Integrated Health Care with a Heart

Patient was moved to tears for the compassionate integrated care he received at HealthFinders

Integrated Health Care with a Heart HealthFinders Collaborative provides integrated primary medical care, dental, advocacy and wellness education to people in Rice County who are uninsured or covered by public insurance. Our organization currently consists of two locations, a medical clinic in Northfield and a clinic in Faribault which offer both medical and dental services.  Many of the patients who we serve in our clinics have multiple health care issues due to long periods without access to health care. HealthFinders’ practice is to integrate all appropriate patient services and treat patients holistically. A perfect example of our holistic approach to patient care occurred recently at our dental clinic. The patient was being seen by our dental team for a tooth extraction. He was so grateful to be free of the pain from his bad tooth that he hugged one of our dental staff. Our dental staff reviewed his chart and noticed that the patient was recently diagnosed with diabetes. Our practice, in a case like this, is to refer the patient to one of our Community Health Workers (CHW). As luck would have it, one of our CHWs was in the clinic and available immediately to consult with the patient. Being diagnosed with diabetes is a life changing experience which can be frightening and difficult. Our CHW listened to the patient’s fears then calmed him by letting him know that he wasn’t alone and that HealthFinders has many ways to help. The patient was given the supplies and instructions he needed to test his blood sugar and insulin. He was also enrolled in our diabetes support classes and our Pura Vida wellness education class. His relief was so overwhelming that he broke down in tears and kept saying “thank you, thank you”. Without HealthFinders, patients like this one would likely end up with one or more costly emergency room visits they cannot afford to pay. In one day this patient went from being in pain and under tremendous stress to being pain free and having both the tools and support he needed to put him on a path to health.