Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Health Equity topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
DPH reports early gains on African American health measures; new interdivisional director to bridge clinics and population health
Summary
The Community and Public Health committee reported early improvements in several metrics for African American residents and introduced Dr. Ayanna Bennett as Director of Interdivisional Initiatives to align population health and clinical services; the department briefed plans to coordinate Prop C-funded work across agencies.
At the commission—s Community and Public Health briefing, the committee reported on the Black/African American health initiative and introduced Ayanna Bennett as the department—s new Director of Interdivisional Initiatives. The committee outlined six focus areas: hypertension control, behavioral health (alcohol), women's screening (breast cancer), STD screening (chlamydia), cultural humility in workplaces, and workforce development/diversity hiring.
The report presented early performance metrics: hypertension control among African American patients in the health network rose to about 62 percent from a prior 57 percent, narrowing the gap with non-African American patients (about 65 percent). Chlamydia screening in targeted youth was reported to be above 80 percent in some outreach efforts. Breast cancer screening among African American women had increased from 60.5 percent in 2014 to about 64 percent, according to the committee report. The speaker characterized these as early, optimistic improvements and credited team-based care in primary clinics for some gains.
Dr. Bennett, who said she has held the new position about six months, described her role as making clinic and population-health activities work together: sharing data and epidemiology with clinical operations, seeding new joint projects, and improving quality and access in specialty clinics (TB and STD) that currently lack integrated network medical records. She emphasized the need for cultural transfer between clinical and population health cultures and identified mental health and substance abuse as next major areas of focus after primary care.
The committee also briefed the commission on Proposition C implementation: the reauthorization continues approximately $135 million in funds to support children, youth and family services and the department is working with other agencies on a five-year planning framework to coordinate services, share data and build capacity for cultural humility training and coordinated service delivery.
Commissioners asked for annual updates and closer partner presentations; the committee agreed to return with periodic reports and invited partners to future briefings.
