The Salvation Army of St. Louis and Christian Hospital received a three-year $1 million grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health to coordinate health care better in North St. Louis County. For Ferguson and neighboring municipalities, data indicate that nearly half of Christian Hospital’s emergency department visits are not what medical personnel consider medical emergencies – deemed non-emergent or emergent-avoidable.
North County comprises The Salvation Army of St. Louis’ highest service in the region for emergency social services. The intersecting needs of North County residents led The Salvation Army and Christian Hospital to work together around a common goal of economic and physical wellness.
“Christian Hospital and The Salvation Army have partnered to create holistic, sustainable change by not only addressing the community’s health challenges but also the social determinants of health that lead to poor health outcomes, especially for African Americans,” said Rick Stevens, Christian Hospital president. “The Pathway to Health initiative will address the lack of access to affordable care, the need for increased health knowledge, and chronic condition management for African Americans and others, while also working to eliminate socio-economic barriers.”
Dan Jennings, The Salvation Army’s Bi-State CEO, said Pathway to Health is an expansion of its current operations inside the Ferguson Community Empowerment Center. “We will now be able to assist families and individuals in Ferguson and surrounding Zip Codes who are experiencing poverty and barriers to physical wellness,” he said.
The Ferguson Community Empowerment Center, located at 9420 West Florissant Ave., is co-owned by The Salvation Army and the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis. It will be the team setting where Pathway to Health will operate. When something happens that affects individuals who are usually healthy or who are not familiar with the health care system, they do not know where to go, so they go to the hospital for emergency care. Dana Ballinger, director of care coordination and population health at Christian Hospital, said some individuals seek the ER not because they feel that they are experiencing an emergent issue, but they simply do not know where to find resources or understand how to navigate the healthcare system.
“We want to provide our community with education and access to resources such as dental services, nutrition and education in managing chronic conditions, identifying a primary care support network, or connecting them with medication assistance programs,” Ballinger said. “These services may assist in avoiding using emergency services, simply because one might not be aware of how to access such resources.”
Patients who go to Christian Hospital’s emergency department for non-emergent or avoidable visits will be referred to The Salvation Army case managers in Ferguson.
Certainly, if someone feels he or she has a medical emergency, they should seek care and not self-diagnose, Ballinger said. She said examples of certain symptoms for which a person should seek immediate emergency attention include chest pain, loss of consciousness, shortness of breath, bleeding, trauma, stroke-like symptoms (face drooping, arm weakness, speech difficulty), and severe abdominal pain that does not resolve. In addition, uncontrolled high blood pressure or blood sugar levels need emergency treatment, she added.
At the Ferguson Empowerment Center, Christian Hospital will provide community health workers and a preventive health educator for the Pathway to Health program to engage in wellness activities with residents in Ferguson and surrounding neighborhoods. The program will be a component of the long-term case management of Pathway of Hope, an approach that assists families in overcoming the root causes of barriers that perpetuate the cycle of crisis and vulnerability that keep them in poverty.
