Lunch In Benefits St. Chris Hunger Initiative

To support the St. Christopher's Foundation for Children Dine In Help Out Initiative, the DMC staff skipped their usual Friday ordering out for lunch. Instead, the staff hosted a pot luck lunch and donated what they would have paid for lunch to the Dine In Help Out Initiative. Dine In Help Out utilizes the Farm to Families program to ensure that families in North Philadelphia have access to farm fresh fruits and vegetables with weekly pickups of food in neighborhoods. The plight of hunger in the St. Christopher's Hospital for Children neighborhood was featured in a Philadelphia Inquirer article. Since then, St. Chris in partnership with the Foundation has hosted a holiday turkey giveaway and is now promoting the Dine In Help Out initiative. Our CEO Carolyn Jackson was featured on NBC Channel 10 discussing the initiative.

DMC Scholars Win Prevention Conference Sponsorship

Noel Ramirez, MSW and Cymara Tolbert have both been awarded scholarships to attend the CDC National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta in August. Cymara is the Drexel School of Public Health student who has spent the year at the DMC completing her Community Based Masters Project (CBMP). She will graduate next month and we're looking forward to hearing about her plans for the future. Noel is the Health Education Program Coordinator for the DMC and an MPH student at Drexel as well.

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"Don't Touch the Needle"

Dr. Roberta Laguerre went back to school on May 12 to teach 100 pre-K and K students (and their teachers) at The Lighthouse Family School about the importance of not touching needles. Every day, "dirty" needles and other medical sharps are carelessly discarded by people without thoughts of how they might end up in the hands of children who then stick themselves with them. Some of this is by adults who have medical needs such as for lancets to check blood sugars and insulin syringes, but many of these are from needles used for illegal drug use and then discarded on streets and playgrounds. Viruses such as HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C can live in these syringes for many hours and then infect the person being stuck.

Dr. Laguerre says, "Stop, Don't Touch, and Tell". She also says that this is the most fun she's had in a long time and was quite impressed with how well aware the children were of needles in their environment.

The DMC offers evaluation services and advice about post-exposure prophylaxis for situations where there is a suspected non-occupational HIV sharps exposure.

Our Stars

We're honoring our Star Employees of the Month and here is our collection of honorees so far.
First (from left to right) is Evelyn Arroyo (April), our Lead Patient Representative who is the first person and last person people see when people come to clinic. She is always courteous and friendly and makes sure everyone's needs are met. Second is Daisy Rivera, PA-C (March), one of our physician assistants. She worked for months as the only PA while we had a vacant position, keeping us organized and surviving under a deluge of paperwork. Last but not least is Natasha Gordon (May), our medical assistant. Natasha is this month's honoree for her tireless dedication to the program and the uncanny ability to somehow be able to be in more than one place at the same time.
Honorees are given a crown to wear for the day, hand-made artwork customized to their particular star attributes to be posted on their door, a flower scepter to reign over her royal subjects, and a gift card as a small token of our appreciation.
Stay tuned for monthly updates of our Star Employees of the Month. Please join us in congratulating them when you see them.