Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Quality Care for Refugees

Year after year, America’s hospitals respond to meet pressing community health care needs. In 2008 after the closing of a local health center which had treated large numbers of refugees, Rochester (N.Y.) General Health System (RGHS) created the Refugee Healthcare Program the same year. RGHS collaborated with the county health department and the Catholic Family Center to help ensure these patients entered the community’s primary care practices, many of them owned by the health system. “Refugee patient navigators”—previously resettled refugees who are trained by RGHS—act as interpreters and guides. In addition, to increase the community’s capacity to provide health care for future refugees, RGHS partnered with a local university to create a “refugee health care” clinical rotation for students training to be physician assistants.  To improve its staff’s cultural competence, RGHS developed intranet content that provides information about the refugees’ cultures. That information is now available to the entire community. Since the program started, results have been positive: More than 2,400 people, about 96 percent of newly arrived refugees, have received services, and primary care providers see 97 percent of new refugees within 30 days. All participants have Medicaid insurance, and the program is self-sustaining.
For more information, contact James Sutton, director, office of community outreach, at james.sutton@rochestergeneral.org.