Susan Weaver Joins Senior Management Team at Wake Med
December 2008
After seven successful years serving as Executive Director at Alliance Medical Ministry, Dr. Susan Tucker Weaver accepted the appointment as Senior VP at Wake Med Health and Hospitals. Dr. Weaver’s work at Alliance combined with her unique medical experience with patient care and a strong personal faith that gave her the energy to commit countless time and energy to Alliance and the plight of the uninsured.
She has been recognized with numerous awards including the News & Observer’s Tarheel of the Week, The Triangle Business Journal’s Healthcare Hero Award and was featured in the 2009 Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation Annual Report.
Dr. Weaver will remain on the Board of Directors at Alliance and will serve as Chair of the Development Committee. She continues her commitment to medical care of the uninsured by volunteering weekly as a provider at the clinic.
Thank you Dr. Weaver for your commitment to the Alliance Medical Ministry mission!
Welcome AMM Founder Sean Harrison as Alliance’s New Executive Director
February 2009
After co-founding Alliance Medical Ministry and serving as an active member of the Board of Directors, including as chair from 2000-2005 and 2007-2009, Sean Harrison was appointed Executive Director this past February. Sean has a diverse background with over 15 years of management experience in entrepreneurial start-ups and Fortune 500 organizations.
Sean’s passion for health care and the working uninsured began nearly 10 years ago when he and three members from Cary First United Methodist Church envisioned a ministry to fill the health care gap faced by the working uninsured. Sean, along with Dr. Charles Mann, Jack Stone and David Wilson, worked earnestly with many volunteers and early staff, including Dr. Susan Weaver, to make their dream a reality.
Sean graduated with a BS in Computer Science from the University of Maryland and relocated to Raleigh with IBM. After earning his MBA from Duke, Sean founded and was CEO of Netstation, which was acquired by Nortel Networks. Later he started WindWire, a wireless software & service company, acquired in 2003. In 2004-2005 Sean piloted a prepaid low cost health benefit program for uninsured workers. Prior to his appointment at Alliance, he was COO of Brightdoor, a real estate software & services company.
Sean and his wife Karen have 3 children ages 6-12. They are all active members of Cary First United Methodist Church.
| Calendar Year | 2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008* |
2009 |
|
| Patients on record | 2700 |
3789 |
4800 |
5400 |
6500 |
6825 |
|
| Patient visits | 6545 |
9021 |
11104 |
13205 |
9685 |
10179 |
|
| Cost per patient visit | $91 |
$83 |
$80 |
$78 |
$98 |
$96 |
* 2008 was marked with a number of exciting new initiatives at Alliance Medical Ministry. The move to the newly renovated Grace Clinic and the conversion to an electronic medical records technology has provided Alliance with a strong platform for growth that will increase the capacity to serve the growing population of working uninsured in our community.
Referrals
- 33% Family and friends
- 29% WakeMed Hospital
- 10% Wake County Human Services
- 16% Media
- 9 % Churches/Health Fairs
Recent Patient Survey (FGI Research)
- AMM patients had fewer ER visits
- AMM patients missed fewer days of work
- 80% of AMM patients claim their health has improved in the last year
- 90% of AMM patients are very satisfied or extremely satisfied with their care
Reduction in ER visits
- 71% of patients surveyed had at least one visit to the local ER in the year prior to becoming a patient at Alliance.
- 86% of these patients had a reduction in their number of ER visits after establishing their care at Alliance.
- Overall, there was a 68% reduction in total ER visits in these patients (176 ER visits prior to Alliance and 57 visits after becoming a patient at Alliance).
Demographics
- 67% of patients are employed.
- 58% of those patients missed at least one day of work in the year prior to becoming a patient at Alliance.
- 90% of employed patients experienced a decrease in the total days missed due to illness after establishing their care at Alliance.
- 68% of patients responded that in the year prior to becoming a patient at Alliance, there were at least 3 times that they did not seek medical care to due concerns about the cost of medical care without insurance.
Patient Care improvements
- 63% of patients rated their health as markedly improved since becoming a patient at Alliance.
- 35% of patients rated their health as moderately improved.
- 100% of patients noted at least minimal improvement.
Diabetes Management
- Prevalence of diabetes in NC increased from 4.5% of adults in 1995 to 8.1% in 2003
- Total cost in NC in 2003 for hospitalizations involving any diagnosis of diabetes was greater than $2.7 billion
Chart review of 334 AMM patients with a diagnosis of DM:
- 99% had appropriate glycosylated hemoglobin (HgbA1C) testing -the national average is less than 50%.
- Average initial A1c average 9.9%
- Of 164 patients with at least 2 values, 98% had a reduction in A1c value since establishing care at AMM
- Average drop in A1c in AMM patients is 2.0% to A1c of 7.9% - Multiple national studies have demonstrated that for every 1% drop in A1c results, the risk of developing microvascular diabetic complications (blindness, kidney failure, nerve disease) is reduced by 40%.
- 86% of DM patients had recent cholesterol screening and an annual diabetic eye exam.
