Heart of New Ulm receives $250,000 in federal funds
By Kevin Sweeney — Journal EditorArticle Photos
NEW ULM - The Heart of New Ulm project is planning on stepping up its efforts this year to bring New Ulm to a new level of health.
Friday, the Heart of New Ulm celebrated the authorization of a $250,000 federal funding allocation that will help finance its community efforts this year.
Congressman Tim Walz and staff from Sen. Amy Klobuchar's office were on hand to hear about the program's early efforts and successes in 2009, and to hear what the program has in store for 2010.
Walz lauded the local program, which received the $250,000 through his earmark request included in the $446.8 billion federal appropriations bill passed in December and was signed by President Obama.
"The vision of the folks here in New Ulm should be greatly applauded," Walz said.
"This community has a sense of focus, a sense of responsibility, for standing on its own and getting things done."
Walz said the health care debate in Washington and across the nation is complex, long and tiring at times. "But I think what gets lost in it is, the fact of the matter is what we are trying to get is healthier people at affordable cost. Any way we can try and do that should be our ultimate goal."
Walz said the sense of personal responsibility in the Heart of New Ulm program is an important factor. The New Ulm community, by pulling together, will be providing important data to the rest of the nation.
"We can work hard and we can create exchanges and reform insurance and work on Medicare payments and things that need to get done, but true savings are going to come when we do the preventative measures that improve peoples lives and that hit closest to home. That's how we're going to contain costs."
Walz said heart disease alone costs $200 billion a year, and preventable heart disease costs $80 billion to $90 billion a year. Preventing that disease through programs like Heart of New Ulm will go a long way toward paying for the health care reform.
"We (in government) are looking for the data on this," said Walz. "We're very excited. People are hearing about this. We think this is a smart investment. It is a ten-year longitudinal study, but if we can replicate this elsewhere, we've advocated using the preliminary data on this to talk to my colleagues in Congress and say, 'This needs to be a big portion of any health care reform. This is a public-private partnership, with people taking personal responsibility, working with their medical providers and working with incentives throughout the community.'"
Jeff Van Wormer, director of the Heart of New Ulm program, outlined the activities of the past year, including the screening of over 5,200 people, a great turnout at the beginning of the program, he said.
He outlined several changes in different areas for different groups involved in the program this year. The hospital will be working on restructuring electronic medical records to help red flag those at risk of heart disease. Heart of New Ulm will continue to work with community leaders, bringing in speakers to educate more people about heart disease and advances.
The project will work on more advanced screenings, including calcium scale tests that check the amount of blockage in cardiac arteries.
It will be working with employers and managers to start up work site wellness programs and get more people screened in 2010.
"In 2010 we want to take it to the next level," said Van Wormer. "Whatever you can do to improve the health of your workers will help your bottom line."
On the community level, Heart of New Ulm will be focusing on several areas. One area is meeting with restaurants and food services, to talk about changes that will give their customers healthier choices, and help their business at the same time.
The program plans to map the New Ulm area to identify areas where people have more health risks and work on a neighborhood level to get people motivated.
It will also be developing bigger community challenge programs to encourage people to eat more fruits and vegetables, and exercise more.
Several individuals spoke about the successes they had with Heart of New Ulm this year. Mike Grob of Minnesota Valley Testing Labs said that thanks to changes he has made with the help of his life coach, he has been able to change his sleep habits. Instead of the three or four hours a night he has had for the past 15 years, he said he is now getting six to eight hours, which has made a big difference in his life.
Terri Arnoldt, a teacher, said she was invited to joina mother-daughter running group. At first she couldn't run more than two minutes at a time, but now she can run for an hour non-stop. Her children, too, are taking a great interest in running and exercise.
Brian Serbus and Angie Pridde of SouthPoint Federal Credit Union, described how their company has organized a company wide health program.
"With a company our size, we wouldn't have had the expertise to do this without the Heart of New Ulm's help," said Serbus.
