User login
One day, when Dr. George E. Kikano was taking care of a patient he’d known for years, the unexpected occurred – 25 million unexpecteds, to be exact.
The patient was Albert J. Weatherhead, a major philanthropist. Through their foundation, Mr. Weatherhead and his wife Celia have given more than $100 million to Harvard University, pledged another $100 million to Tulane University, and supported many other institutions nationwide.
They also happen to live in the Cleveland area, where family physician Dr. Kikano had launched a number of innovative community health outreach programs in recent years.
"Mr. Weatherhead came in one day when he was sick," Dr. Kikano recalls. "He said: ‘George, I appreciate all the good programs you are doing to help in the community. This is something my wife and I have decided to support with $25 million.’
"This was not money to name a building or put a billboard out there," Dr. Kikano said. "This is just going to go to develop programs to help the community."
The Weatherheads’ gift will bolster existing health care and disease prevention outreach programs. A multidisciplinary house-calls program, now in its seventh year and run by family physician Dr. Peter DeGolia, is an example. The money also will allow Dr. Kikano and his colleagues to devise new ways to address the needs of underserved residents in Cleveland.
Prior to the Weatherheads’ gift, outreach services were funded through smaller grants from other individuals and foundations. "This is completely mission driven. You don’t make money doing this, but you do it for people," Dr. Kikano said in an interview.
No one would fault Dr. Kikano if he chose to focus solely on inpatient care. He is the Dorothy Jones Weatherhead Professor of Family Medicine & Community Health at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. However, Dr. Kikano saw a great need outside the walls of the institution as well.
"We have great hospitals [in Cleveland], but health care is not the best in our county in Ohio, Cuyahoga County," Dr. Kikano said during a presentation at the annual meeting of the International Society on Hypertension in Blacks in Miami Beach. "I see two different populations. There is more than 20 years’ difference in life expectancy [in communities] 6 miles apart. It’s amazing."
The $25 million grant establishes the Weatherhead Institute for Family Medicine & Community Health. The institute’s priorities include fighting the childhood obesity epidemic; supplying fresh fruit and other healthy foods to residents who can shop only at inner-city grocery stores; and targeting the high rates of hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic health conditions.
Mapping of seniors in the local communities around university hospitals is another project. "I have 20,000 seniors living in poverty with no primary care," Dr. Kikano said. "When they get sick, they go to the ER or they see me for an appointment, with the next available appointment at 2-3 months."
Nearly one-third of noninstitutionalized seniors in the community live alone. Many are medically complex. The typical house-call patient is an older woman with five or more comorbid chronic conditions and eight or more prescribed medications.
"Most of what we see is hypertension, heart failure, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and dementia," Dr. Kikano said. He described ‘Jamie,’ a 97-year-old woman with all five of these conditions who "lives, essentially, across the street from the Cleveland Clinic." Taking her two blocks by ambulance to the emergency department costs the county $1,000 each time.
In contrast, Medicare reimburses the house call program $85 for each monthly visit to her home.
In addition to identifying challenges in the community, Dr. Kikano and his colleagues devise solutions as well. For example, after they discovered a lack of pharmacies in Cleveland’s inner-city neighborhoods, they found a local pharmacy willing to deliver with no extra fee or kickback. "This made a huge difference."
Although you may not count major philanthropists among your patients, Dr. Kikano has a message for other physicians: "The message is do the right things for the right reasons, and the money will follow."
In September 2011, shortly after surprising Dr. Kikano with his $25 million gift, Albert Weatherhead died from cancer and pneumonia. He was 86 years old.
Mr. McNamara is Miami Bureau Chief. Follow him on Twitter@MedReporter on Twitter.
One day, when Dr. George E. Kikano was taking care of a patient he’d known for years, the unexpected occurred – 25 million unexpecteds, to be exact.
The patient was Albert J. Weatherhead, a major philanthropist. Through their foundation, Mr. Weatherhead and his wife Celia have given more than $100 million to Harvard University, pledged another $100 million to Tulane University, and supported many other institutions nationwide.
They also happen to live in the Cleveland area, where family physician Dr. Kikano had launched a number of innovative community health outreach programs in recent years.
"Mr. Weatherhead came in one day when he was sick," Dr. Kikano recalls. "He said: ‘George, I appreciate all the good programs you are doing to help in the community. This is something my wife and I have decided to support with $25 million.’
"This was not money to name a building or put a billboard out there," Dr. Kikano said. "This is just going to go to develop programs to help the community."
The Weatherheads’ gift will bolster existing health care and disease prevention outreach programs. A multidisciplinary house-calls program, now in its seventh year and run by family physician Dr. Peter DeGolia, is an example. The money also will allow Dr. Kikano and his colleagues to devise new ways to address the needs of underserved residents in Cleveland.
Prior to the Weatherheads’ gift, outreach services were funded through smaller grants from other individuals and foundations. "This is completely mission driven. You don’t make money doing this, but you do it for people," Dr. Kikano said in an interview.
No one would fault Dr. Kikano if he chose to focus solely on inpatient care. He is the Dorothy Jones Weatherhead Professor of Family Medicine & Community Health at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. However, Dr. Kikano saw a great need outside the walls of the institution as well.
"We have great hospitals [in Cleveland], but health care is not the best in our county in Ohio, Cuyahoga County," Dr. Kikano said during a presentation at the annual meeting of the International Society on Hypertension in Blacks in Miami Beach. "I see two different populations. There is more than 20 years’ difference in life expectancy [in communities] 6 miles apart. It’s amazing."
The $25 million grant establishes the Weatherhead Institute for Family Medicine & Community Health. The institute’s priorities include fighting the childhood obesity epidemic; supplying fresh fruit and other healthy foods to residents who can shop only at inner-city grocery stores; and targeting the high rates of hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic health conditions.
Mapping of seniors in the local communities around university hospitals is another project. "I have 20,000 seniors living in poverty with no primary care," Dr. Kikano said. "When they get sick, they go to the ER or they see me for an appointment, with the next available appointment at 2-3 months."
Nearly one-third of noninstitutionalized seniors in the community live alone. Many are medically complex. The typical house-call patient is an older woman with five or more comorbid chronic conditions and eight or more prescribed medications.
"Most of what we see is hypertension, heart failure, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and dementia," Dr. Kikano said. He described ‘Jamie,’ a 97-year-old woman with all five of these conditions who "lives, essentially, across the street from the Cleveland Clinic." Taking her two blocks by ambulance to the emergency department costs the county $1,000 each time.
In contrast, Medicare reimburses the house call program $85 for each monthly visit to her home.
In addition to identifying challenges in the community, Dr. Kikano and his colleagues devise solutions as well. For example, after they discovered a lack of pharmacies in Cleveland’s inner-city neighborhoods, they found a local pharmacy willing to deliver with no extra fee or kickback. "This made a huge difference."
Although you may not count major philanthropists among your patients, Dr. Kikano has a message for other physicians: "The message is do the right things for the right reasons, and the money will follow."
In September 2011, shortly after surprising Dr. Kikano with his $25 million gift, Albert Weatherhead died from cancer and pneumonia. He was 86 years old.
Mr. McNamara is Miami Bureau Chief. Follow him on Twitter@MedReporter on Twitter.
One day, when Dr. George E. Kikano was taking care of a patient he’d known for years, the unexpected occurred – 25 million unexpecteds, to be exact.
The patient was Albert J. Weatherhead, a major philanthropist. Through their foundation, Mr. Weatherhead and his wife Celia have given more than $100 million to Harvard University, pledged another $100 million to Tulane University, and supported many other institutions nationwide.
They also happen to live in the Cleveland area, where family physician Dr. Kikano had launched a number of innovative community health outreach programs in recent years.
"Mr. Weatherhead came in one day when he was sick," Dr. Kikano recalls. "He said: ‘George, I appreciate all the good programs you are doing to help in the community. This is something my wife and I have decided to support with $25 million.’
"This was not money to name a building or put a billboard out there," Dr. Kikano said. "This is just going to go to develop programs to help the community."
The Weatherheads’ gift will bolster existing health care and disease prevention outreach programs. A multidisciplinary house-calls program, now in its seventh year and run by family physician Dr. Peter DeGolia, is an example. The money also will allow Dr. Kikano and his colleagues to devise new ways to address the needs of underserved residents in Cleveland.
Prior to the Weatherheads’ gift, outreach services were funded through smaller grants from other individuals and foundations. "This is completely mission driven. You don’t make money doing this, but you do it for people," Dr. Kikano said in an interview.
No one would fault Dr. Kikano if he chose to focus solely on inpatient care. He is the Dorothy Jones Weatherhead Professor of Family Medicine & Community Health at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. However, Dr. Kikano saw a great need outside the walls of the institution as well.
"We have great hospitals [in Cleveland], but health care is not the best in our county in Ohio, Cuyahoga County," Dr. Kikano said during a presentation at the annual meeting of the International Society on Hypertension in Blacks in Miami Beach. "I see two different populations. There is more than 20 years’ difference in life expectancy [in communities] 6 miles apart. It’s amazing."
The $25 million grant establishes the Weatherhead Institute for Family Medicine & Community Health. The institute’s priorities include fighting the childhood obesity epidemic; supplying fresh fruit and other healthy foods to residents who can shop only at inner-city grocery stores; and targeting the high rates of hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic health conditions.
Mapping of seniors in the local communities around university hospitals is another project. "I have 20,000 seniors living in poverty with no primary care," Dr. Kikano said. "When they get sick, they go to the ER or they see me for an appointment, with the next available appointment at 2-3 months."
Nearly one-third of noninstitutionalized seniors in the community live alone. Many are medically complex. The typical house-call patient is an older woman with five or more comorbid chronic conditions and eight or more prescribed medications.
"Most of what we see is hypertension, heart failure, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and dementia," Dr. Kikano said. He described ‘Jamie,’ a 97-year-old woman with all five of these conditions who "lives, essentially, across the street from the Cleveland Clinic." Taking her two blocks by ambulance to the emergency department costs the county $1,000 each time.
In contrast, Medicare reimburses the house call program $85 for each monthly visit to her home.
In addition to identifying challenges in the community, Dr. Kikano and his colleagues devise solutions as well. For example, after they discovered a lack of pharmacies in Cleveland’s inner-city neighborhoods, they found a local pharmacy willing to deliver with no extra fee or kickback. "This made a huge difference."
Although you may not count major philanthropists among your patients, Dr. Kikano has a message for other physicians: "The message is do the right things for the right reasons, and the money will follow."
In September 2011, shortly after surprising Dr. Kikano with his $25 million gift, Albert Weatherhead died from cancer and pneumonia. He was 86 years old.
Mr. McNamara is Miami Bureau Chief. Follow him on Twitter@MedReporter on Twitter.
