John Gaudet accepting
The Fred Graham Award for Innovation in Improving Community Health in Nashville

The Medical Group Management Association (MGMMA) and the American College of Medical Practice Executives (ACMPE), the certification and standard-setting body of MGMA, awarded Bedlam Community and School-Based Clinics, Tulsa, Okla., the 2005 Fred Graham Award for Innovation in Improving Community Health. Bedlam Projects Director John Gaudet, ADN, MPH, MGMA member, accepted the award on behalf of the group at the MGMA 2005 Annual Conference in Nashville, Tenn. in conjunction with the 49th convocation of ACMPE.

The Fred Graham Award for Innovation in Improving Community Health is the highest form of recognition given to a medical group practice led by an MGMA or ACMPE member that has developed creative and innovative activities and solutions to advance the effectiveness of health care delivery and to improve community health.

Through Bedlam Community Health Alliance - a collaboration between the University of Oklahoma and the community – indigent and uninsured patients in the state’s northeast region can obtain free medical care. “This extraordinary program addresses a shortage in health care in the region, the financial crisis faced by area hospital emergency rooms in treating the uninsured, and volunteerism by medical school faculty and staff,” said William F. Jessee, MD, FACMPE, MGMA and ACMPE president and CEO. “Its focus on providing care to patients of all income levels has had an immeasurable impact on the entire community.”

Bedlam is a true alliance with community and hospital support to serve the neediest in Tulsa and in Oklahoma. Since opening, the alliances, a physician volunteer based organization, have had approximately 5,000 patient enrolled totaling more than 10,000 patient interactions per year. Of that number 95 percent have had no health insurance and 90 percent have been from working families whose jobs did provide health insurance. Within Beldam program, several levels of clinical services are offered including a primary clinic that operates on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, pharmacy and medication assistance, a network of specialists available in the community for referrals, a telemedicine clinic in alliance with the Akdar Shriners and OSU telemedicine programs, and clinics at Neighbors Along the Line and Sandy Park apartment complex. Beldam has grown to include other community sites at public schools and local housing authorities. Over the past year, five primary care clinics have been established in Tulsa, Sand Springs and Union area elementary schools.