Mystery Shopping for Health Insurance Information
You've heard of mystery shopping? Paula Blasi and Ross Howell, MPH students in the Community-Oriented Public Health Practice program, did some secret surveys in the name of health reform. The pair made more than 760 phone calls to learn if primary care providers in King County were accepting new Medicad patients as advertised.
It was part of their MPH practicum supervised by Eli Kern (MPH, Epidemiology '13), a clinical instructor in Health Services and an epidemiologist with Public Health-Seattle & King County. Blasi and Howell were following up on a baseline survey taken four months earlier. The students found that most of the listed phone numbers were inaccurate. They also learned that nearly half of the providers were accepting new patients and that the median wait time for an appointment was one week.
A Clinic for Low-Income Residents in North Seattle
Two MHA grads are helping plan a health clinic to meet the needs of low-income residents in north Seattle. Jenny Brackett (MHA/MBA '12) of Neighborcare Health will manage the medical and dental clinics at Meridian Center for Health, a 44,000-square-foot facility scheduled to open next fall, while Rebecca Fischer (MHA/MPA '14) is project manager for the building's opening. The center will offer primary medical care, dental care, mental health and pharmacy services, as well as Woment Infant Children nutrition and maternity support services. It's a partnership between Neighborcare Health, Public Health-Seattle & King County and Valley Cities, an agency providing mental health and counseling services. Brackett says about 48,000 residents in north Seattle don't have access to a health center. Meridian, she says, should meet the needs of 14,000 of them.