June 26, 2004
Richland, Ga.

---

 
I am delighted to be here at the Stewart Webster Rural Health Center for this Cancer Awareness Open House.   Many thanks to all of you who have worked so hard to make this event so special.
 
What you have accomplished here is evidence for all to see that our community health centers can and do make a difference everyday for people in communities just like yours all across America.   You demonstrate in real ways how great the local impact can be when we step up our efforts to promote the importance of the early detection and treatment of cancer.   I commend you all for putting the issue of improving cancer care and treatment front and center on your state and local health care agenda.
 
Each year, more than one million Americans are diagnosed with some form of cancer.   One of every four deaths in our country is cancer- related.   That’s over a half million people each year.   The cost of this illness to the nation is well over $100 billion and rising.   And ethnic and racial disparities persist in access to needed cancer services, as well as in diagnosis and treatment.
 
We also have to fight to overcome some of the many myths Americans believe about cancer.   For one thing, many people believe it is inevitable that we’ll all get cancer.   Others contend that early detection is nothing more than a death sentence.  Untruths like these keep people from seeking the care they so desperately need.   With outreach like yours -- and our other HRSA-supported cancer collaboratives -- we’re offering people the right prevention messages.  We want to end the myths and replace fear with hope.   Without a doubt, we are making progress.   We are making a difference.
 
My agency -- the Health Resources and Services Administration -- often referred to as the access agency -- is uniquely positioned to play a critical role in the Nation’s ongoing fight to prevent and eliminate the plague of cancer on so many lives.
 
HRSA’s programs reach into every corner of America, providing a solid safety net of health care services relied on by millions of our fellow citizens.   We support a national network of community health center sites that provide free and low-cost preventive and primary health care services to 12.5 million people each year now.   In fact, these very sites are the front line of the Bush Administration’s push to increase more direct health care services for all Americans.
 
Right now, HRSA has major responsibility for implementing President Bush’s health centers initiative.  His five-year plan will add 1,200 new or expanded health centers and clinics and increase the number of people served annually from about 10 million in 2001 to more than 16 million by 2006.
           
In 2004, HRSA is entering the middle years of our efforts to meet the President’s goals, and so far we’re ahead of schedule.  In 2002, the first year of the expansion, HRSA created 171 new center sites and expanded capacity at 131 existing centers.  In 2003, year two, we funded 100 new centers and expanded capacity at more than 88 existing centers.   And HRSA now supports nearly 3,600 health center sites.  
 
Your work here at Stewart Webster is a perfect example of what President Bush and HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson are trying to accomplish as they push to increase direct health care to all those who need it most.
 
The Cancer Open House Project is a natural outgrowth of this mission.   When the project was born, it was our idea to create events that would inform the broader community about the importance of early cancer screening and detection.  As you have done here in Richland, we wanted to mobilize the community’s grass-roots leadership among a variety of partners and other supporting organizations.   We wanted to target those people hardest to reach and those who experience the greatest disparities in access to needed preventive and primary care services and get them into care. 
 
HRSA-supported Health Centers make perfect partners for these events because of their extensive presence in communities around the nation.   Already our health centers offer a broad spectrum of cancer care for patients, including prevention, screening, diagnosis, referral, and follow-up.   And I am proud to add that more than 88 percent of adult women seen at these centers are up-to-date with their Pap smears and more than 63 percent are up-to-date with mammograms, outpacing the national average for these services.
 
Ultimately, we want to drive organizational change within health center practices to ensure that coordinated and supportive cancer screening and follow-up occur in a predictable, timely fashion.    
 
Twelve health centers are currently participating in the pilot project.   Our goal is to develop a cancer prototype that will lead to:
 

• major improvements in communication with patients and among providers;
• improved levels of screening;
• better coordination of follow-up after diagnosis; and
• a detailed documentation of treatment.

When this process began, we believed it critically important to allow each community to shape their Open House events in a way that reflected best on the unique characteristics of the local area.   To date, we’ve held several successful events in eight community health centers in North Carolina, Ohio, Missouri, Colorado, Texas, Delaware, and Connecticut.  Cities like Denver; St. Louis; Wilmington, Delaware; and Fairmont, North Carolina.   The events hosted thus far are each unique to the local communities and are reflective of the needs of the centers’ patients. 
 
As a result, health centers have been able to strengthen relationships and increase resource development with key local partners by demonstrating a clear commitment to quality and improving patient outcomes. 
 
Let’s take what’s happening in Cincinnati, Ohio, for example.  Since their Open House event in October 2003, the West End Health Center has made remarkable progress on all cancer screening measures.  At the beginning of this month, the number of patients receiving breast, cervical, and colon cancer screenings had increased an average of 27 percent.
 
It is this kind of progress that we want to replicate throughout our system.   Let me say that all of our health disparities collaboratives do wonderful work.   They promote greater teamwork among health professionals, improve procedures to track treatments and outreach to residents, and encourage patients to take greater responsibility for monitoring their illnesses.
 
With our work on collaboratives, we have learned that there is a need to change health care systems from a disease specific focus to a methodology that centers on general health care.  Therefore, we are moving to a new care model which focuses on whole persons, not solely the disease of current national focus.  A key aspect of this change is the use of an electronic registry that will track patient data and their treatments.  This process will allow us to see whether treatment is working and what impact is being made.  We think we’ll identify more diseases much earlier by this approach, because most patients present symptoms of more than one disease.  

This new care model also will allow the Open House concept to be incorporated into other Health Disparities Collaboratives such as diabetes, asthma, depression, and cardiovascular disease.  We plan to accomplish our goals through a variety of methods. The template and guidelines for the Open House Project will be presented to all collaborative health centers at the upcoming National Congress and Reunion Summits which over 600 health centers are expected to attend.  Also, health centers applying to participate in the health disparities collaborative may receive additional funding to host an Open House event.
 
In addition, we are planning an Open House Event Learning Session for community health centers that are new to the Open House concept.   Representatives from health centers participating in the first year of the Open House project will share their experiences and lessons learned and will be available to provide mentoring to new participants as well.  The session will be highly interactive and will give health centers an opportunity for extensive and thoughtful discussion on the potential elements of an Open House event.  Participants will meet in person or via distance learning and session materials will be available online as well.   We will update you on all of this when plans are finalized.
 
With all these activities, you can see that the Cancer Open House process is off to a rousing start.  In the weeks and months ahead, we look forward to continuing this momentum by working with all of you at the community level to create successful, replicable models that will increase access to cancer screening for people who are most in need of our help.

I hope these few highlights give you an idea of the broad scope of effort we undertake everyday at HHS and HRSA to improve cancer care and treatment.
 
Here in Richland, your achievements are proof positive that individuals working together can change the course of people’s lives for the better.   Your work gives hope to many cancer patients and their families and is a tremendous boost to our efforts to fight and prevent this terrible disease.
 
In closing, I want to once again thank all of the Richland partners for the marvelous work you have done and will do in the future.  We will continue to look to you for leadership and inspiration.
 
Thank you.