The Cahaba Newsletter: July 2022
CAHABA MEDICAL CARE NEWS
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CAHABA MEDICAL CARE NEWS 〰️
CAHABA CELEBRATES JUNETEENTH
It's been one year since Juneteenth was officially declared a federal holiday. The celebration commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S. and has been observed by African American communities across the country since 1865. Juneteenth originated in Galveston, Texas after the Civil War when a group of enslaved people learned they were free, three years after the Emancipation Proclamation. For more than 150 years, this has been a day to observe that history and celebrate African American culture.
Cahaba Medical Care hosted a free community Juneteenth event on Sunday, June 19th, at Memorial Park on the Westside of Birmingham. The event included live local entertainment, food trucks, sweet treats, bounce houses, medical services and more. District leaders worked in collaboration and were present for the festivities. Also in attendance were our area stakeholders and their families.
With more than 200 community members present, Cahaba was able to provide health and wellness programming, community resources, Covid vaccinations, blood glucose testing, blood pressure readings and mental health information. Counselors, social workers, physicians and nurse practitioners were available on site which afforded the community access to information to aid in decision-making regarding their health and mental health care needs. Additionally, Cahaba provided volunteer staff to schedule appointments and provide information as needed.
Cahaba is committed to not only providing health care services in the communities we serve, but also to immerse ourselves in the rich culture, understand the unique dynamics of the lifestyles, and create opportunities to fellowship with our patients and neighbors in the places they live. With that goal at the forefront of our minds, Cahaba will commemorate this vitally important event annually in different community park locations throughout the areas we serve.
SUCCESSFUL HRSA OPERATIONAL SITE VISIT
As a nonprofit organization and Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), Cahaba receives annual federal funding that allows us to provide quality health services to those without insurance and to those facing hardship - whether medical, social, financial or emotional. With this designation and funding comes accountability; therefore, our organization must meet and maintain certain criteria as mandated by the federal government.
In May, the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) visited Cahaba for an operational site visit, during which they review our policies and current practices to verify compliance with the statutory and regulatory requirements. We are happy to report a successful visit and review in which Cahaba was found to be in full compliance in all areas of needs assessment, clinical service and quality, finances, management, and governance. Congrats and thank you to our staff for the work you all do every day to make this possible!
9TH ANNUAL CAHABA MEDICAL CARE 5K
The 9th Annual Cahaba Medical Care 5K was held on Sunday, July 10th in Centreville, in conjunction with the Celebration on the Green community event. This year was our biggest and best year yet with more than 140 runners! This year's race was also Cahaba's most successful fundraising event to date with nearly $7,500 raised for our Community Centers and outreach programs, including our food bank, clothing closet and Backpack Buddies program!
We'd like to say a special thank you to our corporate sponsors for supporting this event, as well as our staff members who graciously volunteered their time to help make sure everything ran smoothly.
We are beyond grateful to the many participants, donors, sponsors and volunteers for coming together in support of Cahaba's mission. Because of your generosity, we will impact the lives of many families in need throughout the communities we serve!
PERRY COUNTY COMMUNITY FUN DAY
The first Inaugural Perry County Community Fun Day on July 16, 2022 was a success. We are beyond grateful for all of the organizations, sponsors, and small businesses who gave their monetary donations and time serving our black belt community alongside of Cahaba Medical Care—Portia Shepherd, Project Horseshoe Farm, Mainstreet Marion - Donald J. Bennett Sr, Diane's Diner, CHOICE, Sowing Seeds of Hope, Marion Public Library, DJ/Live Band King Roper - Tabatha Jones, Hubbard Pony Rides, Wilgo Shaved Ice, Mayor Dexter Hinton, Commissioner Albert Turner Jr., and the Perry County Sheriff Department - Melvin Turner, and more. From a heartfelt sincerity, thank you.
We were able to offer free health screenings, community resources, food, live entertainment, face painting, games, door prizes, and more. We are excited for more days like these where we can all come together in love and unity. Change starts when we are unified in mission. As a rural healthcare organization, Cahaba Medical Care is in place to provide exceptional quality medical care to the insured and uninsured; beyond that is really where the rubber meets the road as we are blessed to provide food, clothing, social services, and more to our patients in need.
We have four providers at our Marion clinic currently—Dr. Lishman (OB and Family Medicine), Dr. Luther (Family Medicine), Lashandra Walter, CRNP, and Katlyn Norris, PA-C. We will be welcoming our first frontier track residents (physicians in training) who will be joining us in summer of 2023—Dr. Breaux, Dr. Murphy, Dr. Okeke, Dr. Wu. Call to make an appointment today – (334-247-1006).
“Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” (Colossians 3:12-14)
- Katlyn Norris, PA-C @ Cahaba Medical Care - Marion
CALERA HEALTH FAIR
On July 20th, Cahaba Medical Care hosted a health fair in partnership with Christian Life Fellowship in Calera, Alabama. Thank you to our volunteers, as well as O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, HICA, and Forge for sharing your resources with this community. We are looking forward to serving the residents of Shelby County when our new Alabaster location opens this fall!
RESIDENCY NEWS
GRADUATION
The 10th annual graduation ceremony for Cahaba - UAB Family Medicine Residency was held on Monday, Jun 27, 2022 at the Hyatt Regency - Wynfrey Hotel in Birmingham, Alabama. Eleven residency graduates were honored, as well as three fellowship graduates.
We are pleased to report that eight of our eleven residency graduates will remain in Alabama to practice medicine, five of whom will be employed by Cahaba Medical Care.
Left to Right: Philip Ojeabulu, MD; Tyler Rushforth, DO; Zeb Akers, MD; Daniel Kim, MD; Drake Duckworth, MD; Sherin Lea, DO; Caleb Consenstein, MD; Morgan Lepard, MD; Lucas Kane, DO; Shirin Amlani, DO; Isaiah Matroni, DO
WELCOME NEW INTERNS!
INTERN ORIENTATION
Cahaba - UAB Family Medicine Residency welcomed its largest intern class EVER on Thursday, June 16, 2022. Twenty interns from all four programs (Frontier, Rural, Highlands, and Urban) joined all current residents, and participated in our annual two-day kickoff to orientation that has come to be known as “Work Retreat” at Cahaba’s Training Center in Centreville, Alabama. Residents, faculty, and staff ended their time together on Friday afternoon with a float down the Cahaba river.
“ALSO” COURSE
All twenty Cahaba - UAB FMR interns, joined by 6 Selma FMR residents, participated in Cahaba’s annual ALSO (Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics) course at Cahaba’s Training Center in Centreville, Alabama on July 7, 2022. The course was led by several of Cahaba’s obstetrics faculty members: Rowell Ashford, MD; Jamie Bishop, DO; Keith Do, MD; Jenny Kendall, MD; Elizabeth Lee, MD; Lauren Linken, MD; Jonathan Peters, MD; Drew Posey, DO; John B. Waits, MD. Selma FMR program director Dr. Tiffani Maycock also joined the team of instructors.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Recent publications from our interns and their faculty advisors, through Family Physicians Inquiry Network (FPIN):
INTERNATIONAL ROTATIONS
JORDAN
Submitted by: Dr. Megan Ward (PGY-3 urban resident)
During our few weeks there, we visited a few different clinics, performed home visits for patients, and visited the Anoor Tuberculosis Hospital in Mafraq. My first day of clinic also helped to redeem parts of me that felt clinically subpar. I got to help educate and manage care for an infant who had a clavicle fracture during delivery, whose chest x-ray the mother brought in her hand. I got to perform point-of-care ultrasound for a patient who we had concern for deep vein thrombosis. I got to help educate and demonstrate musculoskeletal exercises to a patient with concern for rotator cuff pathology, as well as treat a young, newly married girl who had concern for urinary tract infection. While medically, I could have seen these patients in the U.S., the Lord reinvigorated in me the love and calling to medicine, and validation that I had learned a lot of things over the past two years. There wasn’t the overhead or burdens of charts and performance, there were just refugees from all over the world seeking to be helped because they were in need, and that is why the Lord called me to medicine. I couldn't have needed this reminder at a more timely point in my training. Not that I needed to go across the world to be reminded of this, but the Lord used this experience to restore me.
The best part, however, was seeing the Lord move through conversations between friends in homes. During home visits, we got to share our life experiences with some Jordanians, Syrians, and Bedouins. It was the most beautiful experience to see the great commission being carried out in a fully Muslim home. A missionary husband and wife physician team were speaking in Arabic and intently discussing Jesus’ work and fulfillment of the promises of the Old testament. An 18-year-old eldest son in the family had great questions, and they engaged in deep conversation about his beliefs and how they were similar or different to their own beliefs. It was at this moment that, despite not understanding Arabic and not having an immediate translation at the time, I was reminded of the great joy we possess in being followers of Christ and the obligation we have to share that with others, sowing seeds and trusting the Lord with their salvation. I should be willing to lay down everything at the feet of Jesus, and the Lord opened my eyes to the work He is doing for His glory. He welcomes ordinary people to help bring people to Him, because of His great love. What a privilege that is! I am so thankful for this experience and really, words fall short of how grateful I am for a residency program like Cahaba.
CHAD
Submitted by: Dr. Clara Formby (PGY-3 urban resident)
In May of 2022, I had the opportunity to travel to the country of Chad to work with a missionary who has been living there for the past eight years. While in Chad, I was able to spend time at a missions hospital right outside of the capital city, working with a pediatrician and a general practitioner from England. While in the missions hospital, we were able to treat kids with severe malnutrition, tuberculosis, cerebral malaria, and so much more. Unfortunately, many children showed up with advanced cancers, and we did our best to get them the advanced care that they needed; however, there was very little we could do in such a low resource country. I was also able to do many home visits with the primary missionary I was working with. We were able to use the home visits to treat her friends and neighbors medically, as well as talk with them, build relationships, and have conversations that hopefully one day will lead to the gospel. This was very helpful for me to be able to see the two extremes in one trip; working in a missions hospital versus doing predominately community medicine as I am still deciding how I want to use my skills one day long term overseas.
The greatest things I learned from my time in Chad is that the Lord first and foremost is calling for our obedience. Just as in 1 Samuel 15:22, “obeying the voice of the Lord” is far better than any sacrifice or offering we could give. As followers of Christ, yes, He calls us to pick up our cross and follow him, and many times that involves great sacrifice. But at the heart of it, He is calling us to follow him in obedience first. Many people are called to places like Chad where the sacrifice is great; but what brings delight to the Lord is their obedience to follow Him wherever He is calling them, not the amount they sacrifice. So this was a great encouragement and reminder to me that the Lord has a specific role and call for me and He is asking me to trust Him and follow Him in obedience, wherever that may lead me.
We are a community-based non-profit healthcare organization that aims to follow Christ in becoming an incarnation of love, peace, and justice for our patients on their journey towards physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being