Hawai'i journal of medicine & public health : a journal of Asia Pacific Medicine & Public Health最新文献

Chronic diseases impact 60% of Americans, with 42% reporting multiple chronic conditions, and account for $3.3 trillion in annual health care costs. In Hawai'i, about 80% of adults report having at least 1 chronic condition, and more than half of those report having multiple chronic conditions. Health coaching is a technique of engaging patients to help them obtain the knowledge, skills, and confidence to become an active and engaged participant in their health care. Health coaching aims to assist patients with understanding their care plans, exploring their perceptions of their care plans, and working collaboratively with their health care team to implement these plans to improve their overall health. In 2016, the Hawai'i Primary Care Association (HPCA) partnered with the University of California, San Francisco's Center for Excellence in Primary Care to train staff from HPCA and Hawaii's community health centers (CHCs) in health coaching. This 2-day training focused on using principles of adult learning theory to create interactive sessions aimed at building staff capacity to improve communication and empower patients to become active participants in their health care. The curriculum highlights 6 core elements of health coaching: ask-tell-ask, setting the agenda, closing the loop, know your numbers, behavior-change action plans, and medication adherence counseling. The aim of this case study is to present insights gained from the implementation of health coaching at 1 FQHC in Hawai'i. Health coaching is found to be an effective approach to engaging patients and improving communication with patients and across clinic departments. Health coaching is a promising practice to address the growing chronic disease burden in Hawai'i.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the United States in both men and women, and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Whereas the overall incidence of colon and rectal cancer has been decreasing over the past two decades, due in large part to improved colorectal screening and surveillance of patients who are at risk, incidence rates of colorectal cancer in young adults ages 20 to 50 have actually been increasing. Recently, the American Cancer Society updated their guidelines with recommendations that everyone, not just African Americans or those with a strong family history of colon cancer, should begin colorectal screening at age 45 rather than age 50. However, the United States Multi-Society Task Force on Colorectal Cancer, which is comprised of the American College of Gastroenterology, the American Gastroenterological Association, and the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, felt that there is still insufficient evidence to support early screening in the absence of known risk factors. Previous authors have examined the epidemiology and natural history of early onset colorectal cancer but none of these studies are specific to the state of Hawai'i, which has a unique ethnic profile. The purpose of this article is to review the most recently reported incidence rate and demographics of early onset colorectal cancer in Hawai'i and to discuss our own experience with colon cancer in patients younger than age 50. If we can determine specific characteristics of young patients with early onset colorectal cancer in Hawai'i, we can better identify those patients who would benefit most from earlier screening.

In 2014, the Hawai'i State Department of Health (HDOH) received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), via the 1422 Cooperative Agreement, to conduct diabetes prevention and hypertension management. To implement one grant-required strategy-the engagement of community health workers (CHWs) to promote community-clinical linkages-the HDOH partnered with the Hawai'i Primary Care Association and 9 federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). This qualitative evaluation case study sought to understand how 3 of the funded FQHCs engaged CHWs, the types of community-clinical linkages the CHWs promoted, and the facilitators of and barriers to those linkages. Evaluators conducted 2 semi-structured group interviews with 6 administrators/clinicians and 7 CHWs in April 2018. The transcribed interviews were deductively and inductively analyzed to identify major themes. First, CHWs made multiple internal and external linkages using resources provided by the grant as well as other resources. Second, CHWs faced barriers in making community-clinical linkages due to individual patient, geographic, and economic constraints. Third, CHWs have unmet professional needs related to building community-clinical linkages including professional development, networking, and burnout. Reimbursement and payment mechanisms are an all-encompassing challenge to the sustainability of CHW positions, as disease-specific funding and a complete lack of reimbursement structures make CHW positions unstable. Thus, CHWs fulfill a number of grant-specific roles at FQHCs due to this patchwork of funding sources, and this relates to CHWs' experiences of burnout. Policy implications of this study include funding and reimbursement stabilization so FQHCs may consistently engage and support the CHW workforce to meet their patients' complex, diverse needs. More professional development opportunities for CHWs are necessary to build sustainable networks of resources.

Social and behavioral determinants of health, such as poverty, homelessness, and limited social support, account for an estimated 40% of health burdens and predict critical health outcomes. Many clinical-community linkages specifically focus on addressing such challenges. Given its distinctive history, culture, and location, Hawai'i has unique social factors impacting population health. Local health systems are striving to address these issues to meet their patients' health needs. Yet the evidence on precisely how health care systems and communities may work together to achieve these goals are limited both generally and specifically in the Hawai'i context. This article describes real-world efforts by 3 local health care delivery systems that integrate the identification of social needs into clinical care using the electronic health record (EHR). One health care system collects and assesses social challenges and interpersonal needs to improve the care for its frail seniors (aged 65 and older). Another system added key data fields around social support and inpatient mobility in the EHR to identify whether patients needed additional help during hospitalization and post-discharge. A third added a social needs screening tool (eg, housing instability, food insecurity, transportation needs) to its EHR to ensure that patient-specific needs can be appropriately addressed by the care team. Successful integration of this information into the EHR can identify, direct, and support clinical-community linkages and integrate such relationships into the care team. Many lessons can be learned from the implementation of these programs, including the importance of clinical relevance and ensuring capacity for social work liaisons trained for this work to address identified needs.

East Hawai'i and its local hospital face unsustainable cost and health care utilization trends. The medical and social service organizations in this region, which includes the city of Hilo and its surrounding area on Hawai'i Island, previously worked in silos regarding coordination of patient care. To mitigate these factors, community initiatives have been implemented to address the needs of high-cost, high-need (HCHN) patients. Can community initiatives that better coordinate medical and social services to directly address social determinants of health improve quality of care and reduce utilization of emergency department (ED) and inpatient (IP) resources? Respected community leaders and diverse stakeholders in East Hawai'i have organized a community to improve health while lowering costs, influence legislative policy, and work collaboratively with the largest health plan in Hawai'i and the local hospital to change health care delivery. A population of patients with high cost, utilization, and disease burden was identified. A model of care was developed with 2 centers of excellence, providing care coordination across medical and social services. Community health workers (CHWs) were added to help patients navigate the system, comply with treatment plans, and request exception funding. A community forum for medical and social services has been established and an online referral system improves efficiency and accountability. Finally, a community quality assurance (QA) committee is being put into place to drive systemic improvements. The community approach adopted in East Hawai'i holds great promise to realize structural changes to healthcare. While not yet fully implemented, anecdotal data suggest that this program is reducing ED and IP utilization and effectively addressing social determinants of health.

Introduction: Community health workers (CHWs) play a vital role in health across Hawai'i, but the scope of this work is not comprehensively collated. This scoping review describes the existing evidence of the roles and responsibilities of CHWs in Hawai'i. Methods: Between May and October 2018, researchers gathered documents (eg, reports, journal articles) relevant to Hawai'i CHWs from health organizations, government entities, colleges/universities, and CHWs. Documents were reviewed for overall focus and content, then analyzed using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 10 Essential Public Health Services as well as the Community Health Worker Core Consensus Project roles to identify workplace roles and gaps. Results: Of 92 documents received, 68 were included for review. The oldest document dated to 1995. Document types included curricula outlines, unpublished reports, and peer-reviewed articles. Documents discussed trainings, certification programs, CHWs' roles in interventions, and community-, clinical-, and/or patient-level outcomes. Cultural concordance parity between CHWs and patients, cost savings, and barriers to CHW work were noted. Most roles named by the Community Health Worker Core Consensus Project were mentioned in documents, but few were related to the roles of "community/policy advocacy" and "participation in research and evaluation." Workplace roles, as determined using the 10 Essential Public Health Services, focused more on "assuring workforce competency" and "evaluation," and less on "policy development," and "enforcing laws." Discussion: CHWs are an important part of Hawaii's health system and engage in many public health functions. Although CHW roles in Hawai'i mirrored those identified by the CHW Core Consensus Project and 10 Essential Public Health Services frameworks, there is a noticeable gap in Hawai'i CHW professional participation in research, evaluation, and community advocacy.

The Kalihi Valley Instructional Bike Exchange (KVIBE) is an innovative youth bike program housed in Kokua Kalihi Valley Family Comprehensive Services (KKV), a community health center in Honolulu, Hawai'i. KVIBE utilizes a popular education model to raise the social consciousness of its youth participants, who are primarily working class, Indigenous, and native to the Philippines or the Pacific Islands, especially Micronesia. Initially designed as a bike repair program where youth could earn a bicycle through sweat equity, KVIBE has grown into an educational space that teaches bicycle mechanics as well as personal history and identity. The KVIBE curriculum incorporates a social determinants of health approach with the Four Connections Framework, an Indigenous health framework developed by KKV and the Islander Institute. This article shares details of this program, as a pedagogical model for programs to engage underserved and marginalized Asian, Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian youth who suffer from displacement and historical trauma via colonization. Additionally, this article speaks to the importance of seeing marginalized youth not as an at-risk group but as agents in creating community health.

A 36-year-old man presented with a corneal penetrating fishhook injury with the tip embedded in the inferior anterior chamber angle of the eye. Complete removal was achieved with extension of the wound at the limbus using the "cut-out" technique. Intraocular fishhook injuries are common in fishing communities and effective surgical removal may involve modified techniques previously described for skin or mucosal tissue.

This paper describes a program model that uses hospital- and community-based patient navigators and social workers to link super utilizers of the hospital system with existing community resources to improve access to services and appropriate care while lowering hospital utilization. A case study is used to illustrate a typical super utilizer patient who is homeless and has psychosocial issues. The navigator's and social worker's roles and approaches are described, and specific community linkages for this case are listed. The navigator discusses her experience and lessons learned working with this patient. Program and patient outcomes are shared.