Health Talks Raj Savalia

Today, Shannon Goold and Dr. Jennifer Swoyer discuss launching a much needed medical respite program that provides healthcare services for individuals experiencing homelessness. Pillars Community Health and BEDS Plus partnered to launch the program within BEDS Plus in Summit, Illinois. The program addresses the needs of individuals who had a recent hospitalization, but lack a safe and caring place for recovery.

Today, we’re joined by Patsy Jensen as she reflects on her time as Executive Director of Shawnee Health Care. Patsy is retiring after decades of improving public health and the quality of healthcare in Southern Illinois. She shares why stayed at Shawnee, fun memories, and stories that made her proud of the work Shawnee does.

I’m joined by Kandis Draw from the Hospice and Palliative (HAP) Care Research foundation. We have an insightful chat about community health worker programs, education for grief and loss, and some stories from the front lines of community health care.

I’m joined by Emma Kelley, who’s our manager of workforce development, as well as my occasional co-host. We chat about how her work supports Illinois’ health centers, and she shares memorable stories from her time at IPHCA.

On today’s episode, we spoke with Jon-Michial Carter, CEO and founder of ChartSpan about their proactive, full-service Chronic Care Management (CCM) program. They handle patient enrollment, education, care plans, and prescription refills, allowing healthcare staff to focus more on in-person care. We also discussed how ChartSpan supports community health centers' unique needs, especially for social determinants of health screenings and care gap assists.

In this episode, podcast host Raj Savalia talks about the social determinants of health (SDOH). He discusses how SDOH impacts community healthcare, online resources to improve SDOH, and previews a new podcast series that aims to drastically improve SDOH.