随时随地和别人见面
As medical director of mobile medical services for Balti更多的’s City Health Department, Harris and a team of interdisciplinary staff took their street outreach to people who were injecting drugs and had no access to primary health care except through an emergency room.
两年半以后, they started about 500 people on buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder and now manage about 140 continuity patients with the disorder every month. They care for people whether or not they are insured, documented, or have the ability to pay.
“我们每天要给病人看四五个小时, 回到我们的诊所来, 试着弄清楚发生了什么,哈里斯说。. “It was an amazing experience that really embodied the ‘meet people where they are’ mantra and the models we’ve found that succeed with people who might not have access to a traditional medical system or clinic. That experience prepared me for a lot of what we’re doing now within the context of Covid.”
今天, 哈里斯是分诊分类的现场主管, 喘息的机会, 和隔离中心(称为TRI中心), an innovative public health project that cares for people who are either homeless or without a stable place to live while they’re self-isolating or enduring Covid. The center opened in May in a historic downtown Balti更多的 hotel.
社会正义和公共卫生
Both positions reflect Harris’s values and why he was drawn to public health in the first place.
在伯洛伊特大学，他的导师是名誉教授 生物学 马里恩法斯, whose bottomless passion for teaching about emerging infectious diseases and HIV opened many students’ minds to public health as a profession.
“Marion put me on this path of becoming a nurse practitioner and a public health practitioner,哈里斯说。, 在宾夕法尼亚大学读研究生的人. “I remember sitting in her office weekly, talking about health inequities. She provided the parameters and a platform to think about how to fight social injustice and to do so through public health. 我再怎么强调伯洛伊特在我生命中的重要性也不为过.”
When Covid outbreaks started occurring in Balti更多的 and around the world in March, Harris had to quickly convert the in-person opioid outreach program to a telemedicine service. Then he redeployed to help set up a hotel to shelter people in Balti更多的 who tested positive or were exposed to Covid. The patients didn’t require hospitalization, but they had no stable place to isolate and recover. That first shelter effort amounted to a quick solution to address outbreaks, 在早期, no one understood the additional needs and anxieties patients would face while isolated in a hotel.
The TRI Center, which quickly followed, has a much 更多的 comprehensive and collaborative approach. In a flurry of activity, Harris says he and a team opened the center in nine days.
真正的伙伴关系
“This is truly a public-private partnership between the Balti更多的 Mayor’s Office, 市卫生局, 马里兰大学医疗系统, 谁提供我们的临床人员, 以及巴尔的摩勋爵酒店, 我们在哪里实习,哈里斯说。. “We provide health assessment and wrap-around services for people and families dealing with Covid.”
By the end of September, the center had served 更多的 than 580 people. 他们不断地来. Open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, the center connects with people through referrals. Patients receive three meals a day, medical care, and case management at no charge.
研究员 贝洛伊特er和执业护士Shanna Dell, 10岁 stepped up to take a weekend post as the charge nurse at the TRI Center, in addition to her day job.
The TRI Center is outfitted to protect patients and health care workers through sophisticated infection controls, but what really sets it apart is its approach to comprehensive care. Residents get assistance setting up future health appointments, 接受他们保持健康所需的药物, and make connections with service providers that offer resources they might not otherwise encounter, 比如马厩, 初级护理, 精神卫生保健, 以及药物使用服务.
哈里斯谈到了一个家庭, 两个父母带两个孩子, who were living in a shelter when all four tested positive for Covid. 家人在TRI中心逗留期间, the team partnered with an organization called Healthcare for the 首页less, 这帮他们找到了永久住房, 为母亲提供心理保健, 给孩子们找个儿科医生. 当他们康复后，他们搬到了一个稳定的家.
并非所有的故事都是这样结束的, but when Harris reflects on what he and others have learned during the time of Covid, 他看到了未来改善公共卫生的巨大潜力, 比如住房优先和更综合的服务, like the TRI Center and a handful of innovative centers like it across the country provide.
“如果在这可怕的, 正在进行的大流行, 这就是我们多元化的多学科团队, 有这么多不同的背景和观点, has come together to provide this service to our most vulnerable citizens,哈里斯说。. “I’m so proud to be part of this project and our city’s response.”
阅读更多关于校友工作的故事 “在疫情时期的战壕里”.
