It's a great little tool for our residents to kind of at least get exposed to that. as you go through it just had our brand new class starting on July first. Oh great. That's good. We got five new residents in here all fired up ready to go. We got that look like oh my goodness. What did I get myself into? Yeah? It's like the first syllabus at the start of a new course in College, but it looks like we are now live and ready to go. Okay. So good afternoon everybody. I am State Representative Adam Hadley from House District 59. I'm here in the next entry in our town Hall weekly series. We're gonna be talking health options for uninsured floridians and we're talking with the CEO of Suncoast Community Health Center, Brad Hermans. So I welcome Brad and thanks for joining us well thanks a lot. Alright. We're glad to be here great. we're just gonna kick this right off. Okay. so we know that covid- 19 cases are spiking right here in the Tampa Bay area and all around Florida. we just saw a Today that we had over 10000 new cases reported just yesterday. with this in mind. can you start by telling us a little bit about Suncoast Community health centers and how they can help those that might be sick and those who need care but don't have health insurance. Sure it's well some calls right now with Colvin 19, We've actually we got a multi-pronged approach to try to help the community and to try to help our patients both you've got you've got two things kind of converging together here one is the traditional health care access. That we've we deal with all the time and then you layer on Coen on top of that, and it makes things very confusing for a lot of different people is what we've done at Suncoast is we're we're actually putting programs in place for our patients and we're also partnering with the County to help with the whole testing initiative that we're doing for our patients is what we have asked is we've actually implemented a whole range range of of telemedicine telehealth options for people that think that. Have contracted the Coen 19 They don't wanna expose other people we'll set them up with a telehealth. visit. they'll visit with one of our providers and then they'll kinda make the determination together if that person or their family should be tested and then at that point they can come in and they just go curbside to one of our clinics and then we'll go out and provide the covid- 19 testing for the patient curbside and then and and then then let them know the results for a situation. We have rapid testing where you get the results back in 1520 minutes if a patient is just they don't have any symptoms, but they just are nervous or they they would just like to be tested they can come in to any of our clinics. I receive a test and then those are are more the traditional testing programs where they'll receive the the results back and usually two to three days, sometimes they're running up to four days now because of the demand. those. Our patients, those are the people that are assigned to Suncoast community health centers. they're used to coming to us. They have a provider with us now if you're not a patient of suncoast, but you still kinda have symptoms or those types of things you can call for an appointment and what we'll do is get you registered. You'll become a new patient and we'll still work you into the into the program and you can still get tested and still come to us for health care. when that happened. Is you know we are a community Health Center. We are we don't turn anybody away based upon the family's ability to pay so I don't want anybody to think that that's gonna get in the way of receiving one of the test that they need, but then many times even more important than that the follow-up the health care that's needed to go along to one support them if they are positive or even if they're not positive, allow them to continue with their health care needs that they may have you know we're the largest. A primary care for people on Medicaid we we readily take the Hillsborough County Health care plan. we're we're a partner with the County on that plan. and then if none of that pans out for the family, we'll sit down with them and determine a family's ability to pay a offer with a sliding fee scale for a medical appointments $15 for down payment is 25 and that and then then it ratchets up from there based upon a family's income. So if. We have we have some patients that they're very relatively high-income earning families they don't carry health insurance and so they might just pay a little bit more for the visit and we would ask them to do that to kinda help subsidize you know you the programs that we have so the so all that's tied to the covid- 19 discussion and the health care discussion making access available to the community. The other thing that we're doing in a partnership with Hillsborough County whether you might Cena on the television is a testing that's just for any resident of Hillsborough County, where they can make an appointment and they'll come to one of our come to our drive thru site and Brandon, and we operate that from 530 at night till 530 to eight 30 on Monday and Wednesday, and then from nine to noon on Saturday and again that's open to any resident of Hillsborough County. they just called the eight eight eight number that the County has for appointments, make an appointment and then then come on by we've been we've been extremely busy. You can imagine lately and last Saturday we we we we did almost 400 cases of a testing so over here in Lakewood Avenue, you can see the the cars get backed up pretty early, so we do ask people to try to make an appointment if you really cannot make an appointment, but you really do need to be tested. We do take walk ins or you know people come in and register on site and we'll try to work that as best we can we. To advertise it, but I guess I just did so. it's out there, but we wanna make sure people get the care that they need and get the testing that they need however, that may fall whether you're a patient or not. Okay, now you alluded to this a little bit and in the Middle part of the of your your last answered, I mean I know we know that Suncoast Community Health centers provides primary care for medical services right and again briefly mentioned, but if you go to a little bit more what about specialty care services like dental or vision sure those are areas that that that we're happy to provide our dental program from my perspective is really second to none. one of the areas that I. Really, like to have the community to understand as a pediatric residency program our pediatric dental residency program that we have, it's it's actually housed in headquartered in our brand new facility. We also have rotations on our Plant City facility the residents. it's a partnership that we have with NYU Lando We have five First-year residents five second year residents. These are general dentists that are studying to be a pediatric dentist. They're attend. Or the or the teachers if you will our pediatric dentist that are employed by Suncoast Community health centers and they oversee all the care that's provided in the clinics on any given day we'll treat up to a hundred children right in our brand-new clinic and then for those more complicated cases where the dentist actually has to take the child to the hospital of the operating room As what we'll do is, we have a partnership with Tampa general plant city and then reach recently with the Brandon Regional. we're. And they'll actually take the child to the operating room where it's much more of a controlled environment have to use anesthesia for that child in a and again the same rules apply we're not gonna turn any child away for for many of the kids, this is this is the I think a wonderful option. first of all it's extremely high quality dental care and they can treat virtually anything when we started this program. A few years ago, we opened it up. We thought we were going to care for just people from Hillsborough County. Be honest, we get referrals from families from four or five counties away because they can't access the similar programs. So we're we're happy to do that on the other programs that we have Optometry we this actually sprang out of our school-based programs. I believe it or not we're we would be out in the schools in a couple of our providers. I can mention I care for children you know is that available in the community and there are some programs available. I'm not gonna say that there wasn't, but we thought that we could expand that and make that more readily available for for the kids and so we added optometry programs and our timely clinic in Dover our Plant City Clinic are here in Brandon down at Ruskin and now over in Palm River. so we're happy to do that We also recently added a behavioral health. And so. our facilities and our behavioral health program is a little bit unique in the sense that you just can't you can't come in and just say I wanna see a behavioral health provider. It's a true partnership with our primary care physicians or providers that you can have a primary care provider from the outside community be referred in, but we want that partnership that or the integration between primary care and behavioral health specialists, so they're working in tandem with the patient to receive the best outcomes. We've been doing this for a couple of years now Commissioner Mervin. At the County kinda share this Working Group back a while ago and we've been running with this ever since and it's just been a wonderful program The results are are truly amazing so here at suncoast. we're we're very fortunate on the children's side. We have our pediatric Center of excellence where we're able to take adolescent behavioral health integrate that with with pediatrics and include our optometry program and then our pediatric dental program. so it truly turns. One stop shop for the child and the family and it's we think it's very convenient very cost effective way to provide those services. You briefly mentioned a payment model you know for families that don't necessarily have health insurance if you're into that, maybe a little bit more you know Medicaid Medicare or for the families that are you know that former service members or veterans is try to accepted Tricare is a very much accepted that I'm a I'm a I'm retired from the United States Air Force and I happily Tricare and actually when I came here to work, I made sure we took TRICARE so it's one of the. Tricare program we certainly take that one of the other programs that we've been involved in. we wanna get more involved in is the VA Choice program that the veterans have we've been in consultation with the V A little bit on the on that program. I think that's wonderful for the vets. it's another tool so if they are having difficulty accessing us some type of appointments programs like community health centers can certainly augment that or be a partner with the Veterans Administration to to help. R-I-a-a we'd love to here folks. United States Air Force near and dear to my heart along with other services and there's anything we can do to help out the folks we we will do that A hundred times over. It's fantastic as a veteran of the United States, maybe myself you know that one is is very close to my heart too. So thank you. Thank you for doing that. you also briefly mentioned telehealth so if you go a little bit more into the telehealth services and Go about doing that right? It's we've been talking telehealth for two to three years now and we just it was one of those things that we just never took that leap of faith to do this covid- 19 kinda forced our hand into doing that. I'm glad it did I don't think it's ever gonna go away. we have several providers that have thoroughly embraced it patients love it and it's not for everything but it is for a lot of things and as the technology improves, I think you're gonna find more and more that you can do with telehealth some of the Are pads if you will that are gonna that we purchased they'll be coming in will allow us to do even more through telehealth and so here at suncoast. If I may I'll give you a number and if somebody does wanna make a a telehealth visitor just call us at eight 1365361 zero when you call that number, that's our call line and you just ask and say I'd like to make a telehealth visit in the in those get you set up and get it scheduled and so that the patient and then the provider can coordinate a time that works for everybody actually if you wanna. That number one more time we can get those in the comments and if I'll give you two numbers one is that is the point for telehealth and that's eight 1365361 zero and the other number that I'd like to give out if it's okay is the County line for testing people ask me for that a lot right now It's eight. 5136321 and that's for any member of Hillsborough County that would like to make an appointment to get tested I mentioned earlier, please make an appointment, but if you really wanna get tested, come on in and we'll try to squeeze you in on the days that we do that. Great and with you know the current state of the pandemic and not what kind of protective protocols are in place at the health Center right now to prevent any potential spread of covid- 19 and to protect the patients and the staff sure thank you and yourself and everybody who's watching over my right shoulder. You can see two things looks like lights. Those are UVC lights. I put those areas as props. Those are what we used throughout the the facility to disinfect we use those as much as we possibly can we use a lot knocks down 99 percent of the viruses we implemented those just about the same time. this thing kicked off, we added Ionization systems through all of our air conditioning units in every facility that we have is another layer that helps to knock down the the viral virus load. obviously face mask are required in any of our facilities. You'll see all of our staff. The only reason it's my face is a little Red right now. I've had it on all day long, but the door is shut. so I'm here. Just with you guys what we've added that our our our PE, especially in the arena is extensive. all of our dentists are in 90 - five have been tested with that they were the face shields we're surgical mask over that knock on wood. we've been open since May eight for all of our dental services since the governor listed lifted the restriction on Dentistry in the state and we haven't had one confirmed In 19 being transmitted from a patient to a provider or from a provider to a patient in any of our clinics you know so I'm not gonna say it's never gonna happen but right now, I think we've we've put those measures in place the social distance and things if you come to any of our clinics, you're gonna you're gonna experience some things you probably haven't experience in a medical facility before we're gonna take your temperature before you come in to the building. I'll ask you a few questions about how your feeling and then once you. A facility it's it's a little bit more restrictive about where you can go what you can do those types of things we try to force social distancing you'll will be asked to wear a mask. if you don't have one with you, we'll give you one you know those types of things and then the cleaning regimen that we have actually. I just finished the out of our triple AC our civilian accreditation and one of their first comments were it's very noticeable about how much more cleaning is. On throughout the clinic, and it's very visible in the folks are just it's it's a constant thing now whereas we had our routine before now, it's everybody all hands on deck and it's very noticeable so. obviously we have to take that extremely seriously. We had a good strong infection control program before now it's just off the charts and I I'm here-I'm in our clinics. I feel very comfortable here And so I would encourage people that you know don't put off your health care needs. if you're not comfortable coming in, we'll do telehealth if you are comfortable coming in, I can assure you that it's extremely safe environment. Actually, I feel that our employees are safer here than probably they are. many other places in the community where where they where they might be exposed. Okay. Thank you now with maybe one more question about the pandemic What's going on? you know it's been going on for several months now. would you recommend that people get the covid- 19 antibody test and are there any suncoast centers offering those tasks? so we're not offering it to the general public. We offer to our patients it if somebody wants to get it we did that for every member of our staff Three came up that we didn't know about so somehow somewhere you know that was that was interesting so certainly I had it done I I swear I was sick in January and I must have it and but I was negative so. I was kinda happy, but then really not so much. I was kinda hoping that I was already had the past so certainly no reason not to have it done. and that's just another tool in the tool kit along with. That we're doing to try to mitigate the the exposure I think if somebody does have it done they they have built up some bodies and maybe they're a little bit protected Part of me that doesn't want them to end up kinda have a false sense that. they're okay. Maybe they are maybe they're not I was still ask them to wear a mask still do the social distance and still take the precautions and just maybe if they are positive, just maybe it puts their mind at ease that they have a little bit more protection than maybe the general public. now we're gonna move on a little bit a little bit more specific to you. the Suncoast health centers and what kind of services you guys provide do you have bilingual staff that can communicate with the non-English speakers. We have a lot of you know Non-english speakers not just in the 50 -ninth but all over the the area that Ticos provides for. yeah, it's one of our clinics are bilingual many of our staff. I speak Spanish and English, very fluently. Pockets we actually have you know some of the providers their primary language is Spanish there's secondary languages English and then we have vice versa. so that's in every clinic. Also every clinic also has an interpretation of software programs. that we use one of them is like you'll get on an iPad and we use this for like sign language. If we have to so we we we can we can do that the people doing the interpretation are actually in California. It's all done through camera and iPads and the provider and the patient and then the person in California are all working together to communicate. we mentioned sign language. we do that for Spanish, we do that We have a lot of spanish-speaking folks. a lot of English we do that's relatively easy for us is where we get tripped up is if somebody comes in with a third or fourth language that maybe we don't have somebody in-house. That I've got got a couple of people that can interpret Arab. I've got some Dui so I have some of that available but when all else fails, I go to the technology and we use a you use that as a backup that takes a little bit longer to set up, but it works and I haven't had any complaints about it once it's set up and once you're able to to access it. Okay, now to the centers offer any transportation services to patients, you know that might need to seek care, but don't have a way to get to a Center. Yeah. it's you know for the longest time we had patient transportation. at least we call the patient transportation had a couple of vans a couple of drivers and we'd and we would try to do as much as we could, But the reality is we've got 63000 patients most people have some way to be transported, but as you mentioned those. Where somebody doesn't and they're really in a bind they call any of our clinics in our clinic, administrators and all of our outreach people all understand and have access to an Uber account where we make the arrangements for the patient but it's all paid for by us and then the Uber driver will go pick up the patient take them to the appointment and then return them back to their home and we started that about two years ago, it's been very efficient, very effective. I got rid of my. Get rid of the drivers and so I need money. I was spending on that we just took it and then we applied it to the Uber account and we've been doing that and it's it's it's working great. So yeah if you do any clients or any folks out there that really transportation is an issue of contact any of our clinics. Let them know that and then they can help help coordinate that transportation right so now if there are people out in the community or people watching that want to support, you know the mission of the Suncoast Community health centers how can how can they? Like can they donate or volunteer or how can people who want to get involved? help? Well? I tell you what if anybody wants to donate, we certainly aren't gonna take. are gonna we'd love donations. I'd love to have some more, especially if somebody really wants to donate for something particular. a real need and it's a huge need in the community is is uncompensated or. children that don't have a means of paying for their their their dental care I would happily take any donations that we can apply towards those programs right now, we're we're okay. I've got a couple of different funds that I can kinda tap into, but that is one area that we always fall short, especially some of these extensive cases where we have to go to the operating room. all those get pretty expensive and then even just the the the traditional things that you know that we can help the children out with. That's that's always a nice and if anybody is interested in donating the first number I. Just give us a call or shoot you wanna donate. it's coming up knock on my door. I'll be happy to talk to him. well there is there anything else that we haven't talked about that you'd you'd like to address or put out there. and I think this is a great thing you're doing it's you know just awareness the biggest challenge I have running in the Community Health Center and I still run into this. I've been the CEO here now for 10 years, but I'll still be out in the community and people will ask or they they really won't be aware of all the different services that we have. To access the system I feel that's an area where I've been I've let the community down a little bit because I think that's my job is to make sure I get that out there so people understand these services are available. I don't want anybody in the community to think I don't have access to health care cuz it's just not true they come to any of our clinics. Let our clinic administrators at the front office. folks know the situation and we will figure out a way to make sure that health care is available to them and their families. Fantastic Thank you again so much to mister Brad Hermans, the CEO of Suncoast Community Health Centers for joining us today to talk about some of the the options for or underinsured floridians to get to get health care right here in the Florida 50 - nine. So thanks again for for joining us and thank you all for watching again. I'm State Representative Adam Hadley from House District 59 and keep watching our Facebook page for our next Tele-town Hall that we're probably In the next 10 days or so and thanks everyone for joining and we will see you all soon.