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H1N1 prevention:
Get flu shot; Sick? Stay home
r. David Hilden is an internist at
D Hennepin County Medical Center
(HCMC) and an assistant professor
of medicine at the University of Minnesota. He
says good health is a matter of science and of
art. Good health requires paying attention to
the mind as well as the body, he says.
Mike Harristhal is vice-president for public
policy, communications and marketing for
HCMC. He joined Dr. Hilden at KFAI studios
for a “Conversations With Al McFarlane”
interview on the HIN1 virus threat to public
health, and to African and African American
residents, in particular.
Hilden said people are generally aware
about the dangers of the flu virus and that most
people are taking the threat seriously. “The
message I would like to get out to people is that
the prevention is what we need. Prevention
means staying healthy. And it means if you or
if you have a child who has a fever or is sick,
you should stay home, not send a child to
school, not attend a public event. Children die
from this.”
Hilden said there may be some resistance
to getting the shots that combat flu and H1N1
because the vaccine is new. Some people may
say, “’It’s not been tested yet.’ I think that is a
valid concern that people can have anytime
one of our doctors is going start poking needles
McFarlane Ford Reader
in them.” But the flu has been on scene for 50
years and the vaccination really does work, he
said.
Hennepin County Medical Center handles
over 100,000 visits to the emergency room and
has a clinic system that sees more than 350,000
visits.
Emergency Room visits are unquestion-
ably the most expensive end of the health care
delivery system and some fear H1N1 epidem-
ic level crises may overburden the system. The
potential uptick in emergency room visits will
at minimum create a huge financial hit for
HCMC and public hospitals and clinics.
Be that as it may, said Harristhal, HCMC
administrators, while hoping for and promot-
ing increased awareness and prevention, want
to assure the public that the threat of costs will
not deter the organization from serving those in
need. People who are sick with flu like symp-
toms should come to the medical center or a
neighborhood clinic, he said.
In recent years, said public policy chief
Harristhal, HCMC has operated on a
breakeven budget, reflecting the commitment
to be good stewards of the public dollar.
“Unfortunately what is happening now, based
on the activities of last year’s legislative ses-
sion and Governor Pawlenty’s line item veto,
the General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC)
Suluki Fardan
Dr. David Hilden (Left), and Mike Harristhal
program will experience a $43 million budget
and services cut.
Even the prospect of federal dollars from
proposed health care reform initiatives may not
be online in time to support services to the poor
that are on the chopping block right now.
“Minnesota has been a model for what is
about to come out of the Federal Health Care
reform,” Harristhal said. “Publicly supported
insurance coverage for families up to one
under 133% Federal poverty guidelines, would
be an excellent way to get more people cov-
ered. But that coverage won’t kick in until
2014 and so we got a couple or three years to
survive.”
“It is interesting that while this national
debate to include coverage for the poor is
going on, Minnesota is moving to drop cover-
age for almost 35,000 who need coverage,”
Harristhal said.
“I understand our budgetary issues in
Minnesota, which is why we work both sides
of the aisle to come up with a workable solu-
tion. At the end of the day, a covered life is a
healthier, more productive life, enabling a per-
son to work and then able to pay taxes,” he
said, encouraging citizens to contact state leg-
islators to ask for legislation to protect those in
need of healthcare.
October 12, 2009