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Hospital hopes to use church volunteers to educate the public

HANCOCK COUNTY, Ind. (WISH) – Hancock Regional Hospital is working to make Hancock County healthier and reduce medical costs by raising awareness about preventative care.

Russel Jarvis, the chaplain at Hancock Regional, is leading the effort. Jarvis is modeling the program off a similar idea in Memphis Tennessee. Jarvis wants to find volunteers from local churches who will work with a designated staff member at the hospital.

That hospital staff member would coordinate with the church volunteers and help them teach their congregations about preventative care resources. They would also help people connect with primary care doctors and develop a long term health care plan.

Jarvis said educating people in Hancock County would significantly cut medical costs.

“We have a lot of folks that are accessing the emergency department as their primary focus of care. That’s not only expensive, but it’s really inconvenient for them and it doesn’t really give them a long term continuum of care,” said Jarvis.

Jarvis said during the first two years of the program in Memphis, patients involved saw medical costs decrease by 42 percent.

“We really want to keep people out of the hospital. that’s really how health care is being delivered differently these days. More of an approach to wellness and population health. Of course we’re here. We’ll always be here for folks that need things of an emergent nature. But we really want to work with pastors to keep people out of the hospital,” said Jarvis.

While the goal is to keep people out of the emergency room, the program also would help patients admitted to the hospital.

Church volunteers would work with members of their congregation during and after hospital procedures to make sure they are recovering properly. Jarvis said that will reduce the number of hospital re-admissions.

Jarvis wants to have ten churches involved before the program officially gets started in September.

He said there are about 100 churches in and around Hancock County and hopes to eventually work with at least 40 of them.  After the program gets going with churches, the hospital may start teaming with other groups in the area to reach even more people.