Haitian innovation meets healthcare challenges

 By Renee Dusseau

   LITTLE HAITI, Fl — David Jolly made a second trip to the Center for Haitian Studies, Health and Human Services. This time it was a deep dive into the growth and development of a health clinic that provides a template for quality primary care. Led by vanguard Dr. Larry Pierre, the clinics’ prominent physicians have grown a program partnership with North Jackson Health System that provides primary care services that reduce the dependance on emergency rooms. Preventive health plays a major role in that process that has been the dream of medical professionals since the 1970’s.

Jolly has made Medicaid expansion a top priority along with the use of community health clinics like this one for primary care. For 12 years, Republican Governors Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis refused to expand Medicaid coverage, leaving 1.4 million Floridia children and elderly uninsured. The state lost billions of dollars that in turn left thousands of Floridians with serious preventable health issues.

CHSHHS is filling the gap thanks to a team of dedicated doctors. A son of Little Haiti, Dr. Rimsky Denis, a Structural and Interventional Cardiologist leads the Cardiovascular Health institute. His presentation revealed a full-service primary care model that is a major  asset. According to Dr. O’Neil Pyke Jackson, the Chief Medical Officer at Jackson Noth Medical Center, “We must expand Medicaid and restore subsidies. Without it, we face an emerging healthcare crisis because we have to deliver more.” The beauty of the hospital-clinic relationship is that if patients need hospitalization, they return to the clinic for follow up.

Keeping patients out of Emergency Rooms and engaging in preventive healthcare care is part of the success story.  Dr. Barth A. Green Professor of Neurosurgery and Executive Dean, of Global Health and Community Service at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine says, “This model is absolute. Serving the underserved and uninsured should be scaled up.“

Jolly listened and heard confirmation of his plan to provide quality affordable healthcare  to Floridians. “I want to show what adult leadership looks like. My concepts are backed up by experts.”