“We SAVED HIS LIFE!”
– Erin Castro, LPN, Clinic Nurse Manager, Center for Healing & Hope
“We SAVED HIS LIFE!”
– Erin Castro, LPN, Clinic Nurse Manager, Center for Healing & Hope
On the evening of October 24, 2019, a 27-year-old man entered Center for Healing & Hope clinic in Goshen, Indiana. He had been experiencing fatigue, weakness, frequent urination and extreme thirst, even when drinking bottles of water each day.
Diabetes was immediately suspected, but testing was needed to confirm and begin treatment.
In a twist of fate, earlier that day, volunteers and staff from Heart to Heart International had been at the clinic helping to install and train on a new Point of Care laboratory funded by BD in coordination with NAFC.
Point of Care, Enhancing Clinical Effectiveness (PoCECE) is a multi-year initiative started in 2017 that provides organizations caring for underserved and vulnerable populations throughout the United States the essential diagnostic point of care testing (POCT) they need to evaluate their patients on site in a timely manner.
With this new in-house laboratory, clinic staff ran an A1c test and an i-Stat – both designed to test glucose levels. The A1c came back with >14. (People with controlled diabetes have between >7 and >7.5.) The i-Stat came back with a glucose level of 611. (People with controlled diabetes aim to be below 200.)
This man’s sugars were dangerously high – life-threateningly high.
The clinic staff sprang into action. The staff called the ER and sent him directly over, with a follow-up plan for him to return to the clinic the next week and sign up for the clinic’s Diabetes Alliance Program. He was scared but so grateful that the clinic had been able to run the tests and instruct him before leaving.
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The 2019 Grant Awardees were announced for the latest round of POCT laboratory installations.
Point of Care, Enhancing Clinical Effectiveness (PoCECE) is a multi-year initiative started in 2017 that provides organizations caring for underserved and vulnerable populations throughout the United States the essential diagnostic point of care testing (POCT) they need to evaluate their patients on site in a timely manner.
PoCECE, funded by BD, a leading global medical technology company, and implemented by HHI in conjunction with the NAFC, provides awards to Free and Charitable Clinics to use point-of-care testing to diagnose and set treatment protocols with the goal of improving patient outcomes.
in September, and we’ve already installed 3 of the labs. Here are pictures.
One of the 2018 award winners tells why these laboratories make such a difference in the lives of people served by these clinics.
The Free and Charitable Clinics that will receive the 2019 PoCECE grant are:
- Center for Healing & Hope – Goshen, IN
- Clarkston Community Health Center Inc. (CCHC) – Clarkston, GA
- Community Free Clinic, Inc. – Hagerstown, MD
- Free Clinic of Meridian – Meridian, MS
- St. Mary’s Health Wagon – Wise, VA
- The Health Hut – Ruston, LA
Previous grant recipients were:
- Ubi Caritas Health Ministries – Beaumont, Texas (2018)
- HealthFinders Collaborative, Inc. – Faribault, Minnesota (2018)
- Hope Health Clinic – LaGrange, Kentucky (2018)
- St. Vincent de Paul Medical & Dental Clinic – Phoenix, Arizona (2018)
- Goochland Free Clinic and Family Services – Goochland, Virginia (2018)
- Clinic with a Heart – Lincoln, Nebraska. (2018)
- Downtown Clinic – Laramie, Wyoming (2017)