Sixth National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations: Poster Presentations Disparity Reduction to Promote Health Access: Interagency Collaboration for Improving Refugee Services and Clinician Cultural Competency
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Poster Session I Poster Presentations (Group I)

Disparity Reduction to Promote Health Access: Interagency Collaboration for Improving Refugee Services and Clinician Cultural Competency
Monday, September 22, 2008: 1:00 PM-7:30 PM, Minn Marriott, 4th Floor - Atrium
Disparity Reduction to Promote Health Access: Interagency Collaboration for Improving Refugee Services and Clinician Cultural Competency

The second of the two Healthy People 2010 goals is aimed at the elimination of health disparities. Recognizing the importance of organizational cooperation to meet the needs of racial, ethnic and language minorities, health and service agencies in Philadelphia created a committee to address health disparities faced by the aforementioned populations. This session will highlight the use of collaboration to promote broad-based community ownership of health provision and promotion, as well as to expand immigrant access to health information and services.

The poster will illuminate the facilitators and challenges of the Refugee Health Clinic (RHC), a partnership between the Nationalities Service Center (NSC) - a Philadelphia refugee resettlement agency - and the Department of Family and Community Medicine (JFMA) at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Both organizations are leading the effort in grassroots service and health provider collaboration to promote refugee, asylee and overall immigrant health access in Philadelphia.  The poster will further highlight the evolution, development and current status of the RHC, and cite case studies illustrating how collaboration has improved quality of service provision in Philadelphia.

Presenters will inform attendants of the state of refugee health in Philadelphia, measures being taken to track quality and continuity of care, and proceed to focus on the institutional configurations that facilitated and constrained the creation of the RHC and designated point people within NSC and JFMA. The processes that led the organizations to work collaboratively to optimize service delivery will be revealed, as well as how community outreach provided an avenue for dialogue and information sharing among service providers and ethnic community members. The following questions will be considered:

  • What role did communication among health and social service agencies in Philadelphia play in improving service provision for newly arrived refugees in the metropolitan area?
  • How has the RHC facilitated trust between refugees and service providers?
  • How did the RHC address: (1) material and ideational issues that constrain and/or positive and fulfilling provider-user relationships; (2) the need for prevention initiatives targeted at improving refugee health; and (3) the need for ongoing reviews and, (4) need for culturally sensitive/competent providers?

Presentation Information:

Program: Poster Presentations
Primary Category: Culturally Competent Care
Subtopics: Access in underserved communities, eg, rural, urban, Racism, sexism, discrimination, Clinical interactions, Mental health services, Social services, Patient education, Health professions school programs, Distance learning, Assessing learning/performance on cultural competence/disparity reduction, Implementing disparity reduction programs, Organizational plans, policies, management strategies, Partnerships with community organizations, Interpreter services—development and management, Bilingual staff, Translation, Local/ Community, Organizational internal policies, Methods - patient and staff surveys, organizational and patient measures, data collection and analysis

Region Addressed by Presentation: US – Northeast
Organization: Social Services Agency
Population/Demographic: Karen, Iraqi & Liberian Refugees
Keywords: refugees, cultural competency , interagency collaboration, community-based intervention, organizational partnerships
Marc Altshuler, MD , Department of Family and Community Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA
    Assistant Professor / Assistant Residency Program Director
    Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
    Department of Family and Community Medicine
    833 Chestnut St.
    Suite 301
    Philadelphia PA, USA 19107

    Phone: 215-955-5561
    Email Address: marc.altshuler@jefferson.edu

    Biographical Sketch:     Marc Altshuler, M.D. is an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and the Assistant Residency Director for the Jefferson Family Medicine Residency program. Dr. Altshuler is also the program director for the departmental grand rounds and the conference coordinator for the weekly resident conference. In July, 2007, the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University began a relationship with the Nationalities Service Center (NSC), one of four refugee resettlement programs in Philadelphia, to initiate health screens for all of the NSC's refugee clients and then incorporate these new patients into the resident's continuity hours. Dr. Altshuler supervises this new resident experience including weekly meetings with the residents, precepting all resident office hours with the refugees, and work with the community to improve the refugees access to healthcare. Moving forward, Dr. Altshuler is interested in improving immigrant access to healthcare as well as educating the healthcare community on cultural competency.
Alex O. Otieno, PhD, Candidate , Department of Sociology, Arcadia University, Glenside, PA
    Instructor of Sociology, Global Health, and Health and Human Rights
    Arcadia University
    Department of Sociology
    450 S. Easton Road
    Department of Sociology
    Glenside PA, USA 19038

    Phone: 267-620-4139
    Email Address: otieno@arcadia.edu

    Biographical Sketch:     Alex Otieno, MPH, PhD. Candidate, and Instructor of Sociology at Arcadia University, received his B.A. in History and Anthropology from University of Nairobi and his M.P.H. from Temple University, where he is currently pursuing doctoral studies. He has been involved in efforts aimed at developing a research and advocacy agenda for human rights in the context of HIV/AIDS in Africa, as well as in education and advocacy for fostering peace activism in both the US and his native Kenya. Otieno is a member of the American Public Health Association, American Society for Law, Medicine and Ethics, African Studies Association, and the Health Global Access Project. In addition, he is co-founder of the Program for Enhancement of East Africa Communication and Education (PEACE). And has worked on HIV/AIDS and homelessness issues in Kenya and in the US, including a position as the community liaison for the Outreach Coordination Center of Project HOME in Philadelphia.
Julie A. Tippens, MA, MPH , Public Health / Dept. of Refugee and Community Services, Temple University / Nationalities Service Center, Philadelphia, PA
    Adjunct Assistant Professor of International Health / Refugee Health Coordinator
    Temple University / Nationalities Service Center
    Public Health / Dept. of Refugee and Community Services
    1216 Arch Street (NSC)
    4th Floor
    Philadelphia PA, USA 19107

    Phone: 215-806-5412
    Email Address: julietippens@gmail.com

    Biographical Sketch:     Julie Tippens, MA, MPH is an Associate in the Asylum Program with Physicians for Human Rights in Cambridge, MA. Prior to this, she was an adjunct assistant professor of Global Health in the College of Health Professions at Temple University. Julie fulfilled her practicum experience at the Nationalities Service Center (NSC) in Philadelphia, PA, where she served as the Intern Refugee Health Coordinator. Her responsibility included serving as the chairperson of the Philadelphia Refugee Health Committee, a coalition of health and service providers in the Greater Philadelphia Area. Prior to starting at NSC, Julie worked with community-based organizations that delivered care for adults and orphans with HIV/AIDS in Houston, Texas and Chiang Mai, Thailand, respectively. She also worked in Nairobi, Kenya on an anti-malaria campaign, advocating for the distribution of long-lasting insecticide treated nets (LLITNs) in Eastern and Southern Africa.
Juliane Ramic, MSW , Department of Community and Refugee Services, Nationalities Service Center (NSC), Philadelphia, PA
    Director of Refugee and Community Service
    Nationalities Service Center (NSC)
    Department of Community and Refugee Services
    1216 Arch Street
    4th Floor
    Philadelphia PA, USA 19107

    Phone: 215-893-8400 x 103
    Email Address: jramic@nationalitiesservice.org

    Biographical Sketch:     Juliane Ramic, MSW, currently serves as the Director of Refugee and Community Services at the Nationalities Service Center (NSC) in Philadelphia, PA. She has extensive experience working in nonprofit organization management, particularly with those that serve racial, ethnic and language minorities. Before joining NSC, Juliane worked as a program officer with Immigration and Refugee Services of America and as a sponsorship director for Pearl S. Buck International. Juliane has lived and worked in Vietnam, as well as in Ethiopia as a United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) Fellow.
Jeffrey Panzer, MD , Department of Family and Community Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA
    Resident Physician
    Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
    Department of Family and Community Medicine
    833 Chestnut St.
    Suite 301
    Philadelphia PA, USA 19107

    Phone: 215-955-7190
    Email Address: jeffrey.panzer@mail.tju.edu

    Biographical Sketch:     Jeff Panzer, M.D., is currently a resident physician in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the Thomas Jefferson University. Jeff has been instrumental in advocating for the establishment of a partnership with the Nationalities Service Center (NSC) to provide newly arrived refugees with a continuum of health services and information. He has also taken the lead in maintaining this organizational partnership, as well as creating a database to track the frequency of visits and medical needs of refugees resettled by NSC
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