News Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: November 2, 2006

For more information, contact Virginia Elliott, Vice President for Programs, 620-662-8586

United Methodist Health Ministry Fund announces health grants

Hutchinson, KS—The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund today is pleased to announce new grants totaling over $902,000 for health improvement projects in Kansas. The grants support efforts to increase access to health care, improve oral health, and promote healthy lifestyles through better nutrition and exercise.

The Health Fund has awarded a grant of $100,000 to PrairieStar Health Center, Hutchinson, to expand its health care services to include dental care. PrairieStar plans to add a dental clinic when it moves to a new location in Hutchinson next summer. A dental clinic site will also be opened at Health Ministries Clinic, a safety net facility in Newton, early in 2007 as part of a regional effort to expand access to dental care funded by a federal grant. The Health Fund grant will be used for remodeling space and purchasing dental equipment.

The Berryton United Methodist Church has been awarded a $5,000 grant to help establish a parish nurse program to serve the congregation and community. Grant funding will be used to purchase medical equipment, office equipment and other health ministry resources. The grant project director is Carolyn Tindall, and the pastor of Berryton United Methodist Church is Rev. Patrick Buss.
The Valley United Methodist Church, Marion, Kansas, has also received a $5,000 grant to help establish a health ministry program to serve the congregation and community. Grant funding will be used to purchase equipment, supplies, and other health ministry resources. The grant project director is Jeanne Maki, and the pastor of Valley United Methodist Church is Rev. X. Phil Smith.
Under the Health Fund’s Healthy Congregations initiative, start-up grants of up to $5,000 are available to local Kansas United Methodist churches to stimulate the development of comprehensive congregational health and wellness ministries. It is the hope of the Health Fund that these one-time grants, added to local church resources, will mobilize strong volunteer efforts to address many facets of health, healing and wholeness in congregations and communities throughout Kansas.

A new program for advanced training of dental school graduates—Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD)—is being developed in Wichita. Oral Health Kansas, Topeka, is the coordinating agency and will work with Wichita State University, GraceMed Clinic, and Via Christi to establish and operate this residency program for an initial four dentists. There is potential to expand to training 8-12 dentists annually. The program will be part of WSU’s College of Health Professions and will have a clinical site at GraceMed. The clinical site at GraceMed will serve persons of low income and will be a major enhancement to dental treatment services for unserved and underserved persons in the area. Considerable organizational work—including hiring of a program director—must take place before the AEGD program can open in the summer of 2008. Operating funds will come from the State of Kansas, federal Graduate Medical Education funds (through Via Christi) and patient revenues. The Health Ministry Fund is contributing $250,000 toward the approximately $1.25 million in program start-up costs, which includes development of dental operatories at GraceMed.

Western Prairie Care Home, Ulysses, will start a dental hygiene program to serve residents of area long-term care facilities with a $45,000 grant. The grant will be used to purchase portable equipment that will be set up in nursing homes to provide oral hygiene services onsite.
“ Our residents rarely seek dental care and often don’t realize that the pain they are experiencing is because of a problem with their teeth or dentures,” Western Prairie Care Home administrator Billie Upshaw said in describing the need for more accessible oral health care for the frail elderly. “Of our 58 residents, we had only three or four go to a dentist last year.”
Angela Black, RDH, BSDH, and Mary Ellen Caldwell, RDH, will provide the dental hygiene care for the residents. Both have obtained extended care permits.
All were quick to point out that the new Western Prairie Smiles program is not intended to replace appointments with a dentist. “We hope that -- in addition to providing periodic dental hygiene services such as cleaning the teeth and providing oral health education -- this service will help alert staff and residents to problems that might require dental treatment,” Black explained. “Then we can get the problem taken care of before it becomes a bigger problem with a resident not being able to eat or getting an infection.”
Services will include cleanings for the teeth, digital x-rays, oral screening, and fluoride varnish treatments to help maintain oral health. Although the program will be managed by Western Prairie Care Home, Upshaw hopes other nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the region who have indicated an interest will now participate.

The Area Community Enrichment Foundation, Atwood, has been awarded $65,000 to start a dental clinic to improve access to oral health care in Northwest Kansas. The clinic, expected to open with dental hygiene services in early 2007, will focus on providing affordable, accessible care to Medicaid/HealthWave patients on a regional basis. A dentist is expected to join the clinic by late summer. Rawlins County Hospital is making a facility on its campus available for the dental clinic. The Health Fund grant will be used to purchase equipment. Chris Sramek, director of Rawlins County Economic Development, said the planned clinic will be a welcome addition to the region. “We’ve been without a dentist for a lot of years,” he commented, “and people—especially those on Medicaid—have to drive long distances for care. This clinic represents our community working together to find workable solutions to our needs for affordable and accessible services.”

A grant of $24,200 was awarded to the Kansas Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (KAAP), Lenexa, to provide education to physicians on the role of fluoride varnish in protecting the teeth of young children. (Ms.) Chris Steege, executive director of the organization, said KAAP has long recognized the importance of oral health to overall health and is pleased to be able to take this step in helping physicians integrate effective oral health measures into their medical practices. Early prevention is the key to Bright Smiles for Kansas Kids, according to Steege. Dr. Pam Shaw, University of Kansas Medical Center’s Department of Pediatrics, and Dr. Dennis Cooley, a private practitioner in Topeka, will develop the education programs and materials.

A grant of $25,000 will go to the University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC) School of Dentistry to help provide faculty and student staffing for a dental clinic at Southwest Boulevard Family Health Care in Kansas City. UMKC is the largest provider of dental services in Missouri and Kansas serving over 2200 patients a week. Through its Partnership for Smiles program, the school places dental faculty and students in eight community health centers to expand the capability of these clinics to provide oral health care to the indigent. With this grant, Southwest Boulevard Family Health Care will be the ninth clinic served through this program.

A grant of $100,000 will go to Konza Prairie Community Health Center to establish a dental clinic in Junction City. An early 2007 opening is planned, depending on recruitment of a dentist to staff the clinic. The Health Center’s current facility at 361 Grant Avenue is being expanded to accommodate the new dental clinic with grant funding from the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund. The clinic will serve an estimated 3700 patients a year. As with Konza’s medical services, dental charges will be on a sliding fee scale based on income to make dental care more affordable for low-income patients. The clinic will also accept Medicaid payment, which in Kansas covers eligible children but not adults. Konza CEO Lee Wolf, citing access to dental care as one of the top health concerns in Geary County, said he is pleased Konza is able to expand to fill the growing need for affordable dental care.

A grant of $50,000 for support of the primary care clinic goes to Riley County-Manhattan Health Department. This grant assists the clinic which experienced an unexpected decrease in support from a regular funding source. The Health Ministry Fund considered maintenance of the capacity of this program to be especially important due to upcoming increases in troop assignments to the area.

The Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved (KAMU), Topeka, will receive a second-year grant of $163,248 to continue to expand access to prescription drugs through Kansas primary care safety-net clinics. This year’s funding helped 17 clinics establish or enhance services to provide free or low-cost medicines to low-income patients. KAMU has also been awarded a $40,000 grant to continue development of the Kansas Health Consumer Coalition. The Coalition is a membership organization started last year to strengthen the voice of Kansans in advocating for equitable access to health care. KHCC coordinated the release of a Kansas study on medical debt titled “Playing by the Rules, but Losing” earlier this year. The coalition is also responsible for establishing advocates in seven Kansas communities to assist vulnerable elderly Kansans in making informed choices about the Medicare prescription benefit.

The Governor’s Health Cost Containment Commission (H4C) has completed work on a strategy for implementation of health information technology (HIT) and health information exchange (HIE) in Kansas. The Commission, with staff assistance from the Kansas Health Policy Authority, is moving to the next stage in the planning process—development of a formal roadmap for the adoption and deployment of HIE and HIT. Five working groups--composed of various stakeholders with a national expert serving as a technical advisor--are being formed to address: clinical requirements, technological standards, financial sustainability, governance and privacy and security safeguards.
The process is expected to take about six months. The Health Fund has awarded $30,000 toward the costs of this project.

Based in Hutchinson, the mission of the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund is “Healthy Kansans through cooperative and strategic philanthropy guided by Christian principles.” Its funding comes from an endowment established in 1986 by the Kansas West Conference of the United Methodist Church from a portion of the proceeds from the sale of Wesley Hospital in Wichita. Since the Health Fund’s founding, grants totaling more than $43 million have supported hundreds of health-related projects in Kansas.

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