Improving community health requires more than clinical care alone. In this conversation, Venita Owens, president of Baylor Scott & White Health and Wellness Center, and Andrea Hayes, manager of marketing and public relations for Baylor Scott & White, discuss how medical care, nutrition, education and fitness are coming together to support underserved populations in Dallas.

To learn more about the Healthier Together Conference, please visit https://healthiertogether.aha.org/

Tom Haederle

Welcome to Advancing Health. The American Hospital Association will hold its first Healthier Together conference in Dallas May 12 to 14. And while there, attendees will get to see an amazing local organization in action working to improve health with the city's underserved population.

Nancy Myers

Hi everyone. Welcome to the American Hospital Association's Advancing Health podcast. I'm Nancy Meyers, vice president of leadership and system innovation here at AHA. And I'm joined today by two great colleagues, Venita Owens, who's president of Baylor Scott and White's Health and Wellness Center, and Andrea Hays, who's manager of marketing and public relations for that organization. This May, the center is going to be hosting attendees of the Healthier Together conference in Dallas, Texas, for a community immersion experience.

Nancy Myers

So we're going to be talking in today's podcast about the center's key initiatives and discuss the impact of their programing across their community. Venita, I'd like to start with you. Tell us about how the Baylor Scott and White model of care stands apart in supporting and empowering the community that you serve.

Venita Owens

Hello, Nancy, and thank you for having me. The Baylor Scott White Health and Wellness Center model of care stands apart as a unique model of care by providing tools for individuals who are empowered to take care and charge of their health and their health outcomes. Our model of care is a unique one in that it brings together clinical care through our family health clinic, nutrition and chronic disease education, which is provided by registered dietitians and community health workers and physical fitness, which these classes are taught by trained professionals.

Venita Owens

We feel that bringing these three elements together work to make an individual well. And these services are provided free of charge to an uninsured and underinsured population.

Nancy Myers

I love that, you know, taking that whole person approach through the way that you've organized care and services at the center and truly advancing people's health is a team sport, right? So I know that you collaborate with community organizations in the greater Dallas region, like Bonton Farms in your work. Can you tell us a little bit about that collaboration and others like it that really are making an impact for your patients and your community?

Venita Owens

Absolutely. We collaborate with over 100 community organizations. We focus on health, and we allow our community partners to focus on their areas of expertise. It takes a village working together to address the social determinants of health in underserved and uninsured populations. Our goal is to support this community in their journey to becoming well.

Nancy Myers

Great. Andrea, I want to get you in on this conversation. Can you share a meaningful change that you've seen in the community as a result of the services that you offer through the center?

Andrea Hayes

Absolutely. Thank you for having me here today. And thank you for bringing this conference to, to the city of Dallas. A couple stories that like to, to talk about and just stories about our members. And one overarching story that I'd like to tell is about our model's reduction in ED utilization and inpatient admissions. So, we did a five year study based on all of our programs and services that we do.

Andrea Hayes

And we found that we had a 37% reduction in emergency department visits. And a 21% reduction in inpatient admissions at the hospital. And so what we're doing on the community level is helping to keep our members well, and not actually, you know, into the hospital emergency room, but getting care where they need it on the community level.

Andrea Hayes

One of the stories about a patient who was 64 years old, with elevated A1C and elevated blood pressure. And so we integrated them into our programs. One is our diabetes self-management education program. And then also, along with a farm standard and medical nutrition therapy, and then in four months their A1C was reduced to 6.2%

Andrea Hayes

and then they also lost 10 pounds. So that's an amazing testament to the programs that we have here and how it's improving the health of our community for each individual patient. And we customize the services, we meet them where they are on their journey and help them along the way. And we give them the tools to be well.

Nancy Myers

That's great. And I really like how you're using both that quantitative data around health outcomes and health care utilization, but you're also keeping it real by talking to folks about what's important to them and really bringing their goals and successes into the outcomes that you're tracking. Anita, back to you. So we are excited that we will be bringing the Healthier Together conference to Dallas in just a couple of months from this conversation that we're taping.

Nancy Myers

What can conference attendees expect to see and experience when they come to see the center?

Venita Owens

Well, we're excited about having the conference attendees also. And what they can expect is to observe a day in the life of a Baylor Scott and White Health and Wellness Center community member. This will include doctor's appointments, chronic disease education sessions, cooking demonstrations, fitness classes, and the purchasing of fresh produce from our farm stand at cost. Conference attendees will be able to participate in some of these activities and interact with the community members and our staff.

Nancy Myers

One of the things that we are really focused on as we bring this conference to Dallas and we'll be bringing it to other cities in the years to come, is making sure that everybody who attends walks away with learnings that they can take back to their own organizations and to their own communities and patient populations. What are attendees going to be able to take back to their own place of work after attending a site visit at the center?

Venita Owens

We hope attendees will feel the passion and commitment that we feel on a daily basis. This is a very hands on model, very hands on approach, and caring for the underserved population requires that. So we're hoping that they will take away that we are working to improve the health of these communities one person, one family, and one community at a time.

Andrea Hayes

We're just excited to be able to feature what we do and let people see what's going on in our community. And it's just amazing to actually see our model in action, and we want them to take that back. And certainly we know that it's scalable. And so we want to showcase that this can be done in other communities.

Nancy Myers

Thank you for that. I want to as we come to the end of our time here thank you both again. First and foremost, for sharing your expertise with us. Most importantly for the work that you're doing every single day to really improve the health of the people who've entrusted their care to Baylor Scott and White. I'm really looking forward to seeing you in Dallas.

Nancy Myers

To those of you who are listening in, please check out our conference website and make plans to join us in person as well. And thanks to all for the work that all of you are doing every day in your communities. Be well.

Venita Owens

Thank you.

Andrea Hayes

Thank you.

Tom Haederle

Thanks for listening to Advancing Health. Please subscribe and write us five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.