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Evolve Behavioral Health Services
Healthy Connections
My Kids Pediatric Clinic

CALL US: 888.710.8220

Social Distancing … Why is it so important?

BY DR. CHRIS HOPKINSON

Social distancing is a term that you have probably heard a lot in the past couple of weeks. But, do you feel confident how to practice social distancing? Perhaps it feels unnecessary or overbearing for authorities to limit your movements. Today we’ll briefly explore social distancing, with some tips and some food for thought.

Why social distancing?

The coronavirus causing COVID-19 passes from person to person by either close contact, direct exposure to secretions, or shared surface contact. What does this mean?

  • Close contact: This is hard to define, but a good working rule is that close contact is spending 10 minutes or more within 6 feet another person
  • Direct exposure to secretions: Somebody coughs or sneezes on you, or near you! Nobody “nose” for sure, but experiments suggest that cough and sneeze particles can leave your face at upwards of 30mph, travel nearly 30 feet and linger in the air for several minutes. These particles are tiny, but not as tiny as a virus and therefore could contain a lot of virus
  • Shared surface contact: Somebody with the virus can touch their face, sneeze in their hands and fail to hand-wash effectively, or cough/sneeze near solid surfaces, leaving the surface contaminated with tiny amounts of respiratory secretions and large amounts of virus, which can survive for a prolonged period of time. You can pick the virus up by handling that surface and transfer it to your respiratory tract when eating or touching your face. Many surfaces pose a risk, but particularly those you can’t avoid touching, door handles, gas pumps, shopping carts, faucets, credit/debit card readers, chairs and armrests in waiting areas and public spaces

Your risk of acquiring COVID-19 is heavily influenced by your risk of exposure. When thinking about “who” and “what” you have been exposed to, you need also to think about who and what your contacts have been exposed to. The diagram below illustrates that our social contacts can be thought of as a web, with our risk of exposure going further than just the individuals with whom we have direct contact. The further out into that web you go, the more remote the risk. But the bigger the network, the larger the risk, especially if your first circle of contacts is large.

The COVID-19 illness is not wonderfully well understood, but it is likely that people shed virus (and may be infective) BEFORE they show signs of illness, and possibly for a short while AFTER they recover. Similarly, it appears likely that some people may not even develop symptomatic illness despite being infected and transmit the virus.

Keeping your network as small as possible limits your risk of exposure.

How to practice social distancing

Some rules of thumb:

  • As much as possible do not interact with people except those that you live with
  • Grocery shopping
    • Carry wipes and clean down your cart handle
    • Try to visit at off-peak times
    • Plan ahead – don’t linger in store
    • Maintain your distance at check out
    • Use alcohol gel to clean hands thoroughly on entering and exiting the store
  • At the gas station
    • Pay at the pump if at all possible
    • Use the gloves if provided
    • Clean your hands thoroughly with alcohol gel before and after using the pump
    • Wipe down your steering wheel frequently with appropriate cleaning wipes
  • If you feel sick
    • Contact us for advice
    • Do not leave the house (unless you are sick enough to need emergency medical care, of course)
    • Try to isolate yourself from family members who are well

Healthy Connections has more information on COVID-19 at www.healthy-connections.org/covid-19.

We Are Open and Seeing Patients

The Healthy Connections non-profit Federally Qualified Health Center in your community remains open during the Coronavirus outbreak. We want you to know we are taking all precautions to ensure the safety of both our patients and staff. We will screen everyone who enters the building and limit the number of people actually entering the building whenever possible.

We want to remind everyone to please practice social distancing during this time. Please call (888) 710-8220 if you have any questions. Or visit www.healthy-connections.org/covid-19.

There are only a couple of exceptions right now:

  • Both dental clinics in Mena and Hot Springs are now open 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday through Thursday for emergency procedures only.
  • All three school-based clinics (ASU-Three Rivers, Acorn School, and Mount Ida schools) are temporarily closed. We are seeing patients at the Healthy Connections community location in each of these areas (Malvern, Mena, and Mount Ida).
  • And clinics in Arkadelphia and Little Rock are not open on Friday staying with their regular schedule.

For a complete list of locations and their operating hours, please visit www.healthy-connections.org/locations.

 

March 19 COVID-19 Update: Hand Washing 101

Here at Healthy Connections, we want to assure our family of patients that we are taking the current coronavirus threat seriously. Everybody has questions, many of us feel anxious about our health or that of loved ones, and all of us are living with uncertainty.

For the foreseeable future, we will be sharing brief posts here every few days with information to help keep you and your family safe.

Our website (www.healthy-connections.org/covid-19) will link to helpful resources and has information on symptoms to look out for and practices to reduce your risk of infection. These will be updated as the situation develops.

Top tips for safety today? Hand washing 101!

  • Wash like a pro
    • 20-30 seconds of lathering with plenty of soap and hot water, being sure to include finger web-spaces, the backs of your hands, under your nails, the pads of your fingers, the first part of your wrists
    • Keep your nails trimmed to make cleaning easier
    • Make it fun for kids – use foaming soap; sing a song; have a “most suds” or “fastest scrubbing” competition
    •  
  • Wash regularly
    • After touching your face; blowing your nose; using your cellphone, computer or tablet; using the restroom; eating meals; arriving home/at work; driving your car; physical contact with another person
    • Before eating or preparing food; leaving work/home

COVID-19 Screenings For All Clinic Patients, Visitors

In an effort to keep our patients and staff healthy, we are screening all patients before you enter a Healthy Connections clinic. A staff member will meet you at the door to take your temperature and ask you some screening questions related to COVID-ID infection. If a COVID-19 risk is identified, you will be directed to a designated area for further evaluation. Otherwise, you will proceed to check in with your visit as usual. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause. We will continue to post updates at www.healthy-connections.org/covid-19. #Coronavirus #Covid19

Healthy Connections Clinics Earn PCMH Recognition

NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home™ standards emphasize enhanced care through patient-clinician partnership

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) announced that Healthy Connections, Inc., clinics in Mena, Hot Springs, Malvern, Arkadelphia, Mount Ida, and De Queen have received NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Recognition for using evidence-based, patient-centered processes that focus on highly coordinated care and long‐term, participative relationships.

The NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home is a model of primary care that combines teamwork and information technology to improve care, improve patients’ experience of care and reduce costs. Medical homes foster ongoing partnerships between patients and their personal clinicians, instead of approaching care as the sum of episodic office visits. Each patient’s care is overseen by clinician-led care teams that coordinate treatment across the health care system. Research shows that medical homes can lead to higher quality and lower costs, and can improve patient and provider reported experiences of care.

The Healthy Connections Montgomery County Community Clinic in Mount Ida (534 Luzerne St.) previously earned this recognition. Other clinics now recognized include:

Appointments for these clinics can be made by calling toll free (888) 710-8220.

“We are honored to receive this recognition from NCQA,” said Tony Calandro, CEO of Healthy Connections. “This is a testament to the mission of Healthy connections to provide outstanding, compassionate care to the patients we serve.”

Healthy Connections has three of Arkansas’ 13 PCMH Certified Content Experts on its staff, including Michelle Gibson, RN; Amanda Barrett, LPN, and Rachel Tomaskovic, RN.

To earn recognition, Healthy Connections demonstrated the ability to meet the program’s key elements, embodying characteristics of the medical home. NCQA standards aligned with the joint principles of the Patient-Centered Medical Home established with the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Osteopathic Association.

Over the past 21 years, Healthy Connections has become a lot of things to the communities it services, including primary care/family medicine provider, dentist, pediatrician, or medical specialist. But mostly it is a place all people can go to receive quality care regardless of their ability to pay.

Healthy Connections accepts Medicaid, including ARKids 1st, Medicare and most private health insurances. There are also appointment openings for all patients, sometimes even same-day, at all of the clinics. As a Federally-Qualified Health Center, Healthy Connections providers treat thousands of patients each year who have no insurance or not enough insurance to cover essential health and dental services. This is done as part of a sliding-fee schedule, which is determined by the total family income of the patient. Qualified applicants can receive treatment at a reduced rate.

For more information, visit www.healthy-connections.org.

About NCQA
NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations. It also recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA’s Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA’s Web site (ncqa.org) contains information to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices.

 

De Queen Clinic Moving on Sept. 25

Dear Valued Healthy Connections Patient:

We are excited to announce that our De Queen clinic will be moving to a fantastic new location on Wednesday, September 25, 2019

The new clinic location is just up the street at 1206 West Collin Raye Drive.

We purchased and remodeled the building completely and are excited to be able to provide state-of-the-art healthcare in a patient-friendly location. Other than a new location, we expect the same service you have come to expect from Healthy Connections to continue at the new location

For appointments, please call toll free (888) 710-8220. Learn more about Healthy Connections and the Compassion Women’s Clinic, visit www.healthy-connections.org/dequeen.

Thank you for choosing Healthy Connections.