Minutes from 1/8/10 from Jan

Boynton Health Service at MCTC in Loring Park
Meeting Notes, January 7, 2010, Joe’s Garage, 10 am to noon

Present
From Boynton: Carl Anderson (Manager), Ed Ehlinger (Director), Joan Warne (MCTC Nurse)
From MCTC: Cathy Geist (Faculty, Conservation Biology), Lena Jones (Faculty, Soc Sc & Civic Engagement), Greg Mellas (Faculty, Student Learning), Jennifer in Mason (Faculty, Student Affairs), Diane Scovill (Faculty, Health and Phy Ed), Aaron Spiegel (Student Leader)
From Loring Park Community: Becky Gullickson (Citizens for Loring Park Community; Nurse), Jan Hively (U of M retiree; Healthy Place, Healthy People)

Expectations
Greg Mellas facilitated the discussion. Greg asked for a statement of expectations, short term and long term, along with introductions.

Short-term
Status report
Broad-based involvement of departments, community assets
Interaction between MCTC faculty and U of M faculty
Involvement of Center for Civic Engagement
Efficient operation of the clinic: matching up student needs with clinic functions in a new space
Promotion of services to assure adequate clientele

Long-term
Model for University in Community; customize activities to met community needs
Stronger partnerships – MCTC and CLPC, students and residents, faculty and administration, U and MCTC, etc.
Interdisciplinary curriculum viewed through broad lens of health; bridge between the environmental health and human health
Political action for policies/programs/funding needed to assure access for all to health care
Intergenerational collaboration to build a sustainable community
Balance between use and service to assure efficient, sustainable clinic operation
Clinic operation that meets MCTC’s carbon neutral goals addressing issues of climate change

History and Status Report

Aaron’s Story. When Aaron stopped to help a student who had fallen, he was told that she would not seek medical help because she was a single parent with responsibilities, no money, and no health insurance. Working with another student leader, Charles Ryerson, Aaron found out that there had been a prior plan to start a clinic that had fallen through. He and Charles started from scratch, looking for examples of health services in MN colleges. They also surveyed 1,000 MCTC students, one-third of whom had no insurance and one-third were under-insured. Students said they were willing to pay per credit for health care. Health providers were not interested in bringing in a service that they felt would not be lucrative. Meetings with Boynton moved ahead.

Ed’s Story. Boynton had completed surveys of MnSCU institutions that showed how students are underserved statewide. Research has shown that students well served with health care learn better, get better grades, and show better rates of retention. The U of MN’s outreach is statewide. Boynton received the U of M Provost’s blessing to work with MCTC and consider how Boynton might extend its service. Ed see this as a public health model (not a medical care model) – part of a comprehensive effort to improve the health of everybody – in this case, the students and staff in the MCTC/Loring Park community.

Carl’s Story. Since opening in November, Boynton at MCTC provides convenience care on a mini-clinic walk-in basis three afternoons a week. In the morning, staff meets patients in a primary care model for which students make appointments for exams, contraceptives, etc. The group is developing partnerships to support referrals for services not available at Boynton. The staff includes two physicians’ assistants, a nurse practitioner, and a receptionist. Joan will join the staff next month as a nurse. Carl is working with MCTC on the build-out of new space in the back of Helland Hall. Carl would like 20,000 square feet to include optional spaces for additional functions such as a pharmacy, mental health, etc. Student fees and health insurance payments and out-of-pocket fees are scheduled to cover the costs. However, the student fees at MCTC run $25 a year whereas they run $260 a year at the U, where health insurance is mandatory. The goal for all is that the students be involved as co-producers of their own health.

Assets and Challenges

Greg suggested that planning for the future should build on assets and address challenges.

Assets (examples)
Women’s Club
Citizens for Loring Park Community
Healthy Place, Healthy People (a Community Earth Council for the Loring Park community through which youngers and elders work together to address community health issues).
WAY
MCTC Science Division – Environmental Club/Greenhouse
Sodexho (Jeff Johnson) – Food Service
Nursing Program, Allied Health Professions
Addiction Counseling, other student outreach services (MaryAnn Prado)
Etc.

Challenges (examples)
Involvement of MCTC Administration – fits with interdisciplinary, multigenerational mission
Raising awareness of U of MN students residing in Loring Park community
Increasing involvement of existing stakeholders
Insurance issues
Promotion of services/marketing
No comparable existing model
Concern of private health care providers about competition

Reflection/Next Steps

Funding. The clinic is a business enterprise that must pay for itself. There are three routes to sustainability: a) raising student fees --- a topic to broad after demonstrating the program’s utility; b) following an entrepreneurial track – for example, by finding space for a pharmacy; and/or c) moving toward mandatory insurance.

At the U of M, all students enrolling for six credits or more must have health care insurance. The University self-funds the insurance program, which is 25% cheaper than a comparable private insurance plan. Full insurance costs $1600 a year for a student (about $110 a month). The insurance is an eligible cost for student financial aid programs. The cost is built into the overall annual cost of education. MnSCU is being lobbied to require mandatory insurance. Now, if the local unit of MnSCU wants it, they can have it. If the students at the local unit want it, they can have it. Ed has made the case that mandatory insurance attracts and retains students. By keeping more students in school, it ends up lowering the cost of education.

Outreach/Support.
Health Fair. Diane suggested using the Health Fair scheduled for April 14 to demonstrate how all the parts can work together. There are 60+ vendors who generate this most highly attended MCTC event. It will connect with Healthy Place, Healthy People as a Wellness Fest.
Sustainability Fair. Cathy suggested connecting the Clinic and big picture of Health with the Sustainability Fair that also is scheduled in the spring.
National outreach. Jan is describing Healthy Place, Healthy People in a workshop on intergenerational collaboration for sustainable communities at the national conference of the Am Society on Aging in March. Greg will integrate this work in a grant project sponsored by the Center for Intergenerational Learning at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Advisory Council. At the U of M, Boynton as an advisory group. Long term, as the clinic user group expands to include staff and then, hopefully, community residents, an advisory group should be formed.

Task Force

For the growth and sustainability of Boynton at MCTC, we need a comprehensive plan for outreach and promotion. The task would be to identify priority areas for planning, with a leader for each priority area. Each leader would be responsible for involving key stakeholders and drafting an action plan (who, what, when and performance goals/outcomes). Examples of priority areas:
Marketing materials
One-on-ones with departments
Co-curricular activities
Student Life/Student government

The task force could comprise those who are present today plus a couple other key resources: Boynton Marketing person, Marketing person, MCTC Administrator (Jami Hollenbeck), and ??

Aaron and Diane will co-chair the task force. (We need a title for its work.) Following suggestions from the group’s meeting evaluation, the participants want to break up the work into pieces and do the work efficiently in the shortest possible amount of time.

Jennifer will develop a blog for the task force participants to keep track of the activity and try out new ideas.

Next meeting the last week of January. Diane and Aaron will be in touch with you.



Jan Hively
612-379-4124
hivel001@umn.edu