Women's Health

The Women's Health Coordination Center creates a physical place within the community dedicated to serving women in the Valley. This infrastructure supports and strengthens the existing network of hospitals, public health departments, primary care providers, community organizations, faith based organizations, and other social supports for women and their families.

Created by a grant received from the Health Resources and Services Administration in 2001, the Women's Health Coordination Center is one of 190 Healthy Community Access Programs in the country providing care and support services.

Griffin medical residents have the opportunity to complete community-based research projects in coordination with the Center, as well as gain experience in outreach and study design in women's health. The staff is comprised of public health professionals and physicians with special knowledge in women's health, epidemiology, evaluation, study design, and proposal development. Partners of the center include providers of women's health and human services in the Valley.

The success of the Center led to its designation by the Office on Women's Health as a National Community Center of Excellence in Women's Health in October 2002. The mission of the CCOE at Griffin is to increase the health and well-being of Valley women and their families through education, training, empowerment, research and the delivery of comprehensive care. The CCOE enhances services already provided through the WHCC and the network of providers it has established by further addressing the cultural and socioeconomic challenges to quality health care for underserved women. Some of the recent successes of the program include:

An increase in the availability of comprehensive clinical care for women. We offer a full-scope of clinical services for women throughout their lifespan. We have increased our capacity to provide primary and specialty care.

Training and Mentoring. The Center providers training to both lay and professional health providers and serves as a mentoring site for women in the health field. Leadership skill-building is woven into training opportunities to assist women reach their fullest potential both personally and professionally.

The development of culturally-relevant health promotion programming. The Women's Empowerment Network is a consumer-designed health program created to assist women in reaching their personal health goals. The group is driven completely by the women it serves and has received independent funding from grants and charitable donations.

Community-based research. The Center has many research initiatives studying the health of women in the Valley. When possible the Center espouses a participatory approach in its research initiatives.

Translational research. A partnership has been formed with the Yale School of Public Health to conduct translational research in the area of breast cancer in order to identify culturally-relevant intervention strategies to increase adherence to screening guidelines in ethnic minority women.

Valley Population RIsks and Disease Evaluation. Valley PRIDE is a longitudinal cohort study examining trends in risk factors of medically underserved and uninsured/underinsured women in the Valley.

Women's Health Needs Assessment. A survey tool is being mailed to 500 women to assess their access to and satisfaction with health services in the Valley.

Postpartum Visit Utilization. Data on mothers and babies returning to the Hospital for a 72 hour postpartum visit is being analyzed to assess (1) are there significant differences between women who return and those who don't; (2) in what ways does the return visit benefit the mothers and babies; and (3) are there ways to improve this service.