When you walk into a space I believe that patient-centered care…it sounds so big and
lofty but it’s really just a smile.
It’s being courteous.
It’s those common principles of respect and manners that we learned growing up in kindergarten, right?
About sharing, about caring, and about loving.
The Ryan White Wellness Center was implemented back in 2000, so we’ve been around for 17–18
years now, but it’s my job to make sure that all pieces are flowing together so that
we are providing the best patient care possible and meeting all requirements that HRSA has laid out.
The uniqueness here at the Ryan White Wellness Center I would probably say is not only where
we are geographically, but I think it's the way that we provide care.
We have a high focus on being patient-centered and making sure that we’re providing high-quality
care and customer service.
Some of the benefits of patient-centered care here at the Ryan White Wellness Center really
makes a world of difference.
We really strive on us being less of a medical feel but more of a medical home.
As soon as people come and walk through the doors we welcome them.
We explain to them exactly what’s going on.
We basically kind of hold their hand through the process.
The value of this kind of approach is absolutely myriad.
There are so many vignettes that I could bring forward.
I think that success in our collective viral load—our high rate of viral load suppression—is
a result of the patient-centered medical care.
We tend to average for viral suppression anywhere between 87 to 90 percent for our patient population,
and for our patient retention we range between 90 and 95 percent.
So, I’m a firm believer that once we get you here, we can keep you here.
We want them to feel comfortable, to feel safe, and to feel secure and to trust us.
Of course, you know, if they’re coming in here with a positive result or coming in as
a new positive patient, there’s a lot of information being thrown at them, so we want
to make sure that they’re receiving all the information comprehensively and they kind
of know who their point contact person can be as soon as they arrive.
And then from there, you know, we just…they become part of our Ryan White Wellness Center family.
I’ve been here since pretty much the beginning.
I was diagnosed pretty early in the ‘80s, and at that point, places like Ryan White did not exist.
I felt lost. I felt scared. I was 19 years old.
I established and moved from doctor to doctor and then I got into Ryan White, and they were amazing.
I mean, they are like a family and they treat the patients like a family.
From the inception of the program, care through the Ryan White Wellness Center here at Roper
St. Francis has always been patient-centered.
The background is that this was an entirely case manager/social work-managed program.
The onsite medical care was added later.
So really, it had a…it was birthed from social work.
It really was sort of a medical home before there were medical homes.
One of the parts of our mission statement is to heal all people with compassion and
I think that the Ryan White Wellness Center does embody that very deeply by being compassionate
to a group of people that often don’t receive compassion, even in the medical field.
all those people that said, “You aren’t going to have kids this or that,” or you
know, “You won’t be alive for when your kid is graduating.”
You know, they were wrong.
Here I am.
I love this place.
It saved…not only did it save my life, but it helped me live.