Inside Duke Medicine
Duke Raleigh receives national AHA award for community health initiatives
posted July 7th, 2009
Duke Raleigh Hospital is among five hospitals chosen nationally by the American Hospital Association (AHA) to receive the NOVA Award.
Established in 1993, the AHA NOVA Award recognizes hospitals and health systems for their collaborative efforts toward improving community health.
Duke Raleigh Hospital will be recognized for two of its health education programs – Really Awesome Health (RAH) for Rolesville Elementary School and Wholesome Routines – on July 25 during the association’s annual Health Forum Leadership Summit in San Francisco.
RAH, a model program for the larger initiative Wholesome Routines, was established in 2000 by a collaboration between Duke Raleigh Hospital, the Alice Aycock Poe Center for Health Education and Rolesville Elementary School. The goal of RAH is to provide health education to kindergarten through 2nd graders with the hopes of preventing illness, increasing preventive health screenings and developing life-long healthy habits.
“Duke Raleigh is extremely proud to have been a part of the RAH program at Rolesville Elementary School and to watch that model evolve into the Wholesome Routines program,” said Doug Vinsel, CEO of Duke Raleigh Hospital.
In a partnership with the Poe Center, Wake County Public School System and The Duke Endowment, Wholesome Routines evolved and took health education one step further. The school-based comprehensive nutrition and physical activity program is designed for 3rd and 5th graders in local counties and currently provides assistance to approximately 700 students.
“As an area health care provider, it is part of our responsibility to look for ways to support the health of children and families in our community,” Vinsel said. “RAH and Wholesome Routines are impactful because of the collaboration with classroom teachers and the hands-on, unique approach the Poe Center educators use to teach lessons that will affect life-long health habits.”
Some successes of the Wholesome Routines program include decreasing prevalence of overweight children from 43 percent to 34 percent; 28 percent of participants reporting having fewer servings of fried snacks; and 39 percent of students reporting an increase in their weekly physical activity by an hour.
“We know that hospitals improve the health of a community by caring for the sick, but hospitals can also inspire and work with those around them, so that together they can extend their reach,” said AHA president and CEO, Rich Umbdenstock. “The AHA NOVA Award recognizes those hospitals that through collaboration provide for the community through education, outreach and so much more.”
Other 2009 AHA NOVA Award winners are: Mission Health System in Asheville, N.C.; Jacobi Medical Center and North Central Bronx Hospital in Bronx, N.Y.; Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass.; and Holy Cross Hospital in Taos, N.M