February 7, 2001
Health care program gets connected
Healthy Futures receives mobile phones for clients
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Accessing health care just got one step easier for area families in the Healthy Futures program.
With a donation of 20 mobile phones from NPI Wireless, Healthy Futures nurses in the region can provide a limited-service mobile phone to a family with an urgent medical need but no phone service. Clients could include a pregnant woman living in a remote rural area with no neighbors nearby, a parent with a child who has an ongoing medical need or a family without any transportation to get to a phone or health care facility.
In any of these cases, reassurance or help in a crisis is now just a phone call away.
"It is not uncommon with us being in a rural area for there to be people without phones or transportation," said Pat Drake, RN, a Healthy Futures nurse with the Grand Traverse County Health Department. "Maybe there is a baby who goes home from the hospital sick and the parents don't have a phone or if you have a pregnant woman having questions about her pregnancy maybe she can be reassured over the phone. Or a family may not have a phone line going to their house."
The idea of providing mobile phones to clients without a phone occurred to Betsy Hardy, Healthy Futures program coordinator, some time ago. However, she put the idea on the backburner after not finding any vendor willing to participate. Then NPI Wireless got word of the idea and contacted Munson Medical Center, offering a donation. By late January, 20 phones were online and ready for families to use.
The program got a boost from digital technology, which allows NPI Wireless so much control over how a phone is used that these phones cannot be abused. Many times families without phones are young, low income or have a tarnished credit history; they may have even lost phone service in the past due to non-payment.
NPI and Healthy Futures came up with a plan that safeguards against abuse but still provides a crucial communications link. Each Healthy Futures mobile phone has just 150 minutes available, only works in the 231 area code and automatically shuts off if these conditions are violated.
"This just worked out so well it was an automatic fit," said Stephanie Scott, advertising and promotion director at NPI Wireless. "Because we are digital, we have a lot more control and can let a program like this happen. The phones can be incredibly smart so we can maintain control."
Healthy Futures nurses who work in area county health departments distribute the mobile phones. Nurses at the Grand Traverse County Health Department have seven phones to distribute, with two already out in the field.
Offering mobile phones to families enrolled in the Healthy Futures program is a perfect fit for the program, noted Hardy. The mission of Healthy Futures is to bridge the gap between families and health care - providing a phone service is a direct way to accomplish this.
"There are parts of even Grand Traverse County that are very, very rural," Hardy said. "We have maybe five to 10 phones out right now and I anticipate more by the end of this month. The families who received them were really, really grateful."
Healthy Futures began three years ago as a collaborative partnership with Munson Medical Center, county health departments and area health care providers. Nearly 3,000 children, both unborn and up to the age of two, are involved in the program. Unlike many human services programs, Healthy Futures is open to any family regardless of income or insurance coverage.