Community Health

A Spanish-speaking operator will answer calls to the Aprenda a Vivir Spanish Language Line of the Anne Arundel County Health Department at 410-222-4479, 9 a.m. to noon Tuesdays and Thursdays. Callers can leave messages at other times. Information about community health services and free Spanish-language informational materials are available. Baby care kits Free pregnancy and baby care kits are available through the Department of Health and the Healthy Babies Coalition. To order the kits, go to aahealth.

When the double threats of West Nile virus and anthrax hit Howard County last year, Dr. Penny E. Borenstein was at the center of the maelstrom - first as the county health official in charge of community health services and since December as acting county health officer. Now she has been chosen by County Executive James N. Robey as permanent head of the Health Department, if the County Council approves a resolution introduced last night. The appointment is then technically made by the state secretary of health and mental hygiene.

In the midst of increasing medical costs and a growing emphasis on preventive health care, Northwest Hospital Center has formed an innovative task force aimed at improving the well-being of the community it serves.The Randallstown hospital's new community health board is made up of health officials and professionals, Baltimore County officials, residents and area business owners. It resulted from a task force organized last year by the Northwest Hospital System Board to address health issues.

After more than two decades with the same set of dentures, Eleanor Noe of Annapolis would love nothing more than to see a dentist. As a part-time employee making deliveries for a local florist, though, she has not been able to afford to go , she said. "I know a lot of people who are like this," she said. "There are a lot of hardworking people who just can't afford it. Companies don't cover part-time employees, and it's just hard." For those in Arundel County who are in Noe's situation, things may be looking up. Beginning in August, the county Department of Health will offer reduced-price dental care to hundreds of low-income adults without dental insurance.

On a quiet, tree-lined Glen Burnie street stands a little health center that time forgot.With its institutional yellow walls, plasticchairs, creaking radiators and old-fashioned rotary phones, the GlenBurnie Health Center is vintage 1950s.Left almost untouched since the day it opened in 1952, the clinicstill has the same narrow offices, the same three changing rooms, even the same examining table and scales. But the community organization that built the health center three decades ago hopes to soon bring it up-to-date.

As part of "Celebrate Merriweather," a daylong family festival marking Columbia's 40th birthday, Howard County General Hospital will hold a Community Health Fair from noon to 5 p.m. July 15 at Merriweather Post Pavilion. About 70 exhibitors will provide screenings and health and safety information. Local nonprofit organizations will provide information on services available in the community. The fair, which is being held on the final day of Columbia's birthday celebration, will be in Merriweather Post Pavilion's VIP parking area; signs will guide motorists to the VIP parking lot. Admission is free.

To our shame, 46 million people in this country lack health care coverage, and 800,000 of them reside in this state. A similar number of Marylanders have inadequate coverage. Though we are the nation's second-wealthiest state, officials have rejected proposed improvements in health care as too expensive, and it has been nearly impossible to build the consensus necessary for reform. Happily, it turns out that we've already allocated our health care system much of the money it needs. Hardly anyone has heard of community benefit dollars, but they're ours to use. Here's how. The Internal Revenue Service requires that nonprofit hospitals spend community benefit funds at the recommended rate of 5 percent of their total operating costs.

Alice Murray could be playing golf. Or bridge. Or just spending time relaxing on her 68-acre farm in Cumberstone, sitting on the porch overlooking the West River.After 36 years as a public health nurse, most folks figured she had earned a little R&R when she retired from the Anne Arundel County Health Department in April 1993.But after a four-month trip to Japan to visit her daughter and son-in-law who were stationed there with the U.S. Navy and two weeks back home "to clean house," Mrs. Murray was back to what she loved best -- community health -- this time volunteering three or four days a week at the Owensville Medical Center in South County.

The House of Delegates will debate today a sweeping health care initiative that would be partly funded by a new tax on HMO premiums after the bill was approved by a key committee yesterday. The plan proposed by Del. John A. Hurson, a Montgomery County Democrat and chairman of the Health and Government Operations Committee, would provide more money for community health centers, refer Marylanders without insurance coverage to those centers and elsewhere, and provide Medicaid coverage to 75,000 more residents by making eligibility requirements less restrictive.

HCC's president wins Horizon Foundation leadership award Mary Ellen Duncan, president of Howard Community College, was named the first winner of the Richard G. McCauley Leadership Award by the Horizon Foundation at a Horizon Awards Breakfast on June 11. Duncan was recognized for her transformative leadership in the area of community health, said Richard M. Krieg, president and chief executive officer of the Horizon Foundation, who noted Duncan's expansion...