It's been about a year since Positive Health Care patients at the India Street Public Health Center began transitioning their care to new physicians and practices. Here's a quick update about the services that continue at the India Street Clinic and how the city intends to follow up to find out how the clinic's former Positive Health patients are doing and what we can learn from this transition process.
The India Street Public Health Center continues to offer HIV/STD/Hepatitis C testing, a Needle Exchange, and primary care for uninsured adults through the Portland Community Free Clinic. Additionally, in early 2017, Grace Street Services began offering a medication assisted treatment and recovery program out of the space at 103 India Street, so there are a lot of good things happening there.
However, as many of you are aware, the Positive Health Care program that once operated out of this space closed at the end of 2016. In the months leading up to that closure, city staff worked hard to contact every patient in the program, connect them with new providers, and help them begin transitioning their care to a new facility.
As we approach the one-year anniversaries of many of those transitions, we want to know how patients are doing with their new providers. We also want to get feedback on the transition process to find out what went well, what didn’t, and what lessons we can learn to improve city communications and processes in the future.
To conduct this outreach, the city will work with the Public Health program at USM’s Muskie School and the Patient Advocacy Committee (PAC). The PAC comprises former India Street patients and advocates who initially came together to help with the transition process and continue to meet regularly at the Frannie Peabody Center. As part of the follow-up process, they created a draft patient survey which will serve as a starting point for this outreach.
In order to protect patients and their information, the survey and all protocols will go through USM’s Institutional Review Board. Once approved, the survey will be administered by a Muskie School student.
We expect the work to be completed by the end of 2017, at which point the findings will be reviewed and shared.
However, as many of you are aware, the Positive Health Care program that once operated out of this space closed at the end of 2016. In the months leading up to that closure, city staff worked hard to contact every patient in the program, connect them with new providers, and help them begin transitioning their care to a new facility.
As we approach the one-year anniversaries of many of those transitions, we want to know how patients are doing with their new providers. We also want to get feedback on the transition process to find out what went well, what didn’t, and what lessons we can learn to improve city communications and processes in the future.
To conduct this outreach, the city will work with the Public Health program at USM’s Muskie School and the Patient Advocacy Committee (PAC). The PAC comprises former India Street patients and advocates who initially came together to help with the transition process and continue to meet regularly at the Frannie Peabody Center. As part of the follow-up process, they created a draft patient survey which will serve as a starting point for this outreach.
In order to protect patients and their information, the survey and all protocols will go through USM’s Institutional Review Board. Once approved, the survey will be administered by a Muskie School student.
We expect the work to be completed by the end of 2017, at which point the findings will be reviewed and shared.
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