Okinawa hospital opens clinics focusing on teen health, asthma and rashes
By Mark Oliva, Okinawa
bureau
CAMP LESTER — New initiatives at Okinawa’s U.S. Naval
Hospital promise to improve children’s access to health care.
Three new programs — the Comprehensive Adolescent Preventive
Health Service, an asthma clinic and a rash clinic — recently were established by the
hospital’s Pediatrics Department. These new programs will address specific health
concerns in those areas, said Navy Cmdr. Sandra Okatan-Mitchell, a pediatric nurse
practitioner.
The Comprehensive Adolescent Preventive Health Service, or teen
clinic, serves the changing needs of teens, Okatan-Mitchell said. The goal is to get teens
seen by doctors for reasons other than school and sports physicals or emergency room
visits.
“Research showed that most teens came for acute care,” she
said. “They forget they need annual check-ups and advice on diet, nutrition and
changing physical needs.”
The focus, Okatan-Mitchell said, is to treat teens on preventive
medicine and measures to ensure their health, rather than reactions to medical needs after
they arise. Appointments for the teen clinic will be scheduled for Thursdays between 3 and
6 p.m.
The teen clinic is staffed by one doctor and one corpsman, but will
expand as needed, she said. Scheduled teen appointments were expanded from the average
15-minute session to a 30-minute visitation to discuss and evaluate individual needs.
Additionally, the appointments are confidential between the teen patients and the doctor,
ensuring privacy about issues the teens aren’t comfortable sharing with parents.
“Privacy and confidentiality is the Number 1 issue,”
Okatan-Mitchell said. “It’s in compliance with all our military regulations and
the legal rights of the patient.
“It gives them individual privacy and empowerment to make
decisions about their own health care needs. They’re making their own choices for
their health care with advice from a health care provider.”
Okatan-Mitchell said the clinic can refer patients to specialized
clinics to address specific concerns within hospital departments, including mental health,
obstetrics and gynecology, nutrition and family counseling.
Okatan-Mitchell said the hospital will introduce the program to area
high schools, starting with Kubasaki High School, at the beginning of the school year.
The second clinic, the asthma clinic, will specifically treat
children with respiratory difficulties. The asthma clinic is held weekly with three health
care providers.
The initiative teams doctors on Okinawa with Tripler Army Medical
Center in Hawaii. Doctors here can link with doctors in Hawaii to share patient
information.
“It tries to get to the heart of what triggers the asthma,”
Okatan-Mitchell said. “Asthma is a very broad disease. The way we’re doing this
now helps the parents get the education and prevention they need to understand how the
asthma occurs, and how it can be handled. They come out of there very relaxed and not so
panicked.”
Okatan-Mitchell said after initial diagnosis and treatment schedules
are established, patients can work with the family’s primary care manager to track
medications and provide referrals if a patient’s condition changes.
The third clinic, the rash clinic, will handle minor rashes and skin
conditions babies often develop, Okatan-Mitchell said.
“A lot of parents say they don’t want to take up an
appointment because the concern is minor,” she said. “But if it’s a concern
to parents, we want to be able to help with it.
“Overseas, new parents don’t have older siblings and
parents to ask questions about small things like diaper rashes,” she said. “A
lot of times it’s just reassurance and comfort that everything is alright and can
easily be dealt with.”
Okatan-Mitchell said the daily clinic would run between 2:30 and 4
p.m. with one health care provider. It will handle any skin condition from diaper rashes
to bug bites and even sunburns.
“Half the parents know what the diaper rash is, but don’t
know how to treat it and it’s one of those things you can’t treat over the
phone. You need to see it to deal with it.”
Back to August stories
Page Two news roundup
Stories from July, 2001
Stories from June, 2001
Stories from May, 2001
Stories from April, 2001
Stories from March, 2001
Stories from February,2001
Stories from January, 2001
Stories from December, 2000
Stories from November, 2000
Stories from October, 2000
Stories from August and September, 2000
Stories from June and July, 2000
Home |
