients exhibited significantly fewer depressive symptoms at their final assessment than at their initial assessment, and those with scores of depression achieved a statistically and clinically relevant improvement at follow-up.

“HCMC is a national leader in population health management because of programs like Aqui Para Ti that are created with the community, not for the community,” said HCMC CEO Jon L. Pryor, MD, MBA. “Dr. Svetaz and her team have developed an approach that works because it is culturally sensitive and it works with the family – both the teens and their parents – to address the factors that influence their health status. That is why it is making a real difference in the lives of these families and our community.”

Hennepin County Medical Center is a nationally recognized healthcare system that includes a Level l Adult Trauma Center and Level l Pediatric Trauma Center and a comprehensive primary and specialty care clinic system. The campus in downtown Minneapolis includes a 455-bed acute care hospital and many primary and specialty care clinics. Other clinics are located in Golden Valley, St. Anthony Village, Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park, and Richfield; and in Minneapolis in the Whittier Neighborhood and on East Lake Street. HCMC also has a retail clinic in Bloomington, an employee clinic in the Hennepin County Government Center, and a Neurology and Specialty Clinic in the 212 Medical Center in Chaska.