Posted on 01/02/2008 12:02:59 AM PST by Tennessee Nana
The need for private practitioners and clinics serving the Hispanic community, especially expectant mothers, is growing with that population, local health officials say.
"Since 2004 our Hispanic clients have increased from 5.7 percent to 9.1 percent in 2006, and we expect it to continue to grow," said Kasey Poole, spokeswoman for the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Department. "We've seen a lot of growth in all our services, but particularly prenatal care."
There are now about 7,000 Hispanics living in Hamilton County, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That is about 2 percent of the county's total population, but officials with La Paz de Dios, a local Hispanic outreach group, estimate the number is closer to 15,000 and that it will continue to grow.
Sylvia Rangel, assistant director of La Paz de Dios, said the demand for health care has increased considerably in a very short period of time.
"There are services and programs out there to help the Hispanic community, but because of the high demand these services are saturated," she said in Spanish.
Ms. Rangel said most Hispanics use services at places where staff members speak Spanish.
Though Chattanooga offers clinics and services such as Volunteers in Medicine that provide medical care to low-income or uninsured families, a lot of Hispanics don't know about them because they don't have staff members who speak Spanish, she said.
Ms. Poole said the wait time for an appointment at the public health department is between two and three weeks.
RAPID GROWTH
Dr. Jack Rowland, a local physician, said that from a public health standpoint the city was not prepared for the sudden boom in ethnic growth.
He said service providers are "really not prepared to handle it from a staffing point of view and also having people who are bilingual and bicultural. It's hard to find health providers who can not only speak the language but can appreciate the specific cultural needs."
In addition to the language barrier, other impediments to service and care include lack of financial resources, no transportation or child care, and a general lack of understanding of the nation's health care system, according to the Hispanic/Latino Snapshot of Health in Hamilton County: Demographic and Vital Statistics, a report recently released by the health department.
Dr. Rowland and Dr. Michael Seeber, from the women's center Caring Choice, said they are trying to open their services to the Hispanic population.
"I think the Hispanic population is underserved. ... Given the political climate right now, it's not very easy for the Hispanic population," said Dr. Seeber, who has practiced in Chattanooga for 11 years.
"I want to give another group of people (the possibility) to have good health care," he said.
Ms. Rangel also helped organize Promotoras de Salud, or community health workers, and Hola Bebé, or Hello Baby, two programs designed to inform and help the Hispanic community navigate through the health system. She said it is very important to implement initiatives to promote the importance of preventive care.
"The lack of health care access (for Hispanics) has a lot to do with the culture," Ms. Rangel said. "As Hispanics we are used to using homemade remedies first, especially if you don't have the financial means."
REACHING OUT
Liz Jenkins, assistant to the vice president for healthy communities and advocacy at Memorial Hospital, said she focuses on providing information to the community.
"We have been involved in the health fair, in the promotoras program, in giving information sessions at Hispanic churches," she said. "It's important that (Hispanics) know what services are out there for them, and I think they are realizing that."
Erlanger hospital has hired bilingual staff members for services most used by Hispanics.
"More than half of the patients utilizing the services of the UT College of Medicine OB-GYN Clinic (based at Erlanger) are Hispanic," said Janet Kramer, cancer support services manager at Erlanger. "Because of this, the department currently employs three people who are bilingual and is in the process of hiring a fourth staff member capable of translating for the Hispanic population."
She said the clinic also offers complete prenatal care, with provisions for uninsured or underinsured women, including preconception counseling, ultrasound exams and baby deliveries.
Ms. Poole said the health department also is working on community outreach.
"We want to better serve the whole community, and that includes reaching out to every group, including Hispanics ... and we know that through prevention we can improve the health of our entire community, especially with prenatal care," she said.
According to the Hispanic/Latino Snapshot of Health report, 9 percent of Hispanic women surveyed reported not receiving any prenatal care during their pregnancy, and 40 percent said they received health care only during their first trimester.
Ms. Rangel said she still hears about "parteras," or midwives, among Hispanic women.
"It's something that's still happening in our community and that we need to work on," she said.
E-mail Perla Trevizo at ptrevizo@timesfreepress.com
Sylvia Rangel, assistant director of La Paz de Dios, said the demand for health care has increased considerably in a very short period of time.
"There are services and programs out there to help the Hispanic community, but because of the high demand these services are saturated," she said in Spanish."
Carumba
PING
The Hispanics also beleive in global warming and should move in with Algore and help save the planet. He has enough rooms and he could shuttle them back and forth to Mexico in his private jet.
As usual the AMA and the state medical groups are a day late and a dollar short.
There are plenty of well trained Spanish speaking doctors here in America driving cabs and teaching school who could be pressed into service to treat these people at a fraction of the cost of regular licensed practitioners.
The future of the US....totally overwhelmed and not able to take care of all these illegals, let alone our citizens who deserve it first. These people are eating up all of our resources and the next time you go to the hospital for a critical ailment, you may be behind a huge line of illegals just in ther to seek a cure for their cold.
Or Tennessee could solve the problem permanently by going after employers of illegal immigrants.
This is such a sad situation for Americans. I believe that the less Government control, the better.
But, our Government is number one in the line of duty to protect our country from invasion. It has miserably failed in this promise (Oath of Office, Constitution) and now the states are being forced to take the matter into their own hands.
Emergency rooms are being shut down daily, because they can no longer afford to carry the illegal influx.
I had to go to ‘Urgent Care’ this past year - and the place was full of non-English speaking Latino patients. When the doc finally came to attend to my wound, I asked him who is covering the cost of all those before me? His answer, “You are. I am. We all are. Tax dollar and Medicaid.” He then said that Med schools are in serious trouble; the student population is dramatically dropping. BUT, he also said that PA (Physician Assistant) classes are full.
Hospitals are being forced to close - ERs are being shut down. Medical and nursing care has reached rock bottom.
This isn’t happening only in TN - it is a national nightmare.
So this is why healhcare costs in Mexico are low, they sent their patients to Tennessee for the stupid Yankees to care for them.
Maybe someone should ask AMNESTY McPain about this? Wouldn’t they have been better off in the Chucklebee’s Arkasas?
Deport ... it’s the best healthcare can do.
They need to take a lesson from Oklahoma.
Because illegals do not have health insurance they tend to take colds and sniffles to the emergency room.
Here at our main hospital the waiting time to see an emergency room doctor is anywhere from four to 6 hours.
Recently I was out at the emergency room and noticed a veteran in really bad shape with a leg missing sitting in a wheel chair.
I went over and sat down by him and we talked about Vietnam and his service to our country.
All of a sudden blood started gushing from his nose.
I stuck my hanker chief under his nose and then went to look for a nurse.
Not finding one I pushed the mans wheel chair to the triage station and asked they help him.
There reply was that he would have to wait while they tended to the other patients in the Que.
That was about the time I exploded and ordered the nurse to attend to this man now.
By the time he was wheeled into triage he had bled a great deal of blood all over him and the wheel chair.
The supervisor came out of admitting and asked me if their was a problem and I came down on her like a ton of bricks.
There is no defense for a hospital emergency room to let a veteran who is obviously in lots of distress sit for hours waiting to get admitted.
When I checked the 14 patient Que ahead of the veteran there was only one real patient that could be considered an emergency and that was a woman from Mexico.
All the others were colds, flu and aspirine patients clogging up the ER.
DING! DING! We have a winner.
Solution: Tax 'em (full amount) the employers and ship 'em all back to Mexico...no more, anchor babies.
....AND Fines for both groups.... 5000US$/per person/day (w/ no exemptions)
Plausible, however, there is one thing the Feds are completely misunderestimating here. With the massie increase of criminal illegal aliens in Tennessee, the result is they are pushing local, lower educated workers out of jobs. I know guys who work construction (drywall, framers, etc.) who have either seen their wages drop with the influx of criminal illegal aliens, or they've lost their jobs altogether. As a reslut, quality has also gone way, way down. Ditto a number of local factory workers I know. Those folks aren't happy at all with the influx of our "friends" from south of the border. Sooner or later, probably sooner if the economy slows, this is going to boil over and some of these criminal illegal aliens are going to find out the hard way that they just aren't welcome here. When it does finally happen, it's going to be really, really ugly.
Never, ever misunderestimate the tenacity of a Tennessee Redneck with a four wheel drive and a shotgun....Just sayin'....
I cannot say what I am thinking. It will get deleted.
Why are we letting these people invade our country?
BTTT
I hate dihonest articles which refuse to address ILLEGAL ALIENS as ILLEGAL ALIENS...
The problem is not a “Hispanic” problem....it is an ILLEGAL ALIEN problem.
Denying health care to Americans so to treat ILLEGAL ALIENS is so anti-Americans
9% is pretty low. Try 15% in Oregon.
Why doesn't Mexico take care of its own people? Why don't the ultra-wealthy Mexican elites help to pay for the health care and education etc of their own poor? Why do they instead encourage their poor to leave Mexico and invade the United States? Nature provides a parallel that is instructive.
Some species of birds thrive not by carefully rearing their own young, but by pawning that task off on adults of other species. The European Cuckoo, whose distinctive call is immortalized in the sound of the "cuckoo clock," is the bird in which this habit has been most thoroughly studied. Female European Cuckoos lay their eggs only in the nests of other species of birds. A cuckoo egg usually closely mimics the eggs of the host (one of whose eggs is often removed by the cuckoo).
The host may recognize the intruding egg and abandon the nest, or it may incubate and hatch the cuckoo egg. Shortly after hatching, the young European Cuckoo, using a scoop-like depression on its back, instinctively shoves over the edge of the nest any solid object that it contacts. With the disappearance of their eggs and rightful young, the foster parents are free to devote all of their care to the young cuckoo. Frequently this is an awesome task, since the cuckoo chick often grows much larger than the host adults long before it can care for itself. One of the tragicomic scenes in nature is a pair of small foster parents working like Sisyphus to keep up with the voracious appetite of an outsized young cuckoo.
“Never, ever misunderestimate the tenacity of a Tennessee Redneck with a four wheel drive and a shotgun....Just sayin’....”
:)
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