How to integrate women's health services
January 1, 1997
How to integrate women’s health services
These are recommendations from John Byrnes, MD, president and CEO of Lovelace Health Systems in Albuquerque, NM, for integrating women’s health services into your organization:
• See what others are doing.
Network with other organizations and find out what types of women’s health services they are providing.
"Get a good sample of the ideas and innovation that are out there and then decide what is realistic to bring back to your [facility] and put into place," he says. "That way, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel."
• Take small steps at first.
Only look at one or two women’s health diagnoses to improve at a time, such as breast cancer.
"Let’s say you just wanted to start a huge push in your community to make sure all [women] had mammograms," Byrnes says. "That would be a great public health initiative to start with and raise awareness. Start small and make sure you’re successful, and you’ll stack the deck in your favor for future projects."
• Include as many other providers as you can.
If the hospital has a partnership with providers in the community, make sure they are part of the process of improving women’s health services.
"And if you have any employers in the community who are buying the insurance products, that makes it even more powerful because then you can do a lot of awareness-raising within the work site," Byrnes says.
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