Minority Health

The Minority Health Community Collaborative is a Lincoln/Lancaster County Health Department project funded through the Nebraska Health and Human Services System's Minority Health Initiative. The primary goal of the project is to coordinate health care services in order to reduce minority health disparities related to cardiovascular disease. An important part of the project will be to track and aggregate data to evaluate impact of the grant. However, participating agencies each have different ways of collecting and coding information. The NU Public Policy Center will work with the Health Department and other participating organizations to:

• identify data elements and data collection processes necessary for project evaluation and grant reporting;
• develop reporting procedures and forms; and,
• clarify the care pathway and referral processes for clients obtaining grant funded services.

The Minority Health Community Collaborative project has six activities for which data will be collected: (1) Screening for and treating elevated cholesterol; (2) Establishing and maintaining blood pressure values at or below 130/80; (3) Making appropriate healthy lifestyle changes; (4) Establishing a medical home for all minority patients served through the grant; (5) Improving medication management for hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases; (6) Enhancing the oral health of patients through education on the link between oral health and cardiovascular disease and accessing appropriate dental care. The target population is individuals of a racial and/or ethnic minority in Lancaster County , with a special emphasis given to those individuals in the 13 census tracts that make up the federally designated Medically Underserved Area (MUA) in Lincoln .

The community agencies participating in grant activities include the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department (Adult Health, Dental and Mobile Health Clinics), People's Health Center , Lincoln Action Program (Clinic With A Heart), the Lancaster County Medical Society, Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center and the UNMC College of Dentistry. The project began in July 2005 and is funded through 2007.