Scott Darius and his wife went through two sleepless days with contractions every 15 minutes before they finally went into labor and were admitted to UF Health Shands Hospital.
As executive director of Florida Voices for Health, a health care advocacy group that connects businesses, organizations and communities with health care resources, he said the experience inspired him to think about issues of access to health care.
Following the closure of four hospitals in Suwannee, Union, Bradford, and Columbia counties, Florida Voices for Health is working with affected rural counties to build relationships and understand issues beyond data. We held a listening session.
“What would you do if you drove up two hours away and said, 'I can't take you right now,'” he said. “What does that person do and what kind of life does that person lead?” What I learned after the roundtable discussion is that this is not a hypothesis. [and] The worst-case scenario is actually happening in these communities. ”
To address limited health care access in southeast Gainesville, local residents and health care providers across Alachua County are working to improve access in policy, community engagement, and education, as well as increasing food resources to the town. We also found a solution in expanding the .
East Gainesville, on the east side of Main Street, has always been called a food desert. Parts of town are marked as low income and low access by mile on the USDA Food Access Survey Atlas because there is only one supermarket and a Walmart Supercenter near Waldo Road. .
Conversely, health care in the county includes clinics and medical facilities, including, but not limited to, UF Health, Malcolm Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center, HCA Florida North Florida Hospital, the Florida Department of Health in Alachua, and private clinics. is an elaborate network.
According to the 2023 Florida Department of Health Annual Physician Workforce Report, compared to other counties, Alachua ranks highly in Florida for health care access, with the highest percentage of primary care physicians per capita. It ranks first in terms of number of doctors per district, and second in terms of number of doctors per district. But surrounding counties have only half as many doctors per capita as Alachua.
Medicaid and coverage gap
One of the challenges facing healthcare in Florida is the insurance coverage gap. Darius said Florida has one of the most restrictive Medicaid systems in the country. To qualify for Florida's free and low-cost health insurance program, you must be pregnant, disabled, living with a disabled person, and responsible for raising a child under 18 or 65 or older. Must be an individual.
Darius, who is also president of the Alachua County Rural Needs Organization Dental Clinic, said even as clinics move toward accepting Medicaid, it remains difficult to cover low-income adults.
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“Medicaid reimbursement rates are so low that everyone we see loses out,” he says. “Then you have a lot of people who are uninsured, and no one is getting reimbursed for their medical expenses.”
Although there are laws that seek to expand Medicaid coverage, such as House Bill 1529, Florida remains one of 10 states that has not expanded Medicaid coverage through the Affordable Care Act. .
This has created a dynamic known as the “coverage gap,” where people exceed the program's eligibility limits but fall below the federal poverty level for their coverage type.
social determinants
Addressing a long-overdue concern within East Gainesville, UF Health will open the Eastside Urgent Care Center on southeast Hawthorne Road.
“This development will eliminate medical deserts,” Brad Porritt, UF Health Shands vice president of facilities, said in a June media release about the Eastside Clinic's groundbreaking ceremony. “It also has the potential to eliminate job deserts, housing deserts, and food deserts. As this collaboration grows over the next decade, we'll see a lot more.”
In the same media release, UF Health officials answered questions on a panel, provided updates to viewers, and addressed community voices seeking access to primary care.
Jennifer Woodard, director of community engagement and engagement at the University of Florida Health Cancer Center, emphasizes the importance of understanding the social determinants of health, or the social factors that influence health. Masu.
Access to health care interacts with social factors such as race, economic status, community, and access to nutritious food, and cancer-related This leads to consequences such as higher mortality rates. Woodard said food deserts and medically underserved areas are similar in that lack of access to transportation, insurance and time away from work are some of the root causes.
To engage communities in the 23 counties it serves, Woodard's office is partnering with existing community health services to address needs identified by local social service providers and organizations. We are developing a strategy to For example, Gainesville's Cancer Disparities Research Collaborative trains local scientists and holds events to share health information, including an event to address the high rates of prostate and breast cancer in Black Americans. I am.
“The best reliable method I've found is to ask first. No one likes an academic coming to your county and telling you what you need,” she said. Told. “You respect the history that has created mistrust and are always doing your best to show that you are a good person.”
Kendrick Hill, 37, a Gainesville resident who grew up in the Sugar Hill neighborhood, said he's excited for city government to expand services to the East Gainesville community.
Citing the closure of Peaceful Sunday, a weekly event held at TB McPherson Park, due to safety concerns, Hill said the RTS's experience with limited routes and weak participation outside of election years Citing , he said he feels the city government is not engaging with the community beyond the state of Maine. street.
“All I wanted to do was do something for the Eastside community,” he said. “They make a lot of promises like when it’s time to register to vote or ask us to sign a petition. They’ll be there for a day and hand out food or something…but They don’t see the big picture.”
Hill engages with the community by promoting events and sponsoring food and book bag drives for children, partnering with businesses and organizations such as Swamp Religion, Little Caesars, Kava Bar, and Hookah Lounge. I have. He wants people to recognize their strength in voting and collective organization.
closure
Southeast Gainesville has seen a number of store closures and vacancies in recent years, from the closure of Gainesville's only supermarket to numerous store closures along East University Avenue and Waldo Road.
The effects of the 2009 closure of Alachua General Hospital, where the university's Innovation Square now stands, are being felt throughout north-central Florida. Ten years later, the ACORN clinic closed, followed by Shands Live Oak Hospital and Shands Stark Hospital in Suwannee County.
The closures and relocations of stores, medical services, and supermarkets contrast with the relatively rapid growth of areas near UF. Octavius Vance, co-owner of Lucille's Southern Kitchen, said moving closer to University Avenue will help their business.
Vance explained that he moved out of his previous location and into a food truck due to a disagreement in his lease. Vance, who moved Wims His Hair into the former premises of his studio, and his sister, who is also a co-owner, expects business to grow during football season.
“[My sister has] “I’ve only been here since the beginning of last year,” he said. “She's going to [football games] But this year. During football season, we move closer to the university to see what's going on and how business is going. ”
Across the street from UF Health's Eastside Urgent Care construction site is a strip mall that once housed Lucille's Southern Kitchen. His six-year-old sign advertising the lease of a fully-equipped grocery store outside the shopping center remains after the developer moved in. The company has scrapped plans to open a Bravo supermarket in 2022. As local residents reflect on their current situation, they remain grateful for the little they have.
“Luckily, we were able to get Walmart,” Kendrick Hill said. “And it took 20 years.”
Please contact Diego Perdomo. dperdomo@alligator.org. Follow him at X@diego perdo moak.
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Diego Perdomo is a third-year journalism major. Outside of his studies, he has never read a book cover to cover since high school. In his free time, he is an avid media consumer of comic books, Iceberg videos, and Wiki pages.
