The University of New Mexico (UNM) Health Sciences Center recognizes that it is important to bring health care providers and patients together. New Mexico is geographically the fifth largest state with two-thirds of its population living in rural areas. However, the majority of the state's physicians practice in urban areas creating a severe health care shortage in 30 of the state's 33 counties. In addition, more than 23 percent of New Mexicans have no health insurance, one of the highest rates in the United States. The Health Sciences Center is committed to building and enhancing the current health provider network so that underserved rural residents will no longer be left behind.
Of the 23 percent of New Mexicans without health insurance, more than 70 percent are employed. National studies show that the uninsured receive only 60 percent of the level of care of those who have insurance, leaving them generally not as healthy as those with health insurance.
In cities such as Albuquerque, many people enter the health care system only through hospital emergency rooms (ERs). Extensive use of ERs for basic medical care is a financial drain for hospitals, resulting in longer wait times for patients and having an impact on the quality of their care.
In rural areas only a limited range of medical services is available to the insured and the uninsured. As a result, large numbers of New Mexicans go without basic primary care, dental, and mental health services. This creates a large gap in people within the state who receive cost-effective preventive services and proper disease management.
The UNM Health Science Center's Community Voices Shared Solutions will expand its current activities aimed at integrating primary care services and bringing a managed care form of health care to the uninsured. The plan envisions an extensive partnership built around the idea of health commons. In this model, different provider, policy, and advocacy groups participate in the development of an overall network of care to decide how to use limited health resources efficiently.
The UNM Health Sciences Center aims to improve health care access and quality in the state, through Community Voices, by developing innovative approaches to strengthen the health care safety net and reduce the number of people lacking health coverage in the state.
The UNM Health Sciences Center is creating a coordinated system of cost-efficient, high-quality health care to improve the access in the rural and urban settings of Rio Arriba and Bernalillo counties. Six more counties Chaves, Dona Ana, Otero, Sandoval, Santa Fe, and Torrance are being added to the program over the next three years.
The overall activities coordinated by the UNM Health Sciences Center include:
Building and enhancing the current health provider network
Assigning uninsured individuals to a primary care provider
Enhancing interdisciplinary services like behavioral, social, and dental care
Creating common goals, priorities, and meaningful measures to improve the quality of care delivered in the network
Creating public policy reform through a health commons process. Project counties have initiated health councils and commissions to coordinate and develop county health policies
In Bernalillo County, over 15,000 uninsured county residents have enrolled in the UNMCARE Program. One of the central components is linking uninsured individuals with a primary care provider of their choice. Providers under the plan are associated with either the university or with First Choice Community Health, a major safety-net care provider in Albuquerque and a key partner in the Community Voices initiative. Once uninsured people are in the system and assigned a primary provider, it becomes possible to track the kinds of services they are receiving and determine any unmet needs.
Community Voices Shared Solutions also aims to increase the efficiency and use of existing services. Currently 90,000 children in the state who are not currently enrolled in Medicaid are in fact eligible to receive benefits. The initiative will also focus on eliminating the redundancy in some of the services offered through different social and governmental agencies.
The Community Voices initiative works to bring together dental, behavioral, and public health services at primary care sites in Rio Arriba and other counties. In these locations, the challenge will be to integrate successful elements of the urban model with solutions to some of the unique problems of rural health care delivery. For example, lack of transportation is often a major impediment to people receiving good care in rural areas, especially when services are scattered in different locations.
Community Involvement The UNM Health Sciences Center collaborates with the New Mexico Department of Health and New Mexico Health Services Department. Other partners include private and public hospitals, managed care organizations, community service groups, Turning Point, community health worker organizations, other state universities, the Indian Health Service, and county, state, tribal, and federal governmental agencies that all provide or help pay for public health services. UNM intends to involve the communities through media, presentations, forums, focus groups, events, and a web site.
University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center (UNM-HSC) is the largest integrated health care treatment and education complex in the state of New Mexico. Its vision is to identify and solve the most important questions of human health in New Mexico communities through education, patient care, research and partnerships. UNM-HSC is committed to improving the health of the community, healing and caring for the diverse people of New Mexico.
Daniel Derksen, M.D. Director, Center for Community Partnership UNM School of Medicine 900 Camino de Salud NE, CRTC B-78 Albuquerque, NM 87131 Phone: (505) 272-4590 Fax: (505) 272-3486 Email: dderksen@salud.unm.edu
Also visit: http://hsc.unm.edu/