4th Annual African American Health Fair
Open Cities Health Center (OCHC) is partnering with Amherst H. Wilder Foundation in St. Paul to hold the clinic’s 4th Annual African American Health Fair in honor of Black History Month. The African American Health Fair will be held on Friday, February 19 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Wilder Foundation, 451 Lexington Parkway in St. Paul. It is free and open to the public. There will be displays, food, screenings, door prizes and more! To learn more click here.

OCHC's Dorii Gbolo awarded District 6 Toastmasters Communication and Leadership Award
Click Here for Link
Photos of the Awards Ceremony

OCHC on national news!
Open Cities Health Center and the clinic's CEO, Dorii Gbolo, were featured on the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams on Monday, February 16, 2009. Dorii was interviewed by NBC's Health Correspondent Robert Bazell as part of an ongoing feature NBC is doing on uninsured people and health care in America. Here is a link to the segment:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/29227053#29227053

OCHC expands its space to accommodate more services!
OCHC completed a capital project at the main site on Dunlap Street in 2008. The clinic renovated 3,700 sq. ft. of unused garage space and transformed it into a multipurpose service center, called the Mrs. Timothy O. Vann Multipurpose Service Center and Bill Skally Meeting Room. The new section of the Dunlap clinic is used for classes, programs, support groups, counseling and activities. A section of the service center is available for community use and another part houses a Ramsey County WIC clinic. The project was funded entirely through grants.

This project has been a community effort from the beginning and a focal point of OCHC's long-range strategic plan to ensure that the clinic will have the capacity to provide education, outreach and social services for many years and, hopefully, many generations. The idea is to increase access to care to individuals and families who need affordable health care, especially populations of color. The goal is to create a long-lasting multipurpose service center for OCHC patients, clients and community members that will promote healthy lifestyles, increase access to care and help reduce health disparities in populations of color.

Electronic Health Records (EHR):
OCHC has been a leader in EHR among community health clinics in Minnesota. The clinic first implemented EHR in 2005. Since that time staff at OCHC has actively embraced the system. The clinic received an e-Health Grant from the Minnesota Department of Health in 2008 that allowed us to upgrade the Misys system and hire an informatics nurse to complete templates building and begin staff training. The current system includes documentation, e-faxing and eprescribing.

OCHC received a second e-Health Grant to complete the final leg of the EHR journey by expanding the scope of our EHR project to meet the true complexity of our needs. OCHC will have a fully integrated, interoperable system by incorporating standards-based interoperability through the development of ancillary systems (such as laboratory, x-ray, HIE and dental); continuing the development and implementation of systems that enhance workflow, promote patient safety, and elicit clinical outcomes to improve patient care; and by developing comprehensive EHR training initiatives.

OCHC's Dorii Gbolo featured on Kare 11 Health Care Heroes

Click here to watch Dorii's Video