Ebenezer Medical Outreach, Inc.

Huntington, W.Va.
Grant Amount: $25,000

Incorporated in 1996, Ebenezer Medical Outreach (EMO) provides medical services to the uninsured and underinsured of the tri-state region of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. EMO services approximately 1,500 patients who are over the age of 18 and are at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. About 23 medical providers donate 325 hours per month to treat these patients.

EMO was awarded a grant of $25,000 for a coordinator of their Healthy Lifestyle – Healthy Life program. EMO will pay half of the coordinator’s salary while the majority of the AMA Foundation’s grant will cover the rest of the salary, in addition to HgbA1C reagents. The coordinator will be a registered nurse who will oversee all components of the Healthy Lifestyle – Healthy Life program which includes identifying and enrolling diabetic patients between the ages of 19 and 64, preparing a six-week diabetes management education course, working with an exercise physiologist, and organizing monthly support groups, nutrition planning, and counseling sessions for those patients that complete the diabetes management education course.

To evaluate the effects of the program’s various interventions, staff will enter the following data into a statistical software program: HgbA1C every four months, weight and blood pressure weekly, results of a quality of life survey yearly, and results of a knowledge of diabetes survey yearly. Currently, EMO’s diabetes management program is fragmented into multiple components; the Healthy Lifestyle – Healthy Life program will allow all the volunteers and clinicians who provide health care to diabetic patients to better communicate under the direction of the new coordinator.