LA GRANGE, Ky. (June 13, 2012) – Women’s health advocates — along with Eleanor Jordan, executive director of the Kentucky Commission on Women (KCW) — today unveiled a new interactive women’s wellness kiosk at the Hope Health Clinic in La Grange.
The Baptist Hospital Foundation purchased the kiosk at the Hope Health Clinic. The clinic serves uninsured patients who have chronic illnesses or need immediate care for sudden illnesses in Oldham, Henry, Trimble and Carroll counties.
The Baptist Hospital Foundation, supporting Baptist Hospital Northeast in La Grange and Baptist Hospital East in Louisville, provides many programs and services that enhance the quality of healthcare, including providing funds to update and purchase new equipment for community organizations.
The kiosk design is similar to that of an automated teller machine. Health information is provided in a manner that serves multiple reading abilities for easy comprehension and recollection. The touch-screen technology attracts visitors and allows for the information to be provided in both audio and visual formats to appeal to a broader audience.
The bilingual touch-screen kiosk provides a wide range of information on general women’s wellness and breast health, including symptoms and treatment, options for diabetes, asthma, cancers, weight management, smoking cessation, STDs, depression, heart health, domestic violence and HIV-AIDS.
Each topic is programmed with women’s health stories, preventive measures, suggested follow-up questions to ask a healthcare provider and encouragement to visit a medical professional. The kiosk also includes a telephone that is programmed to connect the user with immediate assistance or to schedule appointments.
“Using this technology as a wellness guide where underserved women can easily access a vast amount of basic health information and locate immediate assistance could prove to be one of the most innovative ways of getting women to take hold of their health,” Jordan said. “This is a fun way to gently encourage behavior toward wellness and prevention. The more of these we place in targeted areas where they become a private and trusted resource, the greater chance we have of empowering women and changing the health and wellbeing statistics for Kentucky’s women.”
The Division of Women’s Health, housed in the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, frequently receives calls and questions about access to women’s health care services, particularly from individuals who are uninsured, said Cabinet Secretary Audrey Tayse Haynes.
“It’s important we provide our citizens with the resources they are looking for since knowledge and education about one’s health is an important first step toward wellness,” Sec. Haynes said. “This bilingual kiosk, now conveniently stationed at the Hope Health Clinic, will provide patients with valuable information on a variety of health topics.”
According to the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, D.C., Kentucky’s female population ranks in the bottom third of nearly every women’s health indicator. After hosting two women’s health summits and gathering input from 62 agencies, partners and organizations, the KCW has found that getting women to take hold of their health is crucial.
“All of us who have collaborated on the Hope Health Clinic project are extremely grateful to the Baptist Hospital Foundation and the Kentucky Commission on Women for making it possible for Hope Health Clinic patients to access a wealth of information on women’s health through the interactive kiosk,” said Marsha Biven, member of the Hope Health Clinic advisory council and Baptist Hospital Northeast assistant vice president. “One of the key goals of the clinic is to empower patients to take charge of their own health through education, and this kiosk will help us to achieve this goal.”
Hope Health Clinic opened as the result of a community-wide taskforce formed after the closing of a former clinic. As a result of this community effort, enough funding has been obtained for the clinic to open full-time and to hire a full-time administrator and nurse practitioner, in addition to the volunteer staff.
From its opening in September 2011 to June 2012, the clinic has seen nearly 1,300 patients. Fifty-eight percent of those patients were from Oldham County; 17 percent from Trimble; 14 percent from Henry and 5 percent from Carroll County.
Hope Health Clinic provides the necessary medical care to its patients, who pay a nominal fee to be seen and for lab tests needed to assist in their care, Biven said.
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