Huron Hospital, a Cleveland Clinic hospital, was founded in 1874 and is one of the oldest private community hospitals in Greater Cleveland. It maintains a heritage of providing compassionate medical and surgical care, innovative technology and community outreach. Huron is well known for serving the minority community and committed to eliminating health disparity.
The problems of health disparity in access, coverage, treatment and health outcomes has been well documented in recent years. The Center for Minority Health (CMH) was developed in 2006 to help eliminate health disparity and improve access to care relative to diabetes, cancer, heart disease and women's health. The CMH will be a center of excellence designed to be an advocate of research, education, prevention, training, community partnerships and outreach health screenings.
There are four components of the CMH program that include Minority Men's Clinic, Women's Health Center, Minority Resource Center, and Community Outreach Services and Advisory Board. This unique structure will contribute to eliminating health disparity and provide access to care and information by combining education, preventive community health outreach services and clinical care.
The Minority Men's Clinic (MMC) and Women's Health Center are helping provide access to care for all patients. The MMC was established at the Cleveland Clinic and expanded to Huron Hospital in 2006. The Women's Health Center was established before CMH and serves as a collaborative partner to improve access to care and help eliminate health disparities.
The Minority Resource Center will serve as critical information resource for patients and community residents to educate them on the importance of treatment and prevention of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and breast, colon, cervical and prostate cancers. The additional components of the MRC that are under development include a minority health website, database and archive.
These resources will contribute to observable, quanitifiable and measurable health outcomes for the community and health providers.
The CMH will develop a community advisory board to partner with community organizations and residents to establish collaborations, build relationships and share information to achieve its mission. Huron Hospital has a successful community outreach program that provides outreach services such as Senior Circle Plus, Healthy Heart screenings, Medicare education, health education and aerobic activities. The CMH will team up with Huron's Community Relation and provide some additional programs that serve as an extension to Huron Hospital community outreach program.
Access to clinical trials and research partnerships in cancer are important, therefore, the CMH is partnering with the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center. Other key partnerships are under development with many organizations such as East Cleveland Public library, several Diabetes Associations, Free Clinic and NEON. Other partnerships and community outreach events will be reported on a quarterly basis.
The medical director leadership of CMH will be provided by Charles Modlin, MD and supported by physician staff and President Gus Kious, MD. Administrative support and strategic direction will be provided by the Vice President, Michael Lawson, MBA and support staff. Huron Hospital's success is predicated on a team approach that will be applied to the Center for Minority Health.