Congratulations go out to Healthy Connections, Inc., Chief Executive Officer Tony Calandro for being named to the 2021 Arkansas 250 list.
The Arkansas 250, which is produced by Arkansas Business, features Arkansas’ most influential business leaders from many industries across the state.
“Each year we compare notes with executives and leaders from every region and each major industry category in the state. We mine board of directors lists for publicly traded companies, universities, and nonprofit organizations,” said Chris Bahn, publisher of Arkansas 250. “We deep dive into reporting from media outlets, including Arkansas Business, to identify the business, political, and quality of life stories that mattered most. It is important to us that this list includes people actively plotting the course of our state.”
Calandro is in his 11th year as CEO of Healthy Connections. Last year he was named a finalist for Arkansas Nonprofit Executive of the Year.
“I am honored to have been included in such a prestigious list of Arkansas business leaders,” Calandro said. “This wouldn’t be possible without the hard work and dedication of our Healthy Connections staff. This recognition is a reflection of the job they did throughout the past year.”
Arkansas Business praised Calandro for Healthy Connections growth in recent years. This has included expansion to areas like Little Rock, Bryant, and Hot Springs Village, and new services being made available to patients throughout the region.
Calandro is listed amongst many of the state’s top healthcare leaders including:
- Chad Aduddell, CEO CHI St. Vincent
- Chris Barber, President and CEO of St. Bernard’s Healthcare
- Marcy Dodderer, President and CEO of Arkansas Children’s
- Matt Troup, CEO Conway Regional Health System
- Troy Wells, President and CEO Baptist Health
The list also includes business leaders from nearly every industry in Arkansas, including prominent names such as:
- Warren Stephens, CEO of Stephens, Inc.,
- Jim Walton, Chairman and CEO of Arvest Bank Group
- Asa Hutchinson
- Hunter Yurachek, Vice-Chancellor and Director of Athletics, University of Arkansas
See the complete list at https://digital.abpg.com/arkansas250-2021/page/1
Healthy Connections is a Mena-based Community Health Network with locations throughout southwest and central Arkansas. Since its founding as a home-visiting program in 1998, Healthy Connections has been able to provide much-needed health, dental, behavioral health, and social services to families of every lifestyle. Services include primary care/family medicine, specialty services including cardiology, podiatry, and women’s health, My Kids Pediatric Clinic, Evolve Behavioral Health Services and Medication Management, Health For Life Clinic, Healthy Families Arkansas Polk and Garland counties, and more. Learn more about Healthy Connections at www.healthy-connections.org.
February is recognized as American Heart Month, a time in which we spread the word about strategies for preventing heart disease and encourage people to live heart-healthy lives.
Did you know the Healthy Connections Community Health Network offers cardiology and cardiovascular disease treatment in both Mena and Hot Springs? Visit www.healthy-connections.org/heart for more information.
Friday, February 5, 2021, is designated as National Wear Red Day as part of the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women initiative. For information on this event, visit www.goredforwomen.org.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. In most years, 1 in 4 deaths is caused by heart disease. The good news is that heart disease can often be prevented when people make healthy choices and manage their health conditions. Communities, health professionals, including those at Healthy Connections, and families can work together to create opportunities for people to make healthier choices.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, many people have delated or avoided going to hospitals for heart attacks and strokes – netting poorer outcomes and prompting the AHA to create “Don’t Die of Doubt,” a national awareness campaign that reminds people that hospitals are the safest place to go when you have symptoms.
Also during the pandemic, more people have engaged in unhealthy lifestyle behaviors such as poor eating, drinking more alcohol, and limiting physical activity. These factors can contribute to heart disease.
Heart disease continues to be the greatest health threat to Americans and is still the leading cause of death worldwide, according to the AHA’s Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics 2021 update. The report a 17.1 increase and a 26.6 percent increase in cardiovascular disease over the past decade.
In most cases, heart disease is preventable when people adopt a healthy lifestyle, which includes not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, controlling blood sugar and cholesterol, treating high blood pressure, getting at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week, and getting regular checkups.
If you have questions about your heart, please make an appointment at our cardiology clinics in Mena or Hot Springs by calling 888-710-8220. Learn more at www.healthy-connections.org/heart.
On this Veterans Day, we want to take a moment to recognize and honor all who served. Happy Veterans Day to our soldiers — both past and present. We owe you our thanks, but more than that, we owe you our freedom.
To all veterans of all branches, thank you for your sacrifice, your bravery, and the example you set for us all. To our soldiers out there, thank you for the risks you take and the sacrifices you make.
And thank you to our numerous Healthy Connections Community Health Network employees who have served our country.
Thank you for your service!
Healthy Connections, Inc., is delivering on its promise to mass test the state of Arkansas, testing more than 1,000 people in the first two weeks of free Covid-19 testing.
Healthy Connections scheduled a series of pop-up testing sites and has tested anyone regardless of symptoms for free. Cities tested so far have included De Queen, Malvern, Hot Springs, Hot Springs Village, Little Rock, Benton, Arkadelphia, and Gurdon. The testing tour continues next week with stops in Mena, De Queen for a second time, and Nashville. See the complete schedule at www.GetTestedFree.com.
“We were asked to increase COVID-19 testing for Arkansans and are proud to have been able to provide this much-needed service to people throughout Arkansas,” said Tony Calandro, CEO of Healthy Connections, Inc. “By taking these tests on the road, we have been able to reach areas where access to testing is not as readily available.”
The testing tour began on May 21 with a stop in De Queen. The most patients tested in a single day was 415 in Hot Springs Village on May 29.
These tests done at pop-up testing sites are in addition to the hundreds of tests performed by Healthy Connections in its clinics throughout west and central Arkansas.
The testing sites are set up as drive-through events. Patients don’t even get out of their vehicles. Patients report this new Covid-19 test is much easier and less painful than other tests previously given. No insurance information is collected and patients are through the testing area and on their way in just a few minutes.
Results from these tests are being received on average in five to seven days.
Do you want to partner with Healthy Connections to bring the testing bus to your business or your hometown? Call us at 888-710-8220.
Healthy Connections clinics are open, safe, healthy, and here for the communities they serve. The Healthy Connections community health network is a federally-qualified health center (FQHC). Healthy Connections and Evolve Behavioral Health both accept Medicaid, ARKids 1st, Medicare, and most private health insurance. There is also a sliding-fee scale for patients without health insurance who qualify. Medicaid patients may be required to switch their primary care provider to Healthy Connections before they can be seen. Learn more about Healthy Connections at www.healthy-connections.org.
The Healthy Connections community health network is open and seeing patients both in the clinic and via telehealth, allowing patients to stay in contact with their providers. These services include evaluation and testing for COVID-19, regardless of symptoms.
This includes primary care, dental (emergency procedures now, full services May 18), behavioral health, and all specialties. This also includes surgical procedures related to gynecology, podiatry, and cardiology.
Call (888) 710-8220 for appointments. Healthy Connections, a nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center, has clinic locations in Mena, Hot Springs, Little Rock, Malvern, Arkadelphia, Mount Ida, and De Queen. These clinics see patients for primary care/family medicine, including pediatrics-focused clinics in Hot Springs and De Queen. Find a location at www.healthy-connections.org/locations.
COVID-19 testing is no longer limited to high-risk patients only. If you are sick with respiratory symptoms, we can evaluate and test you for COVID-19. If you want to be tested, we will test you. Note that test results are being returned from the lab in an average of 24 to 72 hours.
Call (888) 710-8220 or make a Healthy Connections TeleHealth appointment at www.healthy-connections.org/telehealth. Many insurances are now covering this testing and waiving copays.
Any person who enters a Healthy Connections clinic will be screened for COVID-19 symptoms.
Healthy Connections specialties, including gynecology, podiatry, and cardiology have resumed full services, including surgeries. Patients having surgery will need to be tested for COVID-19 within 48 hours of their scheduled appointment time.
Healthy Connections also offers dental services in Hot Springs and Mena. These clinics are currently doing only emergency procedures (anything not considered routine such as check-ups and cleanings). Full dental services are expected to resume on May 18. Call (888) 710-8220 for info.
Additionally, Evolve Behavioral Health and Medication Management is also seeing patients both in the clinic and via telehealth at Healthy Connections locations in Mena, Hot Springs, Malvern, and Arkadelphia. Learn more about Evolve at www.evolvebhs.com.
Healthy Connections and Evolve accept Medicaid, ARKids 1st, Medicare, and most private health insurance. There is also a sliding-fee scale for patients without health insurance who qualify. Medicaid patients may have to switch their primary care provider to Healthy Connections before you can be seen.
Learn more about Healthy Connections at www.healthy-connections.org.
Community Health Centers of Arkansas CEO LaShannon Spencer wrote a guest column this week in Arkansas Democrat-Gazette / ArkansasOnline.com . Community Health Centers, like Healthy Connections, Inc., are doing everything we can to fight COVID-19, but we must survive and thrive after this crisis. We’re appreciative of what Congress has provided thus far, but Community Health Centers need much more help from Washington, D.C.
Click the link below to read the column in its entirety. Click here to learn more about Healthy Connections.
Congress must aid health centers
LASHANNON SPENCER
SPECIAL TO THE DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
When the novel coronavirus hit Arkansas, community health centers rose to the challenge, immediately shifting our business model. Unlike some private providers restricting who they see, we’re proud that we test residents for COVID-19 while taking special precautions to still meet the traditional health-care needs of our loyal patients.
“I have seen several families who were just so grateful that they were being seen. We have had families tell us that they were turned away elsewhere,” reports Dr. Rebekah Beyers, a pediatrician for Community Clinic in Springdale. “One mother told us she trusted that we would not tell her to come in unless we thought it was important and that we would help to keep them safe. Trust from our patients is one of the best things we could hope for.”
Many don’t realize the reach and value of community health centers in Arkansas. Without us, the state’s general health and the economy would suffer.
The 11 members of the Community Health Centers of Arkansas offer COVID-19 testing sites across the state at more than 60 of our clinics—from Siloam Springs to Eudora and from De Queen to Corning.
Without a dependable source from the state or federal governments for personal protective equipment (often referred to as PPE), we’ve scoured hardware stores and asked community partners to help ensure our staff and the public are adequately protected. We’ve kept our clinics open with special screenings in tents or drive-up evaluations to limit access.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE COLUMN
