Dr. Jennifer Tittensor

 

Dr. Jennifer Tittensor is a general surgeon who works with a wonderful team of surgeons and ancillary providers at Utah County Surgical Associates in American Fork.  She performs a wide variety of surgeries ranging from hernia repair to gallbladder removal. She has volunteered regularly with Community Health Connect for over five years and has helped over forty patients through our program alone.  One patient recalled Dr. Tittensor as the kindest doctor she had ever known. With her skills as a surgeon she has saved people from pain, heartache and literally saved lives.  Her main interest the last few years has been helping patients who are suffering from breast cancer. She and her husband Zach, an avid cycler have even started their own organization “Mountains for Mammograms” to help raise awareness about breast cancer and donate mammograms to women in need.  We appreciate the great surgeon she is, and recognize the asset she is to our community.  Thank you, Dr. Tittensor for your dedication and service.

Angus Dental Lab

A critical part of dental care is the hardware that is used in a patient’s mouth such as crowns, bridges, and dentures. Community Health Connect has several dental labs that volunteer with their program, working in tandem with the volunteer dentists to provide complete care to patients in need.  Angus Dental Lab is a family-owned and run operation.  Father and son team Rod and Aaron Angus are generous in the products and services they donate through Community Health Connect. The Angus’ are equal parts experienced craftsmen and cutting edge. They offer quality work with a name and a face. They are proud to stand behind their work and truly care about each client’s needs. When we asked Rod Angus why he decided to start donating, he replied, “This business has been so good to me; it’s my turn to give back.” True to his word, he has continued to donate generously.  He is always willing to take extra cases to help clients with desperate dental needs.

Thank you Angus Dental Lab for your generosity and commitment to helping put a smile on the faces of Utah County.

Francisco Sees Again

At Community Health Connect we have the privilege of seeing the lives of our clients blessed daily through the kindness of our volunteer providers and their staff.  One of the first miracles we saw came via Francisco Salas.  Francisco came to our office in June of 2009 with a referral to see an ophthalmologist.  He had been having some serious problems related to his vision, and he had been for some time. Francisco suffered from cataracts on both eyes that had slowly clouded his vision until he could barely see.  Unfortunately the need for ophthalmology services supersedes the available providers, so Francisco had to wait five months before we could get him an appointment with a volunteer ophthalmologist.

On Francisco’s first visit to Dr. Paul Olson’s office he was informed with little surprise that he was legally blind.  Dr. Olson decided that cataract removal surgery could help Francisco get his vision back, and we quickly went to work on making arrangements for the surgery.  Our network of providers includes doctors as well as facilities and ancillary care providers making it easier to connect patients to all of the services they need. With help from the devoted staff at Central Utah Surgical Center, Francisco was able to get the services at the surgical center and the anesthesia donated.  Dr. Olson, who also donated his time and services, was masterful in surgery and the procedure was a success. 

When Francisco returned to Dr. Olson’s office eight days post surgery, he had gone from being legally blind to having 20/40-20/30 vision. The remaining deficiencies in his sight could now be easily corrected with glasses.Many witnessed the miracle of a blind man seeing again. This amazing change was possible thanks to all of the many volunteers that assisted along the way.  From the office staff at Community Health Connect, the volunteer interpreters that helped Francisco and the doctors and staff effectively communicate, to the staff and anesthesiologist at Central Utah Surgical Center and Dr. Olson and his staff.  From Community Health Connect we send out a big thank you to all those who participated in helping Francisco get his vision back.  With the gift of sight, his quality of life will surely improve. Francisco looked forward to returning to work, enjoying reading, and watching his grandchildren play.  We are so happy for Francisco and grateful to be part of such a generous community.

 

Dr. Steven Call

Community Health Connect relies completely on goodwill of the doctors in our Volunteer Provider Network. Without their tireless contributions, we would be useless to the medically underserved community we are trying to empower.  We are particularly grateful to our one Rheumatologist, Dr. Steven Call.

Dr. Call has worked endlessly with his patients to get them the assistance they need.  He has been donating with Community Health Connect since January of 2009, and has continued the excellent charity care started by his father, Dr. Richard Call, in 2005. When his father recently retired, Stephen Call took on his father’s load of patients which has kept him very busy. With a recent influx of clients needing a rheumatologist, his service as the sole rheumatologist in our Volunteer Provider Network has been indispensable to our program.

One case that stands out as an exemplary model of Dr. Call’s tireless service is the woman he helped who was suffering from arthralgia of the lower back.  Arthralgia literally means joint pain. The pain she experienced as a result of her condition greatly decreased her ability to do everyday activities that were essential to taking care of her home and family.  Dr. Call not only donated her medical care, but he helped her receive the financial assistance necessary for her to be able to afford her medication.  This patient’s quality of life has greatly improved since she has received this treatment.  Thank you Dr. Call for your service to your community—it is greatly appreciated.          

Fluoride Varnishing Program Reaches Over 4,000 Children

According to an article by Amschler in the Journal of School Health, approximately 25% of US school-aged children have 75% of all dental decay, and almost 20% of children aged 2-4 have dental caries or cavities.  There have been studies that have shown that negative effects from oral health can affect the short-term and long-term life of a person.  Some of these effects can result in lasting physical, psychological, and developmental damage and lead to poor school attendance, lost productivity, worsened job prospects, and impaired nutrition. 

 

The dental varnishing campaign that is put on by Intermountain Healthcare and Community Health Connect (CHC) occurs twice a year in Utah County’s title one schools.  This campaign targets children with dental health needs and prevents dental decay through our semi-annual fluoride varnish program.  Dental assisting students from surrounding Mountainland Applied Technology College (MATC) schools come into the elementary schools to apply the varnish to the children’s teeth.  There are also Utah Valley University and Brigham Young University Pre-Medical students that come and volunteer during the vanishings as well.  In previous years we have had a school assembly where the UVU and BYU students perform educational skits for the entire elementary school.  Due to the time constraints and other issues we decided to hold off on the assemblies this year and just do the varnishing.  We still had the BYU and UVU volunteers educate the children as they waited in line. This year we made special efforts to utilize the school nurses at each varnishing.  We had the school nurse check suspected level 3’s and 4’s.  This helped us pinpoint the children that were in the most need of dental attention, and cut down on falsely identified level 3’s and 4’s.  In many schools we cut the list of children that needed continued dental care in half. This gave school nurses the ability to give more attention to the children that were really in need of additional dental care. Because of this, more correctly-identified children enrolled at Community Health Connect and will receive care from a dentist than ever before. 
 

The success of this year’s dental varnishing was facilitated by our partnerships with Intermountain Healthcare, MATC, school nurses, the local health department, and the Utah Migrant Farms. Worker Program. Together, we provided supplies and materials that were used during each varnishing session.  In addition, we donated dental hygiene kits (including a toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss) to every student in each school; the kits ensured that each child had the necessary tools to care for their teeth and use the skills they learned from the volunteers and in the dental assemblies.   We appreciate the generosity of our many partners in our continuing effort to improve the dental care of our county’s children.

Dr. Duane Nelson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Duane Nelson is an ophthalmologist at Utah Valley Eye Center. He has been a long-time volunteer with Community Health Connect, donating regularly for the last seven years.  In that time he has helped many patients improve and maintain their vision donating consults and surgical services to low-income, uninsured patients with ophthalmology needs.  Recently he helped a patient who was suffering from a cataract in her left eye that prevented her being able to see properly. The woman had lost the ability to drive and her day to day life was significantly altered because of the loss of vision.  Dr. Nelson and his staff generously donated the needed surgery and the patient is now doing well and back to normal activity. Vision plays an important role our everyday lives and Dr. Nelson helps makes good vision a reality for many people in our community that otherwise would suffer. Thank you, Dr. Nelson, for your contribution to a great cause.
 

Link to: http://www.utahvalleyeye.com/html/practice.html#nelson 

Central Utah Clinic Nephrology

                                                 

                                   

  







  Where can a Community Health Connect client, or anyone seeking extraordinary care, find it? Central Utah Clinic Nephrology is only a hop, drive or walk, away. Behind its welcoming doors you will find a group of hardworking  and empathetic healthcare providers  determined to serve their patients.  Dr. Gerald Stephanz, Dr. Terry Hammond, and  Mark Boyack N.P. consult, diagnose, and treat Community Health Connect clients and countless others. Together, the doctors have donated over $10,000 in services over the past three years.  
      Dr. Stephanz graduated from the University of Kansas where he served as Chief Resident. He completed his fellowship in Florida.  Dr. Terry Hammond graduated Cum Laudefrom the University of Texas at Austin.   He later did his residency and fellowship in San Diego, California. Mark Boyack graduated from Bringham Young University’s Nursing Program. These physicians decided that they wanted to serve others through healthcare at a very young age--one as young as 14 years!  Truly these great men have accomplished this goal.
     Our Community Health Connect clients always rave about how much they appreciate their nephrology care providers.  One client, Maria Reyes, with tears in her eyes expressed her gratitude for the fine service she always receives from Mark Boyack.   She said “Every time I see Dr. Stephanz and Mark,  they are always laughing and joking around with each other and their patients....They truly have hearts of gold”.  Logan Meeks, a patient of Dr. Hammond describes, “He truly is a genuine, very nice doctor. He made me feel so comfortable.”  Pablo Mauricio always smiles when he comes in to the CHC office after an appointment at Central Utah Clinic Nephrology.  I once asked him why he was always  so cheerful, and he simply responded, “Everyone there is so good, how can I not smile?” 
     Doctors Stephanz, Hammond, and Boyack undeniably provide services well beyond the norm.  They are providers who daily dedicate their lives to providing extraordinary care to all.

 Link to: http://www.centralutahclinic.com/departments/nephrology-and-chronic-kidney-disease#description