From providing comprehensive health care to the uninsured, to explaining medical services in Spanish and Sudanese, to offering medical services in Nebraska’s and Iowa’s rural communities, Creighton University Medical Center’s community programs serve more than 460,000 patients annually.

Creighton is a regional leader in providing free or unreimbursed health care to the underserved — which is equivalent to more than $26 million annually in health care costs. In addition, 100 percent of Creighton medical students volunteer to provide health services during their four years of medical school.

The following is a sample of Creighton University Medical Center’s community outreach programs:

Foundations for the Future:
Focus on Health Professions is a partnership with Omaha Public Schools, informing students about health professions and career opportunities. Minority students in grades seven through 12 explore a variety of health professions at Creighton through presentations, student exercises, observation and shadowing health professionals.

Build A Human Project (pictured at right) fosters interest and desire of young students to learn about science and medicine. Junior high students construct molecular and functional anatomic models and experiments during this 12-day on-campus summer session facilitated by Creighton faculty.

Health Professions Partnership Initiative (HPPI) improves the quality of math and science education in Omaha schools; enhances educational achievement of students. Creighton provides study skills training, teacher development, laboratory experience and mentoring. Since 2000, 820 students have participated and several have received college scholarships.

Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP) develops and supports young people’s interest in medical and other health professions careers. Creighton hosts 7th and 8th graders in a Health Careers Exploration Club. Students are provided enrichment classes in sciences, math, and study skills during a six-week summer program. Field trips emphasize community service and cultural immersion.

Health Sciences, Multicultural and Community Affairs (HS-MACA) is a program which helps recruit, support and retain minority students, and promotes Creighton student and faculty involvement in community service organizations. This program recently received a three-year $1.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration to help support these goals.

Summer Research Training Program assists minority pre-college and college students in understanding scientific and research methods. Students are assigned a Creighton faculty mentor who involves them in a research project. (Pictured at right, Roselea Cook won two national awards for her work in Creighton's osteoporosis research laboratory as part of the training program.)

Medical Post-Baccalaureate Program was established in 1975. This program aims to increase the number of qualified disadvantaged students enrolled in and successfully completing medical or dental school. Creighton provides psychosocial support, clinical experiences, mentoring, and intensive academic preparation to correct educational deficiencies. Of the nearly 400 students who have completed the program, approximately 350 have matriculated in at least 35 medical schools.

Community Partnerships:
Reducing Health Disparities: Cardiovascular Risk Factor Screening & Intervention in African-American Adults (CARSI), Creighton Heart Education Center (CHEC) and the Women’s Community Health Center (WCHC) are three related programs providing education programs and conducting prevention and treatment research targeting diseases that occur in African Americans, Latinos, women and other populations to reduce health care disparities.

Creighton University Glaucoma Outreach Efforts offered in areas with a population of at-risk individuals, including African Americans, Hispanics and those over age 65 in Omaha and outlying areas, and the indigent population of St. Lucia, West Indies. Creighton provides screening and awareness events during Glaucoma Awareness Month. (Pictured at right, Dr. Sade Kosoko-Lasaki, associate vice president for Health Sciences, Multicultural and Community Affairs, and associate professor of Ophthalmology, serves as project director for the Glaucoma Outreach program as well as many of the Foundations for the Future projects.)

National Minority Health Month was introduced in Nebraska in 2001 under Creighton’s leadership. Health fairs, screenings, conferences and seminars are held throughout the month of April to educate health professionals and increase awareness of health disparities in minority populations. (Pictured at left, Thomas T. Yoshikawa, M.D., chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine, spoke at Creighton on minority health care in 2002 as part of Creighton-sponsored events during Minority Health Month.)

Community Resources for Infants & Babies (CRIB) is a program led by Dr. Larry Brown to effectively reduce infant mortality and help eliminate barriers that prevent access to health care for children and their caretakers.

Poison Control Center fulfills a community and regional need. When the poison control center at another area hospital announced it was planning to outsource its calls to a large regional call center, Creighton, UNMC, Nebraska Medical Center and the State of Nebraska stepped in with funding and personnel to make sure Nebraska would maintain this fundamental community resource.

Student involvement:
Habitat for Humanity provides decent affordable housing for those living in substandard housing. Creighton is one of three medical schools in the country with a Habitat for Humanity chapter. Last year, 650 medical students participated in numerous building projects.

Creighton Medical Student Outreach Program provides health care for disadvantaged, uninsured, and often homeless persons in Omaha. Student volunteers, with faculty supervision, provide care for homeless at Sienna Francis House.

Institute for Latin American Concern (ILAC) immerses students and professionals in the life of Dominican campos while they provide health care and education to Dominicans living in mostly rural locations without ready access to health care.

Socially Marginalized Patients are not forgotten in this course coordinated by the Department of Psychiatry and the Center for Health Policy and Ethics. Second-year medical students select care facilities that serve populations at risk of being excluded from quality health care. Students visit the facilities and present their findings to the entire medical school class.

Project C.U.R.E. – Creighton United in Relief Efforts-- (pictured at right) is a program that provides health education and primary prevention to underserved and minority populations in Omaha and eastern Nebraska. Project C.U.R.E. also enables students to travel to Peru and India for service learning opportunities.

Student National Medical Association (SNMA)’s chapter at Creighton provided health education in schools, health fairs, screening events and volunteered at OneWorld Community and supported minority student recruitment efforts.

Community Clinics:
Creighton collaborates with community-based organizations to deliver health care to underserved populations. These community-based organizations include the following:

Charles Drew Health Center, 2915 Grant St., opened in 1983 to provide comprehensive health care to the underserved population in north and northeast Omaha. Creighton has been affiliated with Drew Health Center since it began and has provided medical staff and resident services.

Fred Leroy Health & Wellness Center, 2602 J Street, provides medical and dental services and health education to Native Americans. Creighton faculty member is the medical director and on-site physician. Creighton also provides transportation for patients without means.

OneWorld Community Health Center, (pictured at left) 1723 South 17th St., provides culturally respectful, quality medical and dental services and disease prevention activities to underserved immigrants and Native Americans in South Omaha. Creighton faculty and residents provide family, obstetrical and dental services. All services are offered in Spanish, Sudanese and English.

Hope Medical Outreach Coalition is a program in which Creighton faculty and residents, and other health care providers in the community, provide medical, dental, home health and pharmacy services to uninsured persons in Omaha. Targets men, women and children living at or below the federal poverty level. A Creighton faculty member is the medical director.

Creighton also operates it own clinics to bring healthcare to the underserved. They include:

Creighton University Family Healthcare provides care in areas of Omaha with a dearth of health care services. Creighton provides home visits by nurses, and provides and maintains Health Child Passports (pocket size health and immunization cards), as well as training programs for interpreters and cultural competence. In the 1970s and 80s many health care providers moved to west Omaha to follow affluent population, leaving the eastern corridor with a paucity of health care providers. Creighton developed community primary care centers in these underserved areas.

Creighton Rural Health Care alleviates the burden of rural residents traveling to urban areas for specialty care. Creighton provides specialty consultations and services from allergy to vascular surgery to rural residents up to 210 miles from Omaha.