El Centro de Salud (Health Center) grew out of an identified need for school health services at Bruce-Guadalupe Community School (BGCS) in 1994. The Health Center originally provided services exclusively to BGCS students; El Centro de Salud has progressively and systematically increased its services to encompass participants in most programs offered by UCC, as well as UCC employees. Services are available for participants in programs including BGCS (preschool, elementary school, and middle school), the Senior Center, the Adult Day Center, and Human Services outpatient and residential treatment programs. Additional support is offered to other UCC clients and program participants, employees, and community collaboration programs.
Goals
The Health Center is community and primary health care based: community based meaning that community involvement is central; primary health care based meaning that health promotion and illness prevention are the goals of health care. Accordingly, the goals of El Centro de Salud are:
- To maintain the provision of culturally appropriate health services focused on illness prevention and health promotion.
- To provide interdisciplinary, collaborative educational opportunities for students studying health related issues.
Services for persons in UCC programs include:
- Physical examinations
- Health education sessions
- Health screenings (vision, hearing, dental, blood pressure)
- Acute episodic health care for fevers, asthmatic attacks, earaches, or playground injuries
- Tuberculin skin tests, immunizations, and flu shots
Columbia College of Nursing
El Centro de Salud is operated by the Columbia College of Nursing (CCON), and it is directed and managed by two nursing faculty members: Dr. Gladys Simandl, RN, PhD and a board-certified family nurse practitioner, Ms. Sam Bastian RN, MS, CAPNP. The facility is located in the lower level of the United Community Center and consists of five exam rooms.
Stats at a Glance
Over 14,000 individual health visits are performed each year. An additional 1,000 children are screened each year; those in need are referred to their own healthcare providers for health-related problems, such as vision, hearing and elevated blood pressures. Over 3,000 visits for dental hygiene and another 120 dentist visits are provided through the Miles of Smiles Dental Program, funded by the Harley-Davidson Foundation. With a high potential to promote healthy life styles and habits at an early age, an average of 150 health education modules are delivered to the grade school students annually. In collaboration with Mt. Mary College, NURSE CAMP-HEALTH CAREERS CAMP, an overnight immersion experience in health professions at Columbia College of Nursing, has included 25 BGCS middle school children in the last 2 years. In this way, CCON is working to improve access to a diverse and culturally competent and sensitive health professions workforce. Finally, nursing students work intensely with another 35 individual children who needed focused mental health interventions on a weekly basis.
Screening programs, individual health counseling, individualized nursing interventions for dementia and other memory loss problems, and flu clinics are provided to the elderly. Education programs are provided to the staff of the elderly programs.
El Centro de Salud has strong connections with many community resources, including providers, educational institutions, and social programs.
Successes
School Attendance
Since the inception of El Centro de Salud, BGCS student attendance has averaged more than 94% for all grades. Milwaukee Public Schools' attendance for elementary students over the same period averaged 91% and just 86% for middle school students. The goal of preventative and on-site healthcare is to keep children in school to strengthen their learning experiences.
Immunizations
El Centro de Salud is positively impacting the health of the Hispanic population in Milwaukee. Traditionally low immunization rates of the school children at BGCS rose from 38.5% (preschool and kindergarten) and 88.5% (grades 1-8) to 100% for both groups within the first year of the Health Center's operation. The annual immunization rate has since remained a consistent 99% to 100% in the years since the center's inception.