Mercer University School of Medicine is partnering with Bethel CME Church and Navicent Health on the H.O.P.E. (Health Outreach Prevention and Enrichment) Initiative, a collaborative effort to improve the health status of the Macon community from different perspectives.
 
The H.O.P.E. Initiative – named in honor of Dr. Thomas Hope, local neurologist and MUSM professor since 1982 – brings physicians, healthcare workers and medical students together with church leaders to promote the health of church members and the community at large.
 
“The H.O.P.E. Initiative is a unique community collaboration and a meaningful opportunity for our medical students to integrate service-learning and community medicine,” said Keisha R. Callins, M.D., MPH, clinical assistant professor in MUSM’s Department of Community Medicine. “Bethel CME, under the leadership of Pastor Bruce Burns Sr., is ideally located in the nearby Unionville community. This an honest outreach effort that will hopefully benefit a local community just miles from Mercer and Navicent.”
 
“In the training of student physicians, there is a need for students to have an early start to improving their proficiency for doing physical exams,” added Dr. Hope. “It is very good idea for students in a medical school emphasizing primary care to come in regular, direct contact with patients most in need of primary care.”
 
At its inaugural event, the healthcare team addressed hypertension, examining 16 church members and providing blood pressure checks and blood draws as needed. Those who required additional service were referred for additional testing and instructed to follow up with their physicians.
 
“Through the H.O.P.E. Initiative, we are be able to see firsthand the challenges people face to gaining access to medical care and managing chronic diseases, such as hypertension,” said first-year medical student Alyse Ragauskas. “By initiating the process and connecting patients with providers, we are able to decrease some of the barriers people have to medical access.”
 
For those who do not have a physician, H.O.P.E. Initiative care coordinators are able to assess the individual’s needs and refer him or her to a community partner who will best meet that person’s health, financial and transportation needs. Those community partners currently include Community Health Care Systems, First Choice Primary Care, Macon Volunteer Clinic, Mercer Medicine and the W.T. Anderson Clinic.
 
“Our long-term goal is to provide this service one to two Sundays per month, and also provide it on weekdays as needed. We are piloting this intervention program at Bethel CME, and look forward to expanding the program to include other congregations,” Carol Babcock, director of Healthy Communities, Navicent Health, said of the partnership with Mercer and Bethel CME.
 
Sixty-five percent of respondents to a Community Health Needs Assessment conducted by Navicent Health in 2015 reported attending a church service within the last month, and plans were made to create a faith-based outreach program. One result is the H.O.P.E. Initiative, which is intended to serve as an intermediary between the faith and health communities through educational programs and select screenings in local churches.