The Children’s Health Fund of New York City

The Children’s Health Fund is a national non-profit organization that was founded on providing health care to the nation’s needy and underprivileged children. The CHF began over 25 years ago by reaching out to homeless kids in New York City and delivering health care through a mobile medical clinic (MMC) driven around the city to locations and neighborhoods seeking out children to provide basic health care to.
Over the years, the organization has expanded across the country with MMCs in different cities with the CHF offering a full range of programs, from not only children healthcare, but healthcare for needy families, health education and preventative care, to the diagnosis and management of acute and chronic diseases (“Health Care for Kids” n. d. ). More recently, the CHF and MMCs have expanded their service to include mobile clinics in response following national disasters and crisis events.
The CHF and the mobile health care service it provides has had its number of challenges in implementation over the years. With the main challenge of reaching out and expanding coverage to help those of need, there are several other areas that challenge the organization and its operation. The MMCs face the challenge of accommodating the proper amount of space and medical equipment needed to provide high quality healthcare. This challenge is a goal of each MMC to provide a central home for individuals to receive care and come back to for continued treatment.

With this concept presents another challenge in that each MMC need of keeping up to date, and secure medical records for those who visit, so that they may continue to come back for care and treatment when the MMC comes back to their neighborhood or area (Brown, DeHayes, Hoffer, Martin, & Perkins, 2012). In order to accomplish the goals of meeting these challenges, the CHF must have network systems that can support the operations of running medical equipment and communications networks needed to operate a MMC.
That is why over the years CHF has been working to continue to upgrade and keep their MMCs up to date with the latest technology and communication that can power these mobile healthcare hubs. According to Healthcare IT news, the CHF has recently partnered with Verizon to create its first telemedicine clinic in providing 4G LTE wireless broadband connections to new mobile sites (Monegain, 2013). The CHF and Verizon plan to continue forward in the coming months and continue to deliver new uses of technology to mobile units across the nation.
For the CHF to be able to roll out new technology and software to support their mobile units, the organization naturally needs strong financial support. The CHF is very fortunate to have a number of private individuals and corporate partners who help secure funds for the organization. However, a large quantity of financial aid comes from Congress and other government programs. One such government program is the HITECH stimulus. The stimulus is for healthcare providers that exhibit having meaningful use of certified electronic health records (“Healthcare IT Index” n.d. ).
With EHRs already a practice of the MMCs, the CHF should be entitled to financial assistance that can continue to facilitate software and technology improvement. A common concern with many organizations is whether or not the implementation of new technology and software will cause a loss workers or staff, or if conditions will emerge that will render parts of their operation obsolete. In dealing with the CHF and doctors offices, this is not believed to be the case.
With new software applications, doctor office staffs and MMCs will not become obsolete, but will have their jobs reinforced with easier ways to handle patient information and documents (Brown, DeHayes, Hoffer, Martin, & Perkins, 2012). With help in this area, the staff can shift attention to more important areas such as giving patients the personal care and treatment they need. Overall, the CHF is a successful organization that provides valuable services and assistance to many citizens of need in our nation.
With its continued focus on quality service, growth, and improvement over the last 26 years, the CHF is a well known entity that many people depend on. With the CHF prepared to continue its legacy and service in years to come, recommendations could be made regarding their future efforts. Continued expansion of their crisis and natural disaster mobile assistance would be desirable action. Just like with the number or under privileged children and their families, natural disaster events will continue to be unfortunately present, and it’s important to help others rebuild and get the necessary assistance when nothing else is available.
Also, the CHF as it continues to grow and expand across the US into new cities, the organization needs to continue partnerships with local corporations and medical institutions. These corporations can offer their services and expertise to possibly facilitate the MMCs operations, and working with local medical institutions can help staff MMCs and other locations with med students, nursing students and others in a partnered-learning environment.