Safety Tips!

Safety Tips!

As winter is winding down, its important to stay safe and be aware of  your surroundings. Although we have been experiencing unusually high temperatures as of late, it does mean that winter is over just yet! With the threat of the flu still running rampant, potholes accumulating on all roads and just the day-to-day unpredictability of the weather, its important to be prepared in all situations.

When driving in bad weather conditions, its important to slow down. Even if you have all-wheel drive, reduce your speed about 10 miles per hour below the speed limit. Also, beware of black ice, avoid tailgating and don't brake during a turn. For more information go to AAA's website here!

The current major threat right now seems to be potholes! Your best bet at keeping both you and your car safe is to just avoid them. For a list of things that can happen to your car by repeatedly hitting potholes click here!

If you happen to hit a pothole and cause damage to your rim or your car a few things you can do are: 

• Check for damage
• Take some notes
• Report the pothole
• Repair your car
• Make your claim
• Make an appeal

Its important to keep your sidewalks and driveways safe as well for those passersby as well as yourself and your family. If you have elderly family members, some precautions to take would be: 

• Make sure steps and walkways are clear before you walk. Be especially careful if you see wet pavements that could be iced over. 
• Clear away snow and salt your walkways at home, or hire someone to do it.
• Wear boots with non-skid soles – this will prevent you from slipping.
• If you use a cane, replace the rubber tip before it is worn smooth.
• Consider an ice pick-like attachment that fits onto the end of the cane for additional traction.

For more tips on keeping eldery family members safe, visit www.healthinaging.org

Lastly, lets not forget the flu! (who could honestly forget the flu right now??) Reports are still being released that the flu is causing high hospitalization rates and that getting a flu shot is recommended. The flu activity is expected to continue well into late May. The CDC recommends that you still: 

• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
• While sick, limit contact with others as much as possible to keep from infecting them.
• If you are sick with flu-like illness, CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Your fever should be gone for 24 hours without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.)
• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Germs spread this way.
• Clean and disinfect surfaces and objects that may be contaminated with germs like the flu.

For more information, go to www.cdc.gov/flu

Children's Dental Health Month

February is National Children's Dental Health Month

This year is focused on brushing with fluoride toothpaste and flossing. The month is sponsored by the American Dental Association, Crest and Oral-B and many organizations across the US are hosting events to advocate for children and healthy smiles. 

In Ohio, Ironton Lawrence CAO is helping to #standforsmiles by donating dental products and literature to their local health department. They are hoping to incorporate their services with the WIC program to better educate new mothers about oral health and screen them and their young children and show them the importance of having a dental home. This, along with other activities, is something their health center isn't just doing it in February, but all year long!

Third Street Family Health Services recently held a GKAS events in which they were students educating students about healthy snacks, were giving proper hand washing techniques, and taught students how to have a healthy smile!

They had tons of sponsors and Colgate provided every student with a free toothbrush and toothpaste! 

Throughout February, there will be opportunities to get involved via social media too! The AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) Campaign for Dental Health will hold a Twitter Storm on oral health advocacy: #StandforSmiles. During this Twitter storm, you are encouraged to tweet about how you advocate for children's oral health with families, communities, schools, legislators, and others, using the hashtag #StandforSmiles.


Participate or follow along with the American Academy of Pediatrics (@AmerAcadPeds) and the Campaign for Dental Health (@ILikeMyTeeth). Check out the Advocacy Toolkit  developed by the AAP Section on Oral Health for a list of sample tweets.

For information on how to plan your organization's Children's Dental Health Month event, visit the ADA's website

For general information about how to keep your child's smile healthy, visit the AAP's Website. 

2017 Annual Impact

Annual Impact!

OACHC is proud of the work that we were able to accomplish in 2017. It is through dedication, vision, and great partnerships that 2017 can go down in the history books as a year of growth and expansion! Please join us as we look back to celebrate this prosperous year.

OACHC Staff Updates

• Avani Desai was hired as the Performance Improvement Specialist
• Lindsey Thomas was hired as the Office Manager
• Lauren Husein was promoted to Communication and Events Coordinator
• Samantha Porter was promoted to Director of Communication and Events

Advocacy & Policy

• Increased number of Ohio Health Center e-Advocates by 89% 
• Record number (12 of 18) Members of Congress that signed various Health Center Appropriation Letters, including Senator Portman’s first signature of support
• National Health Center Week – more than 80 celebrations and events held across the state 
• Save Medicaid, Save Lives rally featured over 1,000 Ohioans collectively supporting Ohio’s Medicaid program – health centers were a leader in this effort!
• 340B advocacy yielded 14,997 connections to Ohio legislators that played the key role in preventing devastating outcomes
• Ohio is the first state to have a Key Contact for every Member of Congress in their delegation
• Increased Twitter reach (impressions) by 92%
• Ohio boasts three Advocacy Centers of Excellence (OACHC maintained ACE status for 2017)
• Lorain County Health & Dentistry
• Valley View Health Centers
• Compass Community Health

Clinical Quality & Oral Health

Clinical Quality Department:

• Funded Projects:
• Medication Therapy Management 
• FluFIT 
• CenteringPregnancy 
• HCCN
• Undiagnosed Hypertension and Pre-Diabetes 
• HPV Vaccination
• Infant Vitality Initiative
• Ongoing Tasks and New Ventures
• Health Center Quality Improvement Grant Awards
• 45 FQHCs received 156 awards totaling $3,582,514  
• Comprehensive Primary Care Program started January 1, 2017 
• 19 FQHCs/57 Sites in first round
• Healthy People 2020 Awards were given to those health centers that surpassed 4 out of 8 measures (5 health centers recognized)
• Data Dashboard developed for all measures (medical, non-medical, dental)
• 35 FQHCs are sharing data with OACHC
• Quality Peer Network – monthly calls continued, attendance is being tracked
• Chief Medical Officer Networking call are every other month, 2 webinars were hosted for them
• Online reporting form for measure data
• Participated in 80% by 2018 Colorectal Cancer Roundtable Forum in Decatur, Georgia
• Strategic Plan updated
• goto Meeting was set up for all networking calls
• CenteringPregnancy is now active in 10 FQHCs
• UDS deep dive webinar
• 2017 changes
• 2016 best practices
• Ohio Quality Improvement Network (OQIN) Quality Committee
• Quality program policy created
• Care Management program created
• Behavioral Health Networking established
• eClinicalWorks user group initiated
• Updated website pages
• Re-elected to the Executive Committee of Ohio Partners for Cancer Control

Oral Health

• Oral Health Initiative: Screening for High Blood Pressure in Ohio’s FQHC Dental Practices

• Received grant from Ohio Dental Association Foundation 
• Provided 37 Dental Centers 450 BP Monitors; one for every operatory
• Began with 24 CHC reporting data. By 5th Quarter 30 CHC are reporting.
• 40,594 number of patients screened. 19% found to have high blood pressure 
• Presented data at 3 national conferences: ACU, CHI, NNOHA and 1 poster presentation

• Dental Health Trainings & Events
• Dental Sealant Webinar 
• 2 Day Dental Track at OACHC Annual Conference
• Professional Days of Recruitment and Ohio State Dental School and Case Western School of Dental Medicine
• National Oral Health Innovation and Integration Network (NOHIIN) DQF grant
• Regional Oral Health Connection Team Representative
• Children’s Oral Health Action Team Co-Chair of Board
• 37 Dental Centers: 3 new Dental Centers: Family Healthcare of Northwest Ohio, Neighborhood Family Practice, Rocking Horse Health Center
• Attended 2 Professional Days (Recruitment): Ohio State Dental School and Case Western School of Dental Medicine. 
• 21 Re-Think Your Drink Kits sent out to CHCs. Grant from Delta Dental

Workforce – Ohio Primary Care Workforce Initiative

• The Ohio Primary Care Workforce Initiative (OPCWI) received funding through the Ohio General Assembly and Kasich Administration to continue for Years 3-4 of the program
• Years 1-2 of OPCWI
• 24% increase in the number of students precepted in FQHCs (1,982 in total)
• > 200,000 student clinical hours experienced in FQHCs and $4,196,576 reimbursed to FQHCs for serving as clinical sites
• Held the first Annual Meeting for OPCWI, bringing in state and national leaders to discuss primary care issues
• Contracted with Germane Solutions to explore additional primary care Graduate Medical Education opportunities in Ohio FQHCs
• Awarded HealthPath Foundation of Ohio workforce development grant for a “FQHC Pipeline to Health Careers” project

Events & Communications

• OACHC Logo Trademarked
• On-going communications to members via the Weekly Update email, the monthly eNews email and the weekly informer blog
• Facilitation of 10 in-house webinars
• Ultimate Health Center Champions Round 2 Contest video, graphics, outreach and management (Total of 34.4K votes)
• Raise Your Voice for Ohio! Advocacy Video
• Oral Health Ohio Video
• Thank You Ohio Department of Medicaid Video
• Significant growth in OACHC Conference attendees and exhibitors
• Introduction of Conference App to streamline our conferences and eliminate more paper
• Trainings & Events held this year:
• Strategic Planning 1/13/17 
• Delivering KNOCKOUT Customer Service 1/19/17 
• 2017 Annual Conference 2/27/17 
• CFO Boot Camp 3/21/17 
• FTCA Training 4/20/17
• CHC Managers & Supervisors Training 5/3/17 
• 2017 Community Health Coding Bootcamp 6/27/17 
• Legendary Customer Service Workshop 9/14/17 
• 2017 Fall Operations Conference 10/18/17
• UDS Training 12/7/17

National Wear Red Day

February 2nd is National Wear Red Day 

It is aimed to promote awareness for heart disease and stroke. In particular, the day focuses on raising awareness for women. Heart disease is the number 1 cause of death for women. About 2,200 Americans die of cardiovascular disease every day and but 80% of these disease may be preventable. There are five numbers that everyone should know about themselves and those are:

• Total Cholesterol
• HDL Cholesterol
• Blood Pressure
• Blood Sugar
• Body Mass Index (BMI)

Heart disease is a serious condition for both men and women and risk factors include diabetes, mental stress and depression, smoking, inactivity, and menopause. Things you can do to reduce these risk factors are:

• Stop smoking
• Exercise regularly
• Maintain a healthy diet
• Find activities to relieve stress as well 

For ways to prevent these risk factors or to lower your chances for for cardiovascular disease, check out these tips on how to...

• Stop smoking
• Stress Management - Ways to Relieve Stress
• Be Active Your Way!