July 10, 2025 • 50 mins
On this episode of Our Voices Today, DJ Black Unicorn is joined by the CEO of Neighborhood Family Practice (NFP) to celebrate the grand opening of their new location on West 117th Street. The conversation highlights NFP’s mission to provide accessible, quality healthcare and the expanded services available at the new site. Listeners learn how the location strengthens community outreach and care on Cleveland’s west side. visit nfpmedcenter.org for more info.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is WOVU Studios.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to our voices today right here on WOVU ninety
five point nine FM with your beloved Unicorn of the
Land DJ Black Unicorn AKA Uni and Hello, my beloves,
how are you doing.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Let's go ahead and check in with ourselves.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Do those cleansing breaths that we do at the top
of the ten o'clock hour with me here on WOVU,
because I Uni is here to remind you. I'm here
to remind.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
You, you, you, you, and you in the back.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Look, life be life and as the kids say, but
sometimes is so so necessary for you to pause for
the cause and it causes yourself, The causes your mental health,
the causes you being able to handle the things that
you need to be able to handle. So let's take
that cleansing breath together now, deep in hell through the nose, pause,
(00:57):
slow exhale through the mouth, because again, as the kids say,
life be life and you have to disconnect sometimes if
you could take twenty minutes to do so, please do so,
because look, again, it's a lot going on, and especially
for a neighborhood family practice who has opened a brand
new facility on one hundred and thirty if. But we're
(01:19):
gonna talk all about it but today live in the
studio for our voices.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Today, I have the big.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Honcho that say eight out, a big boss live in
the studio with us, mister Dominic Hobson.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
How are you doing, how you're living, sir?
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Good morning?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Thank you for having I act like you've been here before. Hey,
I think they can hear you a little better.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Now, Good morning, good morning, Thank you for having us.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Hello, Hello, and you have brought Miss Jennifer Castellino.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I said it right earlier.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
I don't know what happened.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I think I'm just wrapped.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Up in my on go but Castellino, community Engagement officer
for a Neighborhood Family Practice. It's awesome to have you
joined us as well, Miss Jennifer, go ahead and get
close to how you doing?
Speaker 5 (02:06):
Good morning everyone, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Absolutely, I'm super excited to have you guys and talk
about neighborhood Family Practice and the awesome work that you do.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
But before we get there.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
We're gonna talk like we never had a conversation before,
for the listening audience, for the listener and the audience
who maybe have not heard our priss NFP conversations and
those who may be interested in coming to see the
new facility. Can you tell us a little bit about
the history of Neighborhood Family Practice and how it started
serving the Cleveland community.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
Of course, so this year we're celebrating our fifty forty
fifth anniversary, so we've been around for multiple decades now,
we're excited about that. But the organization was founded with
the focus on providing access to the highest quality primary
and integrated behavior healthcare. You know, there were some physicians
many years ago in the eighties that saw a need
(02:59):
on Cleveland West side, uh, and they open up the
first center within a biker bar of all places, but
that's the place that they found you know, accessible rent
from a price perspective, and the organization was built and
grown from there with a grassroots approach to community neighborhood
based health services that are quality, inaccessible to everyone, regardless
(03:20):
of their ability to pay.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
What are some key challenges that underserved communities in Cleveland
phase when it comes to accessing health care?
Speaker 4 (03:30):
I think it's access.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
You said it yourself, How do you you know there's
there's not enough quality, affordable accessible, so that means telehealth location,
neighborhood based organizations providing these services. So that's the biggest
challenge UH. And then from there is it's cost, which
you know, we're we're excited that we offer we accept
(03:53):
every insurance type UH. And we have a sliding fee
scale for those who are not insured and don't and
are not covered. So we try to bridge those barriers.
But I would say those are the first two is
just it's not enough of quality provided preventative services, and
then it's typically not affordable. And then I would say
the third one is in which we touched on it
being neighborhood based. Is the transportation barrier location based? Right,
(04:16):
how can I get to it? Is it on the
bus line? Do they have telehealth services? If I don't
have an option to be able to get there from
a transportation standpoint. Those are some of the key challenges
that we see, and again we're doing our best to
try to bridge those gaps and make our care more
accessible for everyone.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Thank you, Thank you. Can we talk a little bit
about those cares and programs. What is all offered via
a neighborhood family practice to the community.
Speaker 6 (04:42):
We continue to expand our services. We're rooted in primary
care and integrated behavior health. So our base principle is
that you can't treat the mind without treating the body.
So those are our foundational services that we've been offering
for over twenty years. Now we've expanded. Now we're providing
MITWI free and I say full scale with free, where
our providers are supporting moms with deliveries at the Fairview
(05:05):
Hospital of Cleveland Clinic. We also offer pharmacy services, including
clinical pharmacy to educate people on their diabetes or their
higher pertension and how can you manage those diseases, and
we're both mailing and delivering prescriptions across a number of
zip codes in our city. We also offer dental services
and that's one of the services that's available in our
(05:26):
new site that we're going to talk about a little
bit later. And we offer HIV care, so infectious disease
HIV helps see all of those services that a number
of people in our community are struggling with. Those are
things that are available to our community. And I will
go a little bit deeper to say from a behavior
health perspective, we're offering both therapy, counseling and psychiatry services.
(05:48):
For those who are needing medicines and prescriptions. And the
most recent service line that we've added is prodietry. Right,
we know that many in our community are dealing with
foot pain, foot issues, especially those that are struggling with
diabetes or vascular issues that impact bluff flow. So that's
been a service that we're excited to add, and we're
continuing to build and grow that service line.
Speaker 5 (06:09):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
So many awesome services and programs offered from Neighborhood Family
Practice and a new one being dental.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
And again we are going to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Let's go ahead and talk about it.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Shoot, why is it important for it Neighborhood Family Practice
to expand though and open this new ten thousand square
foot facility and what needs to what needs does it
address for local residents in the area.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Well, I think the first thing is that we were
at capacity. Right.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
We were in a five thousand square foot location for
about ten years, and we knew almost within the year
of opening that site that it wasn't big enough. We
couldn't serve the amount of people that were requesting our
services in that location. But it's hard to find the
right location. As I mentioned on the bus line on
a major primary street that's within the neighborhood. But thankfully,
(07:00):
a couple of years ago we did find that location,
and over the last two years we've been able to
identify the funding sources to build it out, and now
we have a brand new health center that's providing primary care,
behavior health, and dental services and with the pharmacy that's
going to open up within a few months. But I
will start with talking about dental. I think ore health
(07:20):
is a very much an underappreciated and underutilized service line
across our community, and our ore health impacts so much
of our mental health, our physical health, our self esteem,
especially for our kids, but even in our adults. So
we have to do a better job of making sure
we're having those preventative visits at least twice a year,
and then when appropriate, getting some of the restorative and
(07:43):
corrected things in place to maintain our health. Because it
also affects I said, it affects your self esteem from
a physical how do you look perspective, But if your
teeth are hurting, if your mouth is hurting, you're not
eating in a way that you should. To make sure
that you're maintaining and getting type of nutrients that we
need to say healthy. So dental has a direct line
to both our behavior health and our physical health primary
(08:05):
care services that we're offering. And so to have all
of those in one location, that's the comprehensive care that
we're known for a neighborhood family practice.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yes, amazing, And so as you mentioned, the new location
includes a larger dental space. The space is just larger
in generals twice the size of the one you mentioned earlier.
But expanding behavior health services and drive through pharmacy. How
do these additions directly benefit the community, particularly those who
(08:35):
face transportation or mobility issues.
Speaker 6 (08:37):
Obviously, Yeah, So the new site is on the bus line,
So that's the first priority. Right, We're very intentional whenever
we're looking for locations and sourcing a facility.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Excuse me.
Speaker 6 (08:49):
The next one I would say is that we've added
and increased those services to make it more accessible. We
have been at a place where there is that we're
capacity limit, right, there are people calling in wanting to
be seen today, tomorrow, next week, and we didn't have
those availability, those available slots, and so now we've expanded
that and added those services. And again it's neighborhood base
(09:12):
within that neighborhood, and we're connecting with our community partners,
meeting organizations, and the individuals to say, come in. You know,
even if if you already have a primary care provider,
still come in to see this site. And it really
speaks to the quality of both our physical location and
how does it look, but also of the services that
we're providing. But it's integrated, right, all of our providers,
all of our team members are they're communicating, they're talking,
(09:33):
and they're making sure that we're wrapping our arms around
our patients, which we feel as the best practice in
what makes us stand out compared to other providers.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
So we're talking about neighborhood and.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
The location, location, location of the new space one hundred
and thirty of let's talk about that neighborhood and what
the community looks like.
Speaker 6 (09:52):
The neighborhood is changing, just like Cleveland, right. I think
each of our neighborhoods are changing quickly. We see some
population declined over the last couple of decades, but we
also see people coming in and our neighborhoods look different
today than they did yesterday. So this is the neighborhood
that has both our newcomers and refugees that are moving
in brand new to our community, brand new to our country,
(10:14):
but it also has some long standing legacy people that
have been in that neighborhood for maybe a century. So
there's a mix of community members, races, ethnicities that live
within that neighborhood and are coming to seek care at
that site. And we welcome everyone because we truly want
to see an organization and a community that values us
(10:36):
and they know that when they come through our doors,
regardless of what you look like a how you show up,
you're going to be treated with the utmost respect and
you're going to provide it with the highest quality care,
regardless of your financial status or your insurance status.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
We've seen a lot of closures when it comes to pharmacies.
So how will the new drive through pharmacy at this
location help residents who've been impacted by these closures.
Speaker 6 (10:59):
Well, first, I would say that these closures have been
devastating for our community, both locally and across the country
because when you look at them, typically these closure are
happening in underserved neighborhoods, neighborhoods that have a higher density
of people navigating poverty. And of course these companies are
doing what's best for them from a business standpoint, but
(11:19):
that's not what's best for our neighborhoods and our community communities,
because people depend on their pharmacies for so much more
than just the prescriptions. Sometimes that's the only healthcare provider
that people are interacting with, and that's what they're losing.
So for us to be able to bring that back
to this neighborhood, it's key for us. The one thing
that I will say is that our pharmacy is a
closed three forty B pharmacy, which will take a whole
(11:40):
another session to talk about what three forty B is,
but it's primarily open to the patients who receive care
from us. But that's not a small number, right. We
serve over twenty thousand patients so far, over twenty thousand
of our residents in Cleveland, Kyahoga County they have a
new pharmacy that they're going to have a new pharmacy
that they have access to, and that's not a small number,
but we're hoping to grow that and make this care
(12:02):
more affordable and accessible for our community.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Pharmacy deserts are a growing issue in many communities. Can
you talk about how NFP plans to tackle this issue continuously.
Are we looking to continue to open just structures for
pharmacy concentrate service in general, or are we looking to
open more NFPs in general.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
So, yeah, I think our plan is definitely to open
more pharmacy, more services, more locations. But there's a lot
of factor's going on around us right now and it's
not open. We're going to spend some time on.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Medicaid, yes, yeah.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
And what's going on at the federal and the state level,
but our plan is to do our best to bridge
that gap. We can't be the only ones, right There
are going to be other providers. We have our hospital
systems that operate pharmacies, and there'll still be some prevalence
of retail pharmacies. And when I say retail, I mean
the Walgreens, the CBS's. But for us, we're going to
try to add more locations. But we're also delivering and
(13:04):
mailing prescriptions right so we're trying to bridge that transportation gap.
But we know that that's not right for everyone. So
hopefully we're going to have a pharmacy that's available within
a driving distance or a transportation distance to our patients
and those that can't. We're hoping to bridge that gap
through transportation, excuse me, through delivery or mailing of prescriptions.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Neighborhood family practice is building those barriers, making sure you
get the services and the pharmaceuticals that you need, whether
you're pulling up, whether you need them, mail, whatever you need.
They are easy to accommodate and so easy to work with.
If you are looking to be a part, to become
a patient, you can always visit inn Fpmdcenter dot org.
(13:44):
That's in fp Medcenter dot org. Don't go anywhere. You
are listening to our voices today right here on WOVU
ninety five point nine F And when we get back
from this slight break, we'll be talking more about the location,
more about pharmacies, and of course that medicaid.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
And we're going on with their government.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
It depends on how deep you want to go dominic,
though I don't know how much can you say.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
We can say a lot.
Speaker 6 (14:08):
Okay, we're going to be informed and we need to
make sure that people are aware of what's going on
and what they can do locally to raise their voices
to counteract and advocate for positive change and not change
that's gonna impact our communities in a negative way.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Precisely Dark Voices today right here on WWU ninety five
point nine f M. If you are just tuning in,
this is UNIED having a great conversation with the CEO
of Neighborhood Family Practice and also of course the Community
Engagement Officer, missus Jennifer, and we've been talking all about
the new location on one hundred and thirtieth grand opening
(14:45):
being April twentieth, and it's going to be a great
time because WOVU is gonna be there. It's gonna be
a great time because look, they're expanding, they're gonna continue
to expand because they're doing the work Nfpmetcenter dot org. Again,
that's inn Fpmetcenter dot org. What we've been talking about
pharmacy deserts and just that growing issue.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
In general within our communities.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Can you talk about how NFP plans to just make
sure that these people are understanding these services that is
offered to them now because we are offering a lot.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
More, Jennifer, I'll let you take that one.
Speaker 7 (15:24):
Yeah, So we are basically expanding our services and we're
making sure that people have access to these services without
having to worry about costs. And we're in the neighborhoods
and we're talking to our community partners and making sure
that they're also spreading the word about people coming to
us and knowing that we're going to take care of
(15:45):
them regardless.
Speaker 6 (15:46):
Thank you, And I would say to go a step
further than that. It is one thing to know what
services we offer, but we have to continue to educate
and inform our community about when do you use those
specific services, right when do you go to primary care,
to urgent care or to the ED and making sure
that we are receiving care.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
At the appropriate level.
Speaker 6 (16:05):
So that's still work to be done on that, but
we're hoping that as we engage with the community raising
awareness about our service, because we can also share this
is the appropriate level for these types of things, and
you want to have the care at the least expensive,
high highest quality place and allow us to escalate a
movie throughout that continuum when you need to get care
at a higher level.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
What kind of health care disparities exist in underserved areas
of Cleveland, and how does NFP address these disparities and
its approach to care.
Speaker 6 (16:36):
There's so many, unfortunately, and this is an area that
I think we all have to be accountable for. All
of our members of our healthcare community, are social service community,
are local government employees and leaders, all have to be
accountable for the disparities that exists in our community. And
there are many, and they are across raised there across
(16:58):
ethnicity where we see there is a gap, for example,
in the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension in our black
members compared to our white residents, saying for many of
our Hispanic community members. And then it goes on to
our cancer prevalence rates or even when we're screening for
and finding out that an individual has cancer. So those
(17:20):
are all the things that unfortunately that exists. Well for NFP,
what we're doing is starting local right, looking at the
data around what disparity exists with our own patient base
and what can we do different to close those gaps,
and then go on a step further to say, how
do we build a world class frontend or to our
healthcare system so that people can get access to the
(17:42):
specialty care, the cancer care, all those things that we
have locally. But if you're not identifying these things early,
in many cases, you don't have an opportunity to receive
the great specialty care that you can get at Cleveland
Clinic or University Hospital or Metro for that matter. So
we have to do a better job of reaching further
into our community from a preventative standpoint and screening for
these cancers and checking our diabetes, checking our blood pressure,
(18:06):
and then leveraging the tools we have from a medication
standpoint to manage those to a place into a time
where you have to go and get care at a
higher level. But there's more work that we can do
for that. But we have to make sure that people
have a way to access our health care system. And
again we're calling that the front door, and for us,
that's that integrated primary care and behavior health because we
can connect you to everywhere else you need to go,
(18:28):
every hospital system we have partners with, and we believe
we are the gold standard when it comes to that
integrated primary and behavior health care services.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
You mentioned insurances and accepting those insurances, but you also
mentioned whether they have insurance or not, So how are
we serving individuals who are uninsured.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
We accept anyone. So we offer a sliding fee scale
that our patients, both our insurance insured patients, because we
know that some people are under insured, and what I
mean by that is you may have insurance, but you
can't afford your copey or deductible. But we offer a
sliding fees scale to all of our patients regardless of
how they show up to us, regardless of their insurance status.
But this is especially helpful for our people who are
(19:08):
not that they don't have any insurance. So we're looking
at what is your income, what is your family size,
and then we come up with a sliding fee scale
that sometimes goes down as low as five dollars for
a primary care or a behavior health visit. Right, you
can't get a carton of eggs for five dollars these days,
but you can get a primary care behavior health visit
if you have the right income or family size. So
(19:31):
that's how we're making care affordable. And then for our
uninsured patients, we didn work with our partners to say, hey,
this individual may not have insurance, but can we get
them seen at a higher level because they're needing something
that we don't have, so we try to ask our
referral partners to make sure that they're accepting and have
some charity care policies in place to make sure that
these individuals can continue to get care whenever they risk
(19:53):
out or they need something that we don't provide locally
within our health care system.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
At ANFP, How is it working with those parts partners?
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Do they take those patients with grace so they kind
of give you a little pushback?
Speaker 5 (20:05):
How is that?
Speaker 6 (20:07):
It's you know, I think every relationship is different and
every organization has different access when it comes to how
much of those specialty services are available. So it's tricky,
honestly at times. We know that in many cases, having
insurance is having access to health care, so there are
some barriers there that we need to continue to work
(20:27):
through as a system. Thankfully, with expanded Medicaid, which is
currently at risk right now, there are more people who
are covered, so there's less individuals who are in that
bucket that don't have any insurance at all, but there's
more work to be done on that because unfortunately, for
too many people, if you don't have insurance, you don't
have access, and that's why for us to accept anyone,
(20:50):
regardless of their insurance status, is a key pillar to
who we are as an organization.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
Wow wow, thank you, thank you? What rolls? Excuse me?
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Does behavior hope play in NFP overall service offerings and
why is this such an important component, especially in underserved communities.
Speaker 6 (21:09):
I would say the first thing is, for far too long,
there's been a stigma around behavior health in many of
our communities, especially our underserved communities. I think that's gotten better,
but there's still some work we have to do in
that space, and we need to continue to work on
that and make sure that it's succeptible for people to
seek therapy or counseling like I've sought therapy and counseling
(21:31):
myself and it was a major benefit for me. And
I encourage everyone, male, female, whatever your age is, if
you need to speak with someone and talk with someone,
I encourage you to do that. For us, it's a
foundational pillar. I think, again, you can't treat the mind
without the body. So for us, having those services integrated,
where your primary care provider is talking to your counselor
(21:52):
or your therapist, who's also talking to your psychiatrists who's
prescribing you meds that you may need to help manage
those conditions. And on the other side, you may have
you may be navigating anxiety or depression, but you're also
because of those two, are not controlling your diabetes or
you're not taking your medicine that you need to control that.
So to have those teams coordinating and working together again
(22:14):
is the best practice that we've been doing for multiple
decades now, and thankfully, I think people are starting to
realize that you can't separate the two of those and
for us, having them together and co locating, collaborating between
those two disciplines is what makes our organization have a
true standard again, a gold standard when it comes to
primary and integrated behavior healthcare services.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Thank you, thank you, you are listening to our voices today.
This is UNI having a great conversation with the CEO
of Neighborhood Family Practice, mister Dominick Hobson and missus Jennifer
Castellino Community Engagement.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
I think I say it different every time. Apologies my apologies, but.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Look, I want to be clear when I say this,
there is zero real shame and seeking help, and there
are a lot of stigmas when it comes to that,
especially like you mentioned mister dominic in underserved community. So
I love to see the work that NFP is doing,
and I want to know do you have any stories
or experiences that can highlight how NFP has helped individuals
(23:18):
or families in Cleveland access care during a time of crisis.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Or neat Jennifer, do you have any that you want
to share?
Speaker 5 (23:24):
I do. I have so many stories.
Speaker 7 (23:26):
I'm actually out in the community quite a bit, so
we are lucky to be in certain places when the
time is right. I want to say, I was hosting
an event at a location and I had a young
lady that was having a mental health crisis, and she
had mentioned she had been with us for a while
and switched clinics, and now she didn't have access to
(23:48):
an appointment right away.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
I was able to make some cause to a.
Speaker 7 (23:52):
Few of our other colleagues and they were able to
get her seen right away, which I think is life
saving in some cases, because never know where people are
going to end up over a moment.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I always try to remind the listening audience don't do
anything permanent off of temporary emotions, because life hits hard sometimes,
but it always passes you mentioned the economic vitility of
a healthy community.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Can you talk more about.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
How nfp's news center will contribute to the neighborhood's economic
growth as well.
Speaker 6 (24:26):
These days, there's a term that people use when they
talk about social determinants of work and that what they're
hitting at is what are the barriers for someone seeking
employment maintaining.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
Employment, And one of those is health.
Speaker 6 (24:41):
Right, how do you show up for work and be
your best self if you're not managing all of the
physical and mental health things that you're dealing with. And
so for us, that is the foundation for a healthy
community from a viability and economic standpoint, is that we're
managing We have access to quality healthy services that allows
us to go to work, stay healthy and support our families.
(25:02):
And then when appropriate, if you can't make it into
the office from transportation barrier or because you are at work,
we can offer those telehealth services that helps address that
transportation or time barrier. But even going a step further,
we also offer evening hours. So if you work with
traditional schedule and you say, look, I just can't get
there from eight to five, we have site instead are
(25:23):
open to seven or eight pm. From money through Thirsdy
each week, so it's affordable, it's successible. But that is
the foundation of having people being able to work is
when they're healthy. And we know that our community members
are working longer. Right, Our elders are Medicare AIDS population,
our scenes are still in the workforce. So again, if
we're helping them manage those chronic conditions and the illnesses
(25:45):
that they have at their age, they're able to continue
to provide for themselves in their families.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
So that's a key step for us.
Speaker 6 (25:51):
But we're also a employer, right, so with this new site,
we are adding new employees. You know, we're looking for
medical assistance, our medical office specialists, our dental hygienis, our
dental assistants, and of course providers of all types physician assistants,
nurse practitioners, physicians. So we're employers, so we contribute from
(26:13):
that perspective. But more importantly, I would say our biggest
impact is keeping our community healthy so they can continue
to beat them their best sales and provide for their families.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Yes, yes, and if you are interested in any of
these new positions open at Neighborhood Family Practice, they can
visit the website right. Yes, in FP Medcenter dot org.
That's Nfpmetcenter dot org. How do you plan to engage
with local residents, organizations, and leaders to ensure that this
new facility is accessible and welcoming for all members of
(26:46):
the community.
Speaker 5 (26:48):
Miss That's definitely been some of my homework.
Speaker 7 (26:51):
So we are continually continuously working with our community partners
to bring education out, but we're also building for us
with our community members. We're trying to create more programming
that is more permanent, not just one in done events
where we come out to certain locations and then excuse me,
you no longer hear from anyone. We're trying to create
(27:14):
long lasting relationships with our community partners and letting them
know that we are a trustworthy place to be.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Yes, it's super exciting. But why is just the West Side?
Are we moving to the East Side any time?
Speaker 6 (27:27):
Souit?
Speaker 3 (27:27):
I hope in the next decade, because you guys have
a lot of facilities, but they're all located on the
west and it can be a barrier if you are
a person on the East Side interested in neighborhood family
practice getting to you all.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
So is there any talks of coming to the east.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
Side at all?
Speaker 6 (27:43):
There are and I would say there's been talks for
a while. I remember I've been in my role now
coming up on three years, and I think what I
was on the job for less than three months when
I met a community member that says, hey, I've heard
about you and you all provide great services, but you're
only on the way west side. Why is that when
you're coming? And so it caught me off guard because
(28:04):
I was new to Cleveland, right, I didn't understand the
east side.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
East side, the west side. It's not a versus.
Speaker 6 (28:08):
Thing anymore, right, right, So that is something that's in
our plans. I think the key thing is making sure
that we have the right partners and that we can
build trust as we plan to do that because we'll
be introducing ourselves to a new community, people who may
not have heard of us before. And so I think
some of the work that we're doing with you in
our partnership here with WVU and other partners will help
(28:31):
make it a situation where when we do come, people
have heard of us and they know our reputation.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Yes, they know, mister Dominic. They asked me. That's why
I asked you, because they're like, we want to join.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
They sound like such a great facility. Look, you still
have options to get there.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
They're on the bus line.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
A lot of the facilities, especially this brand spaking new
one on one hundred and thirty is right on the
bus line in the meantime to them coming to the ease.
But looking at had what are some of the goals
for NFP for the new facility over the next few years.
Speaker 6 (29:07):
It's focus on the health disparities that you touched on.
So again, we're going to continue to provide care to
our community members and we want to get to a
place where those disparities don't exist.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
That is a major and lofty.
Speaker 6 (29:20):
Goal, but that should be the expectation for every health
care organization within the patients that you serve, and then
of course you're hoping that you're going to be able
to spand that reach and see more patients and impact
the community in a positive way. So those are short
and I would say in long term goals just to
continue to provide quality, affordable, accessible, primarily integrated behavior health care,
(29:42):
mental health care, or health care, all of those services
that are so hard to find, especially in our underserved communities.
So we're going to be looking for opportunities to do
that on making sure that we continue to raise the
bar from a quality perspective, but also raise the bar
from a patient experience perspectives, because those are some of
our key UH priorities, both experience but also outcomes.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Let's talk about it before we go to break cause.
Patient experience is a huge topic in the health field
right now. I feel like for some reason, all of
a sudden, a lot of the big organizations are caring
how they come across, which is interesting because a lot
of them are also.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
Getting rid of DEI.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
But anyway, the patient experience is it.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
It's difficult to explain and it's a difficult.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Thing to understand if you are not one of those individuals. Example,
if you are not one of those individuals who shared
the story with Project you are about why Northeast Ohio
was voted the worst place for Black women and health
disparities and health care was a big, big part. They're
just simply not believed when they are in these doctors' offices.
(30:54):
What sets NFP apart and make sure that people do
not have an experience such ask that well.
Speaker 6 (31:01):
I think for us, we continue to work on making
sure that we're educating our workforce right, our providers, our
support staff, our administrators, our villers, everybody throughout the organization
has to be culturally aware of the communities that we're
serving and the.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Challenges that they face.
Speaker 6 (31:18):
So that's the first one, But then I think that
the second piece is making sure that there's opportunities for
when you have a poor experience, because even the best
organizations we have an off day, but you have a
way to escalate that and it gets to the right
person that we respond to you very quickly, timely to say, hey,
we want to hear more about that experience. Tell us
about it so that we can make sure that we
(31:39):
do better. Have a conversation with that team member, that provider,
or maybe moving azation, an individual outside of the organization
if they don't fit with what we're trying to accomplish
from a health care perspective. So patient experience has to
be key. To your point, I'm glad that it is
a priority for many organizations. It should have always been
a priority, but I think that we all can do
better when it comes to listening. It shouldn't take an
(32:00):
organization or a survey, didn't if you didn't know that
there is an issue for black women in our health
care system, then you don't need to be working in
our health care system because that's been a known issue.
But what can you do again within your control? Right,
we're one organization and we're not perfect. We have to
continue to do better. But that is our goal to
make sure that everybody feels welcome, that you feel heard,
(32:21):
that you're listening to, that you have the time that
you need to raise your concerns and we work with
you on that. And then when we fall short, that
you have an opportunity to raise those concerns and here
back quickly so that we can do some service recovery
to say, hey, we're going to get you back in.
We'll apologize for that. We can do better. We're going
to be better, and whether that is with the same
provider or another provider, but we hope that you stay
(32:43):
with us. I think that has to be that process
and that outreach that does happen whenever we fall short
of our expectations.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Thank you, Thank you so much, mister Dominique for explaining
that and how NFP is just different.
Speaker 5 (32:56):
Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
You are listening to our voices today right here on
five point nine FM, we'll be right back. Welcome back
to our voices today right here on WLBU ninety five
point nine FM, Burton Bell Car Community Radio, and listen, listen, listen.
I have Neighborhood Family Practice live in a studio with
me sharing all the details about the new location located
(33:20):
on one hundred and thirtieth, but they have i want
to say, seven other locations on the west Side.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Don't worry, don't fret.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
If you're one of those individuals who may have stopped
the CEO, mister Dominic. You may have stopped miss Jennifer.
You may have even stopped me at one of the
community events and asks, hey, when y'all come.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Into the east side, look they're coming. Just be patient.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
In the meantime, they have locations right on the bus
line for you to get the help.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
That you need.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
And as the population of Cleveland continues to grow and change,
how does NFP plan to adapt and the evolving healthcare
needs of underserved communities? Because they are forever changing.
Speaker 6 (33:58):
We have to grow and adapt as well. Our patient
type is changing, our patient challenges are changing. So if
we're still providing care like we were when we were
founded in nineteen eighty then that's problematic. We're not doing
our job. So we look at the data, we listen
to our patients, we do surveys, we have sessions where
we get feedback out in the community, and so we
(34:20):
have to make sure that we're moving and changing along
with our community, providing the services that we need, and
making sure that we have providers and partners that we
can refer our patients to to address those things that
we don't. But part of that is making sure that
we're able to address those social drivers.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Right. We believe we're part of a larger community.
Speaker 6 (34:38):
So if you're having a difficulty and struggles from a
food security perspective, we operate a program that's called Food
is Medicine that our providers can make a referral within
our own system for you to go and do shopping
within our network to get food. And we also have
a dietician on staff that can educate you on how
do you cook those the right way that dresses or
(35:00):
make sure that it doesn't exacerbate your higher potension on
your diabetes or whatever the challenge that you have. So
those are the ways that we've already grown. I think
we're going to continue to do that create innovative ways
to add services or partners that make sure that we
addresses address our community's needs. But we'll adapt, and we'll
keep moving and keep changing and making sure that we're
providing the highest quality, most affordable and accessible care that
(35:23):
our community needs.
Speaker 5 (35:24):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
What would you say to anyone in the community who
may not be too familiar but they heard of NFP.
They're curious, they're interested, but they're still kind of hesitant.
They're used to, you know, the big threes and going
to these bigger establishment that barely care about them, but
they're able to go to NFP and understand that they
(35:46):
will have a different level of service, a different level
of patient experience. Do you have any thing to kind
of make them feel comfortable on.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
Their way in?
Speaker 6 (35:55):
I would say the first thing is just give us
a shot, right and then if you don't have a
great expert, let me know. Like me personally, I want
to know about that experience. But what makes us different
is that we do have relationships again with all of
our hospital systems. So unfortunately, if you're a type of
person that is coming to us, you may need to
go to Cleveland Clinic because they provide the best specialist
(36:17):
for heart surgeries or heart issues. You may need to
go to a university hospital because they have the best
specialist for this type of cancer treatment. You may need
to go to mental health because they have the best
of this other service.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
We can get you to those places.
Speaker 6 (36:31):
We have those relationships with all three of those partners
and our community organizations that are not affiliated with our
hospital systems. So that's what makes us different is we
don't care about the relationship. We're going to get you
to the best place, the best partner in a timely fashion.
But we're also going to provide you with the highest
quality ambulatory care right those primary care, the behavior health,
(36:52):
the pro dietary, the pharmacy, the mint with free services
that you can get in your local neighborhood, your local community.
And then when you need need more than that, we're
going to help you navigate our health care system to
get those additional services. And again, that's what true integration,
that's what true partnership is like, and that's what comprehensive
quality behavior health should look and feel like. You shouldn't
(37:13):
feel like you have to navigate this system alone. Because
many of us who work in healthcare and have worked
in healthcare for our entire careers.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
We have trouble navigating our system.
Speaker 6 (37:22):
So we're the type of organization that's going to hold
your hand and make sure that you're moving along the process,
getting the care that you need and having a type
of outcome that you desire. Right, We're not going to
push on to you what we think you need because
that may not be best for you, and you have
to have that relationship with your provider that says, look,
I appreciate that, but that's not my goal. This is
(37:43):
what I'm looking to do. I want to be healthy
that I can play with my grandkids. Well, I want
to take this trip next year, and I need to
be healthy enough to go and meet my sisters and
my brother that's down in Mississippi or wherever you're from.
So those are the kind of things that, again is
our approach to make sure that we are providing visual,
individual people specific care plans that align to what the
(38:04):
priority of our patients are and hopefully results and the
outcomes and the patient goals that they have for themselves.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
And we are a partner in that.
Speaker 5 (38:12):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
How can community members get involved with helping NFPA spans
reach and impact, and are there any ways that local
residents can advocate for healthcare access.
Speaker 6 (38:24):
So I'll start with the last one first, and then
I'm going to bring us back to this medicaid conversation
that we've been dancing around for the grand But I
think so that's the way to make sure that we
are maintaining access. You know, thankfully, our state was one
(38:44):
of the states that did expand medicaid some years ago,
and right now there is I think over seven hundred
thousand Ohioans that are in that expanded Medicaid group. Unfortunately,
we're hearing things out of our federal legend that they
may be looking for ways to reduce the overall cost
of the government and medicaid may be a place that
(39:06):
they're going to try to achieve that. And we know
at the state level there are some languages what they're
calling a trigger law that says if the federal government
reduces the percentage that of the share of the cost
of the expanded group that we see, that they're going
to pull us out of medicaid expansion in our state.
But we have over one hundred thousand individuals in Kyhoga
County that are in that expanded Medicaid group. Those are
(39:30):
our sisters, our brothers, our aunts, our uncles, our grandparents.
Those are people. So when you talk about what can
you do, you can advocate. And a lot of times
advocacy is a scary word that we think only CEOs
and leaders and vps do know. Every one of us
is an advocate. Our leaders and Columbus and our leaders
(39:51):
in Washington d C. Our leaders locally in the city
and in the county represent us. So pick up your phone,
you know, go on the website, leave a mes. This
is for your representative at any one of those places
to say, hey, we can allow this to happen. A
Medicaid expansion has been too important and too value for
our community and has saved the healthcare system too much
(40:12):
money and improved outcomes for many of our community.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
And then make it about the people.
Speaker 6 (40:17):
If you have a cousin, a sister, again, a brother,
those are people that's going to lose access and that
are now in that unassured bucket who may be afraid
to go on access care because they can't pay that
out of pocket costs. So we want to make sure
that people are able to advocate and raise their voices.
Outside of that, I would say get involved. Go to
our website. We have community engagement events that we attend.
(40:39):
We would love for you to come up and share
and give us some feedback. If you want us to
come to the east side, what neighborhood should we come
to give us some of that those details where you say, look,
this is what we need an NFP at on the
east side of the city. But the other the biggest
thing though, is access our care.
Speaker 5 (40:55):
Right.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
We have patients coming from every city.
Speaker 6 (40:59):
Of Cleveland, war in every Ka Yohoga County district to
come to get care for us. So people are already
navigating and driving past multiple options and multiple all the
locations because they value the care that we provide, and
so we think that our services are worth traveling for.
But everyone may not be able to do that. But
there are ways we're trying to address those barriers through
(41:19):
telehealth care and other means. But I would say get
of all. Sign up on our websites for news alerts,
for information that we're sharing about what we're doing on
how we can be better, give us that feedback. Those
are all the ways that we're looking and want to
make sure that we are connected to our community, because again,
we're a neighborhood organization.
Speaker 4 (41:37):
Right.
Speaker 6 (41:37):
If we're not listening, we're not accessible, we're not available,
we're not held accountable by our community, then we're in
the wrong business and that's not.
Speaker 4 (41:45):
Who we are.
Speaker 6 (41:46):
And so we want to make sure that we are
leaning in and listening and changing when we need to
and being creative and adaptive as appropriate.
Speaker 5 (41:55):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
What is the most important message you would like the
audience of WLVU to take away from not only n FP,
but this.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
New location as well.
Speaker 6 (42:08):
Unfortunately, and we've talked about this, everybody has talked about this, right,
our health care system is broken in many ways. So
we have to continue to make sure that people are
focusing on patient experience. We have to continue to make
sure that we're focusing on health disparities and whether the
variance is across race and ethnicity neighborhoods that we have
(42:28):
in our community. So I would say, raise your voices.
We can accept what we currently see, whether it be
maternal and infant health, cancer surveillance, or cancer prevalence, the
prevalence of these chronic conditions that we've been talking about.
We can accept those things, and once we start to
do that, then people are not prioritizing and focusing on them.
(42:49):
So I would say, continue to raise your voices and
get involved in those areas, but give us an opportunity.
If you're already a patient or you used to be
a patient, get back engaged. Because you are, you have
to have those early those primary care, those preventative business
that helps maintain and manage so many of our illnesses
that we are aware of in our communities. So that
is a feedback that I would say, and the point
(43:11):
that I want to make sure that we stress.
Speaker 5 (43:13):
Thank you, Mss Jennifer. I would like to add that
we're here for you.
Speaker 7 (43:17):
We meet you where you are, even if you can't
make it to our locations. Maybe you are on the
East Side, but we do have telehealth and we do
have pharmacy delivery, so explore those options as well. But
we're here for you no matter your economic status, no
matter your insurance status or anything. We're here to help
and we're committed to giving high quality healthcare.
Speaker 5 (43:38):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
On our way out, we've talked about systems and them
being broken. We've talked about what people can do to
advocate for themselves and their loved ones throughout this process.
Is there a high level of anxiety in any of
the NFP locations or in the coporate offices due to
(44:02):
what is going on federally?
Speaker 6 (44:05):
Unfortunately, Yes, there's a high level of anxiety with me right, yeah,
you are.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
I've never seen you this tense, and I'm like, maybe
something else.
Speaker 6 (44:17):
We have so many people who depend on us, right
more than twenty thousand of our residents seek care with
Neighborhood Family Practice.
Speaker 4 (44:25):
They trust us. We are their medical home.
Speaker 6 (44:27):
So whenever there's things going on at the state or
federal level that impacts that, I'm concerned. But we also
employ over two hundred individuals, so we're their livelihood. We're
there a way that they're supporting their family and their
kids and their parents.
Speaker 4 (44:42):
Or whoever they're responsible for.
Speaker 6 (44:45):
So when you combine those two things, it's concerning and
upsetting when there's anything that's going to happen that could
impact us in our patients. And that's what we talk
about Medicaid making sure that we're advocating. But there's a
number of other policies things that we're seeing out of
Washington right now. Some of those, we have to take
(45:06):
a wait and see approach to see how they're going
to impact things locally.
Speaker 4 (45:10):
But we are very vigilant.
Speaker 6 (45:13):
We're working with our state and federal associations to make
sure that we are aware and we can prepare for
how things will impact us. But one thing that I
can say though, is NFP has been around for forty
five years. We're going to be around for another forty
five years. So despite what happens in Columbus or DC,
despite what happens with medicaid, as negative and impactful they'll
(45:34):
be to our organizations, we have to exist because our
community needs us, and that's a commitment from us that
we will be here. We may have to change, we
may have to alter. There's a lot going on that's
touching and impacting our organization and many in our community.
But know that we are committed to this work. We
know what we are here for and why people have
(45:55):
trusted us for over forty five years, and we will
continue to be an option for many in our community.
Speaker 5 (46:01):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
We are hearing a lot about dismantling, and before all
of this came about, we've had many, many complaints. So
I hear a lot of contradictions, and I hear a
lot of joy I hear a lot of upset, depends
on who I speak to. Right, when we talk about
the healthcare system and dismantling this system that does not
(46:24):
serve all of its people in the US, right, what
is it most that you would like see if it
does dismantles completely and is rebuilt, what would you hope
is in that rebuilt.
Speaker 4 (46:41):
We have to focus and start with people.
Speaker 6 (46:44):
Right, We've built systems that don't serve the people that
are relying on those systems, So patient experience can't be last.
Speaker 4 (46:54):
It has to be first.
Speaker 6 (46:56):
And again, when we were opening it and looking for
a new site, we center it on our community members.
Whereas a location that's close to our existing location, we
ap point six miles away. What is a neighborhood that
really needs our services? What services does that neighborhood need
and we want them? And we made sure to do
all of that with this new site. I think our
(47:17):
healthcare system has to do the same. Right we talk
about what are the major pillars of why we have
a health care system? I think again we have to
start with our people and our experience and making sure
that we're providing the type of services at the location
and the levels that they need, making it affordable for everyone, right,
I think, unfortunately, again I talked about this previously, access
(47:41):
means insurance. Insurance means access for too many of us.
If you don't have insurance, you can't access to our system,
or not all of our system, I will say, So
that has to be a priority, is making sure that
more people are covered and have access to insurance. So
I think those are the two areas that we have
to start with, both patient experience, parents and making sure
(48:01):
that it's affordable and accessible for everyone. And then of
course the third one is around then the quality of
the care that we're offering. We can't just have organizations
providing care just because it has to be quality, it
has to be valuable, and it has to improve the
experience and the outcomes of our patients. So those are
(48:22):
the areas that I would say as we look to
change our health care system, and we know that it's
taking hundreds of years for us to get here, so
it's not going to change overnight.
Speaker 4 (48:31):
Right.
Speaker 6 (48:32):
We may have some swings, some ups and downs. That's
going to happen, that's going to impact people locally impact
our healthcare organizations, our community.
Speaker 4 (48:39):
But when we look to.
Speaker 6 (48:40):
Revamp and change and transform our system, we have to
start with patient experience and people what are they looking for.
We have to start with making sure it's accessible, whether
that be your insurance, your location, your model, your mode
of care, and then making sure that we're focused on
outcomes and closing those health disperities that we know are prevalent,
both locally but across our country.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
Thank you both for joining me here on our voices
today ninety five point nine FM.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
And look, you need to meet me? Where do you
need to meet me? You need to meet me at.
Speaker 3 (49:09):
The brand new n FP Neighborhood Family Practice location on
one hundred and thirty ieth. That's West one hundred and
thirtieth Community Health Center, one three zero two seven, Lorraine.
App April twelfth, from eleven am to one pm. You'll
be able to receive some site tours see the brand
new building for yourself, walk through the halls and check
(49:30):
it out. You'll be able to get some giveaways and
of course some refreshments. Again, that's from eleven am to
one pm, April twelfth. Look, I'm gonna be there. You
need to be there. If you need a ride, let
me know. I may be able to get you some
BEPS passes. You know, wink wink, I got you, I
got you. Last message is on.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
Our way out.
Speaker 6 (49:49):
Just thank you for the opportunity. I would say, continue
to raise your voices, continue advocating. Thank you for the
work that you're doing and prioritizing mental and physical health
for our community and your listeners.
Speaker 4 (50:00):
We appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (50:01):
Thank you, Jesse, Thank you for having me on. Come
and check us out. Yes, yes again.
Speaker 3 (50:06):
That's April twelfth, eleven am to one pm right inside
the brand speaking new location on West one hundred and
thirtieth Community Health Center with neighborhood Family Practice. If you
are interested in employment, interested in volunteering, interested in donating,
you can always visit NFP Medcenter dot org. That is
in Fpmadcenter dot org. I will check you all out
(50:28):
tomorrow and remember to keep breathing, y'all.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
This is WOVU Studios.
This is WOVU Studios.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to our voices today right here on WOVU ninety
five point nine FM with your beloved Unicorn of the
Land DJ Black Unicorn AKA Uni and Hello, my beloves,
how are you doing.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Let's go ahead and check in with ourselves.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Do those cleansing breaths that we do at the top
of the ten o'clock hour with me here on WOVU,
because I Uni is here to remind you. I'm here
to remind.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
You, you, you, you, and you in the back.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Look, life be life and as the kids say, but
sometimes is so so necessary for you to pause for
the cause and it causes yourself, The causes your mental health,
the causes you being able to handle the things that
you need to be able to handle. So let's take
that cleansing breath together now, deep in hell through the nose, pause,
(00:57):
slow exhale through the mouth, because again, as the kids say,
life be life and you have to disconnect sometimes if
you could take twenty minutes to do so, please do so,
because look, again, it's a lot going on, and especially
for a neighborhood family practice who has opened a brand
new facility on one hundred and thirty if. But we're
(01:19):
gonna talk all about it but today live in the
studio for our voices.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Today, I have the big.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Honcho that say eight out, a big boss live in
the studio with us, mister Dominic Hobson.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
How are you doing, how you're living, sir?
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Good morning?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Thank you for having I act like you've been here before. Hey,
I think they can hear you a little better.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Now, Good morning, good morning, Thank you for having us.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Hello, Hello, and you have brought Miss Jennifer Castellino.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I said it right earlier.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
I don't know what happened.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I think I'm just wrapped.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Up in my on go but Castellino, community Engagement officer
for a Neighborhood Family Practice. It's awesome to have you
joined us as well, Miss Jennifer, go ahead and get
close to how you doing?
Speaker 5 (02:06):
Good morning everyone, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Absolutely, I'm super excited to have you guys and talk
about neighborhood Family Practice and the awesome work that you do.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
But before we get there.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
We're gonna talk like we never had a conversation before,
for the listening audience, for the listener and the audience
who maybe have not heard our priss NFP conversations and
those who may be interested in coming to see the
new facility. Can you tell us a little bit about
the history of Neighborhood Family Practice and how it started
serving the Cleveland community.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
Of course, so this year we're celebrating our fifty forty
fifth anniversary, so we've been around for multiple decades now,
we're excited about that. But the organization was founded with
the focus on providing access to the highest quality primary
and integrated behavior healthcare. You know, there were some physicians
many years ago in the eighties that saw a need
(02:59):
on Cleveland West side, uh, and they open up the
first center within a biker bar of all places, but
that's the place that they found you know, accessible rent
from a price perspective, and the organization was built and
grown from there with a grassroots approach to community neighborhood
based health services that are quality, inaccessible to everyone, regardless
(03:20):
of their ability to pay.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
What are some key challenges that underserved communities in Cleveland
phase when it comes to accessing health care?
Speaker 4 (03:30):
I think it's access.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
You said it yourself, How do you you know there's
there's not enough quality, affordable accessible, so that means telehealth location,
neighborhood based organizations providing these services. So that's the biggest
challenge UH. And then from there is it's cost, which
you know, we're we're excited that we offer we accept
(03:53):
every insurance type UH. And we have a sliding fee
scale for those who are not insured and don't and
are not covered. So we try to bridge those barriers.
But I would say those are the first two is
just it's not enough of quality provided preventative services, and
then it's typically not affordable. And then I would say
the third one is in which we touched on it
being neighborhood based. Is the transportation barrier location based? Right,
(04:16):
how can I get to it? Is it on the
bus line? Do they have telehealth services? If I don't
have an option to be able to get there from
a transportation standpoint. Those are some of the key challenges
that we see, and again we're doing our best to
try to bridge those gaps and make our care more
accessible for everyone.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Thank you, Thank you. Can we talk a little bit
about those cares and programs. What is all offered via
a neighborhood family practice to the community.
Speaker 6 (04:42):
We continue to expand our services. We're rooted in primary
care and integrated behavior health. So our base principle is
that you can't treat the mind without treating the body.
So those are our foundational services that we've been offering
for over twenty years. Now we've expanded. Now we're providing
MITWI free and I say full scale with free, where
our providers are supporting moms with deliveries at the Fairview
(05:05):
Hospital of Cleveland Clinic. We also offer pharmacy services, including
clinical pharmacy to educate people on their diabetes or their
higher pertension and how can you manage those diseases, and
we're both mailing and delivering prescriptions across a number of
zip codes in our city. We also offer dental services
and that's one of the services that's available in our
(05:26):
new site that we're going to talk about a little
bit later. And we offer HIV care, so infectious disease
HIV helps see all of those services that a number
of people in our community are struggling with. Those are
things that are available to our community. And I will
go a little bit deeper to say from a behavior
health perspective, we're offering both therapy, counseling and psychiatry services.
(05:48):
For those who are needing medicines and prescriptions. And the
most recent service line that we've added is prodietry. Right,
we know that many in our community are dealing with
foot pain, foot issues, especially those that are struggling with
diabetes or vascular issues that impact bluff flow. So that's
been a service that we're excited to add, and we're
continuing to build and grow that service line.
Speaker 5 (06:09):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
So many awesome services and programs offered from Neighborhood Family
Practice and a new one being dental.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
And again we are going to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Let's go ahead and talk about it.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Shoot, why is it important for it Neighborhood Family Practice
to expand though and open this new ten thousand square
foot facility and what needs to what needs does it
address for local residents in the area.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Well, I think the first thing is that we were
at capacity. Right.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
We were in a five thousand square foot location for
about ten years, and we knew almost within the year
of opening that site that it wasn't big enough. We
couldn't serve the amount of people that were requesting our
services in that location. But it's hard to find the
right location. As I mentioned on the bus line on
a major primary street that's within the neighborhood. But thankfully,
(07:00):
a couple of years ago we did find that location,
and over the last two years we've been able to
identify the funding sources to build it out, and now
we have a brand new health center that's providing primary care,
behavior health, and dental services and with the pharmacy that's
going to open up within a few months. But I
will start with talking about dental. I think ore health
(07:20):
is a very much an underappreciated and underutilized service line
across our community, and our ore health impacts so much
of our mental health, our physical health, our self esteem,
especially for our kids, but even in our adults. So
we have to do a better job of making sure
we're having those preventative visits at least twice a year,
and then when appropriate, getting some of the restorative and
(07:43):
corrected things in place to maintain our health. Because it
also affects I said, it affects your self esteem from
a physical how do you look perspective, But if your
teeth are hurting, if your mouth is hurting, you're not
eating in a way that you should. To make sure
that you're maintaining and getting type of nutrients that we
need to say healthy. So dental has a direct line
to both our behavior health and our physical health primary
(08:05):
care services that we're offering. And so to have all
of those in one location, that's the comprehensive care that
we're known for a neighborhood family practice.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yes, amazing, And so as you mentioned, the new location
includes a larger dental space. The space is just larger
in generals twice the size of the one you mentioned earlier.
But expanding behavior health services and drive through pharmacy. How
do these additions directly benefit the community, particularly those who
(08:35):
face transportation or mobility issues.
Speaker 6 (08:37):
Obviously, Yeah, So the new site is on the bus line,
So that's the first priority. Right, We're very intentional whenever
we're looking for locations and sourcing a facility.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Excuse me.
Speaker 6 (08:49):
The next one I would say is that we've added
and increased those services to make it more accessible. We
have been at a place where there is that we're
capacity limit, right, there are people calling in wanting to
be seen today, tomorrow, next week, and we didn't have
those availability, those available slots, and so now we've expanded
that and added those services. And again it's neighborhood base
(09:12):
within that neighborhood, and we're connecting with our community partners,
meeting organizations, and the individuals to say, come in. You know,
even if if you already have a primary care provider,
still come in to see this site. And it really
speaks to the quality of both our physical location and
how does it look, but also of the services that
we're providing. But it's integrated, right, all of our providers,
all of our team members are they're communicating, they're talking,
(09:33):
and they're making sure that we're wrapping our arms around
our patients, which we feel as the best practice in
what makes us stand out compared to other providers.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
So we're talking about neighborhood and.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
The location, location, location of the new space one hundred
and thirty of let's talk about that neighborhood and what
the community looks like.
Speaker 6 (09:52):
The neighborhood is changing, just like Cleveland, right. I think
each of our neighborhoods are changing quickly. We see some
population declined over the last couple of decades, but we
also see people coming in and our neighborhoods look different
today than they did yesterday. So this is the neighborhood
that has both our newcomers and refugees that are moving
in brand new to our community, brand new to our country,
(10:14):
but it also has some long standing legacy people that
have been in that neighborhood for maybe a century. So
there's a mix of community members, races, ethnicities that live
within that neighborhood and are coming to seek care at
that site. And we welcome everyone because we truly want
to see an organization and a community that values us
(10:36):
and they know that when they come through our doors,
regardless of what you look like a how you show up,
you're going to be treated with the utmost respect and
you're going to provide it with the highest quality care,
regardless of your financial status or your insurance status.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
We've seen a lot of closures when it comes to pharmacies.
So how will the new drive through pharmacy at this
location help residents who've been impacted by these closures.
Speaker 6 (10:59):
Well, first, I would say that these closures have been
devastating for our community, both locally and across the country
because when you look at them, typically these closure are
happening in underserved neighborhoods, neighborhoods that have a higher density
of people navigating poverty. And of course these companies are
doing what's best for them from a business standpoint, but
(11:19):
that's not what's best for our neighborhoods and our community communities,
because people depend on their pharmacies for so much more
than just the prescriptions. Sometimes that's the only healthcare provider
that people are interacting with, and that's what they're losing.
So for us to be able to bring that back
to this neighborhood, it's key for us. The one thing
that I will say is that our pharmacy is a
closed three forty B pharmacy, which will take a whole
(11:40):
another session to talk about what three forty B is,
but it's primarily open to the patients who receive care
from us. But that's not a small number, right. We
serve over twenty thousand patients so far, over twenty thousand
of our residents in Cleveland, Kyahoga County they have a
new pharmacy that they're going to have a new pharmacy
that they have access to, and that's not a small number,
but we're hoping to grow that and make this care
(12:02):
more affordable and accessible for our community.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Pharmacy deserts are a growing issue in many communities. Can
you talk about how NFP plans to tackle this issue continuously.
Are we looking to continue to open just structures for
pharmacy concentrate service in general, or are we looking to
open more NFPs in general.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
So, yeah, I think our plan is definitely to open
more pharmacy, more services, more locations. But there's a lot
of factor's going on around us right now and it's
not open. We're going to spend some time on.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Medicaid, yes, yeah.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
And what's going on at the federal and the state level,
but our plan is to do our best to bridge
that gap. We can't be the only ones, right There
are going to be other providers. We have our hospital
systems that operate pharmacies, and there'll still be some prevalence
of retail pharmacies. And when I say retail, I mean
the Walgreens, the CBS's. But for us, we're going to
try to add more locations. But we're also delivering and
(13:04):
mailing prescriptions right so we're trying to bridge that transportation gap.
But we know that that's not right for everyone. So
hopefully we're going to have a pharmacy that's available within
a driving distance or a transportation distance to our patients
and those that can't. We're hoping to bridge that gap
through transportation, excuse me, through delivery or mailing of prescriptions.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Neighborhood family practice is building those barriers, making sure you
get the services and the pharmaceuticals that you need, whether
you're pulling up, whether you need them, mail, whatever you need.
They are easy to accommodate and so easy to work with.
If you are looking to be a part, to become
a patient, you can always visit inn Fpmdcenter dot org.
(13:44):
That's in fp Medcenter dot org. Don't go anywhere. You
are listening to our voices today right here on WOVU
ninety five point nine F And when we get back
from this slight break, we'll be talking more about the location,
more about pharmacies, and of course that medicaid.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
And we're going on with their government.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
It depends on how deep you want to go dominic,
though I don't know how much can you say.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
We can say a lot.
Speaker 6 (14:08):
Okay, we're going to be informed and we need to
make sure that people are aware of what's going on
and what they can do locally to raise their voices
to counteract and advocate for positive change and not change
that's gonna impact our communities in a negative way.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Precisely Dark Voices today right here on WWU ninety five
point nine f M. If you are just tuning in,
this is UNIED having a great conversation with the CEO
of Neighborhood Family Practice and also of course the Community
Engagement Officer, missus Jennifer, and we've been talking all about
the new location on one hundred and thirtieth grand opening
(14:45):
being April twentieth, and it's going to be a great
time because WOVU is gonna be there. It's gonna be
a great time because look, they're expanding, they're gonna continue
to expand because they're doing the work Nfpmetcenter dot org. Again,
that's inn Fpmetcenter dot org. What we've been talking about
pharmacy deserts and just that growing issue.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
In general within our communities.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Can you talk about how NFP plans to just make
sure that these people are understanding these services that is
offered to them now because we are offering a lot.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
More, Jennifer, I'll let you take that one.
Speaker 7 (15:24):
Yeah, So we are basically expanding our services and we're
making sure that people have access to these services without
having to worry about costs. And we're in the neighborhoods
and we're talking to our community partners and making sure
that they're also spreading the word about people coming to
us and knowing that we're going to take care of
(15:45):
them regardless.
Speaker 6 (15:46):
Thank you, And I would say to go a step
further than that. It is one thing to know what
services we offer, but we have to continue to educate
and inform our community about when do you use those
specific services, right when do you go to primary care,
to urgent care or to the ED and making sure
that we are receiving care.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
At the appropriate level.
Speaker 6 (16:05):
So that's still work to be done on that, but
we're hoping that as we engage with the community raising
awareness about our service, because we can also share this
is the appropriate level for these types of things, and
you want to have the care at the least expensive,
high highest quality place and allow us to escalate a
movie throughout that continuum when you need to get care
at a higher level.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
What kind of health care disparities exist in underserved areas
of Cleveland, and how does NFP address these disparities and
its approach to care.
Speaker 6 (16:36):
There's so many, unfortunately, and this is an area that
I think we all have to be accountable for. All
of our members of our healthcare community, are social service community,
are local government employees and leaders, all have to be
accountable for the disparities that exists in our community. And
there are many, and they are across raised there across
(16:58):
ethnicity where we see there is a gap, for example,
in the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension in our black
members compared to our white residents, saying for many of
our Hispanic community members. And then it goes on to
our cancer prevalence rates or even when we're screening for
and finding out that an individual has cancer. So those
(17:20):
are all the things that unfortunately that exists. Well for NFP,
what we're doing is starting local right, looking at the
data around what disparity exists with our own patient base
and what can we do different to close those gaps,
and then go on a step further to say, how
do we build a world class frontend or to our
healthcare system so that people can get access to the
(17:42):
specialty care, the cancer care, all those things that we
have locally. But if you're not identifying these things early,
in many cases, you don't have an opportunity to receive
the great specialty care that you can get at Cleveland
Clinic or University Hospital or Metro for that matter. So
we have to do a better job of reaching further
into our community from a preventative standpoint and screening for
these cancers and checking our diabetes, checking our blood pressure,
(18:06):
and then leveraging the tools we have from a medication
standpoint to manage those to a place into a time
where you have to go and get care at a
higher level. But there's more work that we can do
for that. But we have to make sure that people
have a way to access our health care system. And
again we're calling that the front door, and for us,
that's that integrated primary care and behavior health because we
can connect you to everywhere else you need to go,
(18:28):
every hospital system we have partners with, and we believe
we are the gold standard when it comes to that
integrated primary and behavior health care services.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
You mentioned insurances and accepting those insurances, but you also
mentioned whether they have insurance or not, So how are
we serving individuals who are uninsured.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
We accept anyone. So we offer a sliding fee scale
that our patients, both our insurance insured patients, because we
know that some people are under insured, and what I
mean by that is you may have insurance, but you
can't afford your copey or deductible. But we offer a
sliding fees scale to all of our patients regardless of
how they show up to us, regardless of their insurance status.
But this is especially helpful for our people who are
(19:08):
not that they don't have any insurance. So we're looking
at what is your income, what is your family size,
and then we come up with a sliding fee scale
that sometimes goes down as low as five dollars for
a primary care or a behavior health visit. Right, you
can't get a carton of eggs for five dollars these days,
but you can get a primary care behavior health visit
if you have the right income or family size. So
(19:31):
that's how we're making care affordable. And then for our
uninsured patients, we didn work with our partners to say, hey,
this individual may not have insurance, but can we get
them seen at a higher level because they're needing something
that we don't have, so we try to ask our
referral partners to make sure that they're accepting and have
some charity care policies in place to make sure that
these individuals can continue to get care whenever they risk
(19:53):
out or they need something that we don't provide locally
within our health care system.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
At ANFP, How is it working with those parts partners?
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Do they take those patients with grace so they kind
of give you a little pushback?
Speaker 5 (20:05):
How is that?
Speaker 6 (20:07):
It's you know, I think every relationship is different and
every organization has different access when it comes to how
much of those specialty services are available. So it's tricky,
honestly at times. We know that in many cases, having
insurance is having access to health care, so there are
some barriers there that we need to continue to work
(20:27):
through as a system. Thankfully, with expanded Medicaid, which is
currently at risk right now, there are more people who
are covered, so there's less individuals who are in that
bucket that don't have any insurance at all, but there's
more work to be done on that because unfortunately, for
too many people, if you don't have insurance, you don't
have access, and that's why for us to accept anyone,
(20:50):
regardless of their insurance status, is a key pillar to
who we are as an organization.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
Wow wow, thank you, thank you? What rolls? Excuse me?
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Does behavior hope play in NFP overall service offerings and
why is this such an important component, especially in underserved communities.
Speaker 6 (21:09):
I would say the first thing is, for far too long,
there's been a stigma around behavior health in many of
our communities, especially our underserved communities. I think that's gotten better,
but there's still some work we have to do in
that space, and we need to continue to work on
that and make sure that it's succeptible for people to
seek therapy or counseling like I've sought therapy and counseling
(21:31):
myself and it was a major benefit for me. And
I encourage everyone, male, female, whatever your age is, if
you need to speak with someone and talk with someone,
I encourage you to do that. For us, it's a
foundational pillar. I think, again, you can't treat the mind
without the body. So for us, having those services integrated,
where your primary care provider is talking to your counselor
(21:52):
or your therapist, who's also talking to your psychiatrists who's
prescribing you meds that you may need to help manage
those conditions. And on the other side, you may have
you may be navigating anxiety or depression, but you're also
because of those two, are not controlling your diabetes or
you're not taking your medicine that you need to control that.
So to have those teams coordinating and working together again
(22:14):
is the best practice that we've been doing for multiple
decades now, and thankfully, I think people are starting to
realize that you can't separate the two of those and
for us, having them together and co locating, collaborating between
those two disciplines is what makes our organization have a
true standard again, a gold standard when it comes to
primary and integrated behavior healthcare services.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Thank you, thank you, you are listening to our voices today.
This is UNI having a great conversation with the CEO
of Neighborhood Family Practice, mister Dominick Hobson and missus Jennifer
Castellino Community Engagement.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
I think I say it different every time. Apologies my apologies, but.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Look, I want to be clear when I say this,
there is zero real shame and seeking help, and there
are a lot of stigmas when it comes to that,
especially like you mentioned mister dominic in underserved community. So
I love to see the work that NFP is doing,
and I want to know do you have any stories
or experiences that can highlight how NFP has helped individuals
(23:18):
or families in Cleveland access care during a time of crisis.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Or neat Jennifer, do you have any that you want
to share?
Speaker 5 (23:24):
I do. I have so many stories.
Speaker 7 (23:26):
I'm actually out in the community quite a bit, so
we are lucky to be in certain places when the
time is right. I want to say, I was hosting
an event at a location and I had a young
lady that was having a mental health crisis, and she
had mentioned she had been with us for a while
and switched clinics, and now she didn't have access to
(23:48):
an appointment right away.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
I was able to make some cause to a.
Speaker 7 (23:52):
Few of our other colleagues and they were able to
get her seen right away, which I think is life
saving in some cases, because never know where people are
going to end up over a moment.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I always try to remind the listening audience don't do
anything permanent off of temporary emotions, because life hits hard sometimes,
but it always passes you mentioned the economic vitility of
a healthy community.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Can you talk more about.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
How nfp's news center will contribute to the neighborhood's economic
growth as well.
Speaker 6 (24:26):
These days, there's a term that people use when they
talk about social determinants of work and that what they're
hitting at is what are the barriers for someone seeking
employment maintaining.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
Employment, And one of those is health.
Speaker 6 (24:41):
Right, how do you show up for work and be
your best self if you're not managing all of the
physical and mental health things that you're dealing with. And
so for us, that is the foundation for a healthy
community from a viability and economic standpoint, is that we're
managing We have access to quality healthy services that allows
us to go to work, stay healthy and support our families.
(25:02):
And then when appropriate, if you can't make it into
the office from transportation barrier or because you are at work,
we can offer those telehealth services that helps address that
transportation or time barrier. But even going a step further,
we also offer evening hours. So if you work with
traditional schedule and you say, look, I just can't get
there from eight to five, we have site instead are
(25:23):
open to seven or eight pm. From money through Thirsdy
each week, so it's affordable, it's successible. But that is
the foundation of having people being able to work is
when they're healthy. And we know that our community members
are working longer. Right, Our elders are Medicare AIDS population,
our scenes are still in the workforce. So again, if
we're helping them manage those chronic conditions and the illnesses
(25:45):
that they have at their age, they're able to continue
to provide for themselves in their families.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
So that's a key step for us.
Speaker 6 (25:51):
But we're also a employer, right, so with this new site,
we are adding new employees. You know, we're looking for
medical assistance, our medical office specialists, our dental hygienis, our
dental assistants, and of course providers of all types physician assistants,
nurse practitioners, physicians. So we're employers, so we contribute from
(26:13):
that perspective. But more importantly, I would say our biggest
impact is keeping our community healthy so they can continue
to beat them their best sales and provide for their families.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Yes, yes, and if you are interested in any of
these new positions open at Neighborhood Family Practice, they can
visit the website right. Yes, in FP Medcenter dot org.
That's Nfpmetcenter dot org. How do you plan to engage
with local residents, organizations, and leaders to ensure that this
new facility is accessible and welcoming for all members of
(26:46):
the community.
Speaker 5 (26:48):
Miss That's definitely been some of my homework.
Speaker 7 (26:51):
So we are continually continuously working with our community partners
to bring education out, but we're also building for us
with our community members. We're trying to create more programming
that is more permanent, not just one in done events
where we come out to certain locations and then excuse me,
you no longer hear from anyone. We're trying to create
(27:14):
long lasting relationships with our community partners and letting them
know that we are a trustworthy place to be.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Yes, it's super exciting. But why is just the West Side?
Are we moving to the East Side any time?
Speaker 6 (27:27):
Souit?
Speaker 3 (27:27):
I hope in the next decade, because you guys have
a lot of facilities, but they're all located on the
west and it can be a barrier if you are
a person on the East Side interested in neighborhood family
practice getting to you all.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
So is there any talks of coming to the east.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
Side at all?
Speaker 6 (27:43):
There are and I would say there's been talks for
a while. I remember I've been in my role now
coming up on three years, and I think what I
was on the job for less than three months when
I met a community member that says, hey, I've heard
about you and you all provide great services, but you're
only on the way west side. Why is that when
you're coming? And so it caught me off guard because
(28:04):
I was new to Cleveland, right, I didn't understand the
east side.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
East side, the west side. It's not a versus.
Speaker 6 (28:08):
Thing anymore, right, right, So that is something that's in
our plans. I think the key thing is making sure
that we have the right partners and that we can
build trust as we plan to do that because we'll
be introducing ourselves to a new community, people who may
not have heard of us before. And so I think
some of the work that we're doing with you in
our partnership here with WVU and other partners will help
(28:31):
make it a situation where when we do come, people
have heard of us and they know our reputation.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Yes, they know, mister Dominic. They asked me. That's why
I asked you, because they're like, we want to join.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
They sound like such a great facility. Look, you still
have options to get there.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
They're on the bus line.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
A lot of the facilities, especially this brand spaking new
one on one hundred and thirty is right on the
bus line in the meantime to them coming to the ease.
But looking at had what are some of the goals
for NFP for the new facility over the next few years.
Speaker 6 (29:07):
It's focus on the health disparities that you touched on.
So again, we're going to continue to provide care to
our community members and we want to get to a
place where those disparities don't exist.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
That is a major and lofty.
Speaker 6 (29:20):
Goal, but that should be the expectation for every health
care organization within the patients that you serve, and then
of course you're hoping that you're going to be able
to spand that reach and see more patients and impact
the community in a positive way. So those are short
and I would say in long term goals just to
continue to provide quality, affordable, accessible, primarily integrated behavior health care,
(29:42):
mental health care, or health care, all of those services
that are so hard to find, especially in our underserved communities.
So we're going to be looking for opportunities to do
that on making sure that we continue to raise the
bar from a quality perspective, but also raise the bar
from a patient experience perspectives, because those are some of
our key UH priorities, both experience but also outcomes.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Let's talk about it before we go to break cause.
Patient experience is a huge topic in the health field
right now. I feel like for some reason, all of
a sudden, a lot of the big organizations are caring
how they come across, which is interesting because a lot
of them are also.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
Getting rid of DEI.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
But anyway, the patient experience is it.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
It's difficult to explain and it's a difficult.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Thing to understand if you are not one of those individuals. Example,
if you are not one of those individuals who shared
the story with Project you are about why Northeast Ohio
was voted the worst place for Black women and health
disparities and health care was a big, big part. They're
just simply not believed when they are in these doctors' offices.
(30:54):
What sets NFP apart and make sure that people do
not have an experience such ask that well.
Speaker 6 (31:01):
I think for us, we continue to work on making
sure that we're educating our workforce right, our providers, our
support staff, our administrators, our villers, everybody throughout the organization
has to be culturally aware of the communities that we're
serving and the.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Challenges that they face.
Speaker 6 (31:18):
So that's the first one, But then I think that
the second piece is making sure that there's opportunities for
when you have a poor experience, because even the best
organizations we have an off day, but you have a
way to escalate that and it gets to the right
person that we respond to you very quickly, timely to say, hey,
we want to hear more about that experience. Tell us
about it so that we can make sure that we
(31:39):
do better. Have a conversation with that team member, that provider,
or maybe moving azation, an individual outside of the organization
if they don't fit with what we're trying to accomplish
from a health care perspective. So patient experience has to
be key. To your point, I'm glad that it is
a priority for many organizations. It should have always been
a priority, but I think that we all can do
better when it comes to listening. It shouldn't take an
(32:00):
organization or a survey, didn't if you didn't know that
there is an issue for black women in our health
care system, then you don't need to be working in
our health care system because that's been a known issue.
But what can you do again within your control? Right,
we're one organization and we're not perfect. We have to
continue to do better. But that is our goal to
make sure that everybody feels welcome, that you feel heard,
(32:21):
that you're listening to, that you have the time that
you need to raise your concerns and we work with
you on that. And then when we fall short, that
you have an opportunity to raise those concerns and here
back quickly so that we can do some service recovery
to say, hey, we're going to get you back in.
We'll apologize for that. We can do better. We're going
to be better, and whether that is with the same
provider or another provider, but we hope that you stay
(32:43):
with us. I think that has to be that process
and that outreach that does happen whenever we fall short
of our expectations.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Thank you, Thank you so much, mister Dominique for explaining
that and how NFP is just different.
Speaker 5 (32:56):
Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
You are listening to our voices today right here on
five point nine FM, we'll be right back. Welcome back
to our voices today right here on WLBU ninety five
point nine FM, Burton Bell Car Community Radio, and listen, listen, listen.
I have Neighborhood Family Practice live in a studio with
me sharing all the details about the new location located
(33:20):
on one hundred and thirtieth, but they have i want
to say, seven other locations on the west Side.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Don't worry, don't fret.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
If you're one of those individuals who may have stopped
the CEO, mister Dominic. You may have stopped miss Jennifer.
You may have even stopped me at one of the
community events and asks, hey, when y'all come.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Into the east side, look they're coming. Just be patient.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
In the meantime, they have locations right on the bus
line for you to get the help.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
That you need.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
And as the population of Cleveland continues to grow and change,
how does NFP plan to adapt and the evolving healthcare
needs of underserved communities? Because they are forever changing.
Speaker 6 (33:58):
We have to grow and adapt as well. Our patient
type is changing, our patient challenges are changing. So if
we're still providing care like we were when we were
founded in nineteen eighty then that's problematic. We're not doing
our job. So we look at the data, we listen
to our patients, we do surveys, we have sessions where
we get feedback out in the community, and so we
(34:20):
have to make sure that we're moving and changing along
with our community, providing the services that we need, and
making sure that we have providers and partners that we
can refer our patients to to address those things that
we don't. But part of that is making sure that
we're able to address those social drivers.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Right. We believe we're part of a larger community.
Speaker 6 (34:38):
So if you're having a difficulty and struggles from a
food security perspective, we operate a program that's called Food
is Medicine that our providers can make a referral within
our own system for you to go and do shopping
within our network to get food. And we also have
a dietician on staff that can educate you on how
do you cook those the right way that dresses or
(35:00):
make sure that it doesn't exacerbate your higher potension on
your diabetes or whatever the challenge that you have. So
those are the ways that we've already grown. I think
we're going to continue to do that create innovative ways
to add services or partners that make sure that we
addresses address our community's needs. But we'll adapt, and we'll
keep moving and keep changing and making sure that we're
providing the highest quality, most affordable and accessible care that
(35:23):
our community needs.
Speaker 5 (35:24):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
What would you say to anyone in the community who
may not be too familiar but they heard of NFP.
They're curious, they're interested, but they're still kind of hesitant.
They're used to, you know, the big threes and going
to these bigger establishment that barely care about them, but
they're able to go to NFP and understand that they
(35:46):
will have a different level of service, a different level
of patient experience. Do you have any thing to kind
of make them feel comfortable on.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
Their way in?
Speaker 6 (35:55):
I would say the first thing is just give us
a shot, right and then if you don't have a
great expert, let me know. Like me personally, I want
to know about that experience. But what makes us different
is that we do have relationships again with all of
our hospital systems. So unfortunately, if you're a type of
person that is coming to us, you may need to
go to Cleveland Clinic because they provide the best specialist
(36:17):
for heart surgeries or heart issues. You may need to
go to a university hospital because they have the best
specialist for this type of cancer treatment. You may need
to go to mental health because they have the best
of this other service.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
We can get you to those places.
Speaker 6 (36:31):
We have those relationships with all three of those partners
and our community organizations that are not affiliated with our
hospital systems. So that's what makes us different is we
don't care about the relationship. We're going to get you
to the best place, the best partner in a timely fashion.
But we're also going to provide you with the highest
quality ambulatory care right those primary care, the behavior health,
(36:52):
the pro dietary, the pharmacy, the mint with free services
that you can get in your local neighborhood, your local community.
And then when you need need more than that, we're
going to help you navigate our health care system to
get those additional services. And again, that's what true integration,
that's what true partnership is like, and that's what comprehensive
quality behavior health should look and feel like. You shouldn't
(37:13):
feel like you have to navigate this system alone. Because
many of us who work in healthcare and have worked
in healthcare for our entire careers.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
We have trouble navigating our system.
Speaker 6 (37:22):
So we're the type of organization that's going to hold
your hand and make sure that you're moving along the process,
getting the care that you need and having a type
of outcome that you desire. Right, We're not going to
push on to you what we think you need because
that may not be best for you, and you have
to have that relationship with your provider that says, look,
I appreciate that, but that's not my goal. This is
(37:43):
what I'm looking to do. I want to be healthy
that I can play with my grandkids. Well, I want
to take this trip next year, and I need to
be healthy enough to go and meet my sisters and
my brother that's down in Mississippi or wherever you're from.
So those are the kind of things that, again is
our approach to make sure that we are providing visual,
individual people specific care plans that align to what the
(38:04):
priority of our patients are and hopefully results and the
outcomes and the patient goals that they have for themselves.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
And we are a partner in that.
Speaker 5 (38:12):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
How can community members get involved with helping NFPA spans
reach and impact, and are there any ways that local
residents can advocate for healthcare access.
Speaker 6 (38:24):
So I'll start with the last one first, and then
I'm going to bring us back to this medicaid conversation
that we've been dancing around for the grand But I
think so that's the way to make sure that we
are maintaining access. You know, thankfully, our state was one
(38:44):
of the states that did expand medicaid some years ago,
and right now there is I think over seven hundred
thousand Ohioans that are in that expanded Medicaid group. Unfortunately,
we're hearing things out of our federal legend that they
may be looking for ways to reduce the overall cost
of the government and medicaid may be a place that
(39:06):
they're going to try to achieve that. And we know
at the state level there are some languages what they're
calling a trigger law that says if the federal government
reduces the percentage that of the share of the cost
of the expanded group that we see, that they're going
to pull us out of medicaid expansion in our state.
But we have over one hundred thousand individuals in Kyhoga
County that are in that expanded Medicaid group. Those are
(39:30):
our sisters, our brothers, our aunts, our uncles, our grandparents.
Those are people. So when you talk about what can
you do, you can advocate. And a lot of times
advocacy is a scary word that we think only CEOs
and leaders and vps do know. Every one of us
is an advocate. Our leaders and Columbus and our leaders
(39:51):
in Washington d C. Our leaders locally in the city
and in the county represent us. So pick up your phone,
you know, go on the website, leave a mes. This
is for your representative at any one of those places
to say, hey, we can allow this to happen. A
Medicaid expansion has been too important and too value for
our community and has saved the healthcare system too much
(40:12):
money and improved outcomes for many of our community.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
And then make it about the people.
Speaker 6 (40:17):
If you have a cousin, a sister, again, a brother,
those are people that's going to lose access and that
are now in that unassured bucket who may be afraid
to go on access care because they can't pay that
out of pocket costs. So we want to make sure
that people are able to advocate and raise their voices.
Outside of that, I would say get involved. Go to
our website. We have community engagement events that we attend.
(40:39):
We would love for you to come up and share
and give us some feedback. If you want us to
come to the east side, what neighborhood should we come
to give us some of that those details where you say, look,
this is what we need an NFP at on the
east side of the city. But the other the biggest
thing though, is access our care.
Speaker 5 (40:55):
Right.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
We have patients coming from every city.
Speaker 6 (40:59):
Of Cleveland, war in every Ka Yohoga County district to
come to get care for us. So people are already
navigating and driving past multiple options and multiple all the
locations because they value the care that we provide, and
so we think that our services are worth traveling for.
But everyone may not be able to do that. But
there are ways we're trying to address those barriers through
(41:19):
telehealth care and other means. But I would say get
of all. Sign up on our websites for news alerts,
for information that we're sharing about what we're doing on
how we can be better, give us that feedback. Those
are all the ways that we're looking and want to
make sure that we are connected to our community, because again,
we're a neighborhood organization.
Speaker 4 (41:37):
Right.
Speaker 6 (41:37):
If we're not listening, we're not accessible, we're not available,
we're not held accountable by our community, then we're in
the wrong business and that's not.
Speaker 4 (41:45):
Who we are.
Speaker 6 (41:46):
And so we want to make sure that we are
leaning in and listening and changing when we need to
and being creative and adaptive as appropriate.
Speaker 5 (41:55):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
What is the most important message you would like the
audience of WLVU to take away from not only n FP,
but this.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
New location as well.
Speaker 6 (42:08):
Unfortunately, and we've talked about this, everybody has talked about this, right,
our health care system is broken in many ways. So
we have to continue to make sure that people are
focusing on patient experience. We have to continue to make
sure that we're focusing on health disparities and whether the
variance is across race and ethnicity neighborhoods that we have
(42:28):
in our community. So I would say, raise your voices.
We can accept what we currently see, whether it be
maternal and infant health, cancer surveillance, or cancer prevalence, the
prevalence of these chronic conditions that we've been talking about.
We can accept those things, and once we start to
do that, then people are not prioritizing and focusing on them.
(42:49):
So I would say, continue to raise your voices and
get involved in those areas, but give us an opportunity.
If you're already a patient or you used to be
a patient, get back engaged. Because you are, you have
to have those early those primary care, those preventative business
that helps maintain and manage so many of our illnesses
that we are aware of in our communities. So that
is a feedback that I would say, and the point
(43:11):
that I want to make sure that we stress.
Speaker 5 (43:13):
Thank you, Mss Jennifer. I would like to add that
we're here for you.
Speaker 7 (43:17):
We meet you where you are, even if you can't
make it to our locations. Maybe you are on the
East Side, but we do have telehealth and we do
have pharmacy delivery, so explore those options as well. But
we're here for you no matter your economic status, no
matter your insurance status or anything. We're here to help
and we're committed to giving high quality healthcare.
Speaker 5 (43:38):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
On our way out, we've talked about systems and them
being broken. We've talked about what people can do to
advocate for themselves and their loved ones throughout this process.
Is there a high level of anxiety in any of
the NFP locations or in the coporate offices due to
(44:02):
what is going on federally?
Speaker 6 (44:05):
Unfortunately, Yes, there's a high level of anxiety with me right, yeah,
you are.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
I've never seen you this tense, and I'm like, maybe
something else.
Speaker 6 (44:17):
We have so many people who depend on us, right
more than twenty thousand of our residents seek care with
Neighborhood Family Practice.
Speaker 4 (44:25):
They trust us. We are their medical home.
Speaker 6 (44:27):
So whenever there's things going on at the state or
federal level that impacts that, I'm concerned. But we also
employ over two hundred individuals, so we're their livelihood. We're
there a way that they're supporting their family and their
kids and their parents.
Speaker 4 (44:42):
Or whoever they're responsible for.
Speaker 6 (44:45):
So when you combine those two things, it's concerning and
upsetting when there's anything that's going to happen that could
impact us in our patients. And that's what we talk
about Medicaid making sure that we're advocating. But there's a
number of other policies things that we're seeing out of
Washington right now. Some of those, we have to take
(45:06):
a wait and see approach to see how they're going
to impact things locally.
Speaker 4 (45:10):
But we are very vigilant.
Speaker 6 (45:13):
We're working with our state and federal associations to make
sure that we are aware and we can prepare for
how things will impact us. But one thing that I
can say though, is NFP has been around for forty
five years. We're going to be around for another forty
five years. So despite what happens in Columbus or DC,
despite what happens with medicaid, as negative and impactful they'll
(45:34):
be to our organizations, we have to exist because our
community needs us, and that's a commitment from us that
we will be here. We may have to change, we
may have to alter. There's a lot going on that's
touching and impacting our organization and many in our community.
But know that we are committed to this work. We
know what we are here for and why people have
(45:55):
trusted us for over forty five years, and we will
continue to be an option for many in our community.
Speaker 5 (46:01):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
We are hearing a lot about dismantling, and before all
of this came about, we've had many, many complaints. So
I hear a lot of contradictions, and I hear a
lot of joy I hear a lot of upset, depends
on who I speak to. Right, when we talk about
the healthcare system and dismantling this system that does not
(46:24):
serve all of its people in the US, right, what
is it most that you would like see if it
does dismantles completely and is rebuilt, what would you hope
is in that rebuilt.
Speaker 4 (46:41):
We have to focus and start with people.
Speaker 6 (46:44):
Right, We've built systems that don't serve the people that
are relying on those systems, So patient experience can't be last.
Speaker 4 (46:54):
It has to be first.
Speaker 6 (46:56):
And again, when we were opening it and looking for
a new site, we center it on our community members.
Whereas a location that's close to our existing location, we
ap point six miles away. What is a neighborhood that
really needs our services? What services does that neighborhood need
and we want them? And we made sure to do
all of that with this new site. I think our
(47:17):
healthcare system has to do the same. Right we talk
about what are the major pillars of why we have
a health care system? I think again we have to
start with our people and our experience and making sure
that we're providing the type of services at the location
and the levels that they need, making it affordable for everyone, right,
I think, unfortunately, again I talked about this previously, access
(47:41):
means insurance. Insurance means access for too many of us.
If you don't have insurance, you can't access to our system,
or not all of our system, I will say, So
that has to be a priority, is making sure that
more people are covered and have access to insurance. So
I think those are the two areas that we have
to start with, both patient experience, parents and making sure
(48:01):
that it's affordable and accessible for everyone. And then of
course the third one is around then the quality of
the care that we're offering. We can't just have organizations
providing care just because it has to be quality, it
has to be valuable, and it has to improve the
experience and the outcomes of our patients. So those are
(48:22):
the areas that I would say as we look to
change our health care system, and we know that it's
taking hundreds of years for us to get here, so
it's not going to change overnight.
Speaker 4 (48:31):
Right.
Speaker 6 (48:32):
We may have some swings, some ups and downs. That's
going to happen, that's going to impact people locally impact
our healthcare organizations, our community.
Speaker 4 (48:39):
But when we look to.
Speaker 6 (48:40):
Revamp and change and transform our system, we have to
start with patient experience and people what are they looking for.
We have to start with making sure it's accessible, whether
that be your insurance, your location, your model, your mode
of care, and then making sure that we're focused on
outcomes and closing those health disperities that we know are prevalent,
both locally but across our country.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
Thank you both for joining me here on our voices
today ninety five point nine FM.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
And look, you need to meet me? Where do you
need to meet me? You need to meet me at.
Speaker 3 (49:09):
The brand new n FP Neighborhood Family Practice location on
one hundred and thirty ieth. That's West one hundred and
thirtieth Community Health Center, one three zero two seven, Lorraine.
App April twelfth, from eleven am to one pm. You'll
be able to receive some site tours see the brand
new building for yourself, walk through the halls and check
(49:30):
it out. You'll be able to get some giveaways and
of course some refreshments. Again, that's from eleven am to
one pm, April twelfth. Look, I'm gonna be there. You
need to be there. If you need a ride, let
me know. I may be able to get you some
BEPS passes. You know, wink wink, I got you, I
got you. Last message is on.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
Our way out.
Speaker 6 (49:49):
Just thank you for the opportunity. I would say, continue
to raise your voices, continue advocating. Thank you for the
work that you're doing and prioritizing mental and physical health
for our community and your listeners.
Speaker 4 (50:00):
We appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (50:01):
Thank you, Jesse, Thank you for having me on. Come
and check us out. Yes, yes again.
Speaker 3 (50:06):
That's April twelfth, eleven am to one pm right inside
the brand speaking new location on West one hundred and
thirtieth Community Health Center with neighborhood Family Practice. If you
are interested in employment, interested in volunteering, interested in donating,
you can always visit NFP Medcenter dot org. That is
in Fpmadcenter dot org. I will check you all out
(50:28):
tomorrow and remember to keep breathing, y'all.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
This is WOVU Studios.
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