Ellsworth Medical Clinic gets national award

• Staff

The staff at the Ellsworth Medical Clinic poses for a picture with the national award they received for excellence in hypertension care.
• Doc

Dr. E.R. “Doc” Jonas, one of the founders of the Ellsworth Medical Clinic, is surrounded by clinic medical staff (from left to right) – Kerith Lijewski, Christopher Tashjian and Kurt Helmrick. They are joined by Dr. Janet Wright, executive director of the Million Hearts Initiative, who presented the award to the clinic. -- Photos by Jason Schulte

Talk about it

Dr. Christopher Tashjian talks often about the entire Ellsworth Medical Clinic being a team when it comes to patient care.

Friday, that team effort paid off big as the clinic received one of two nationwide awards from the Million Hearts Initiative, a public-private effort by the Department of Health and Human Services. The initiative has a goal of preventing a million heart attacks and strokes by 2017.

The award was based on the clinic’s focus on managing hypertension. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, significantly increases the risk for heart disease or stroke. The national rate for hypertension is around 50 percent. Since 2007, the Ellsworth Medical Clinic has seen their rates rise from 73 to 97 percent for patients getting their blood pressure in check. The other award went to the Kaiser Clinics in Denver.

“Everything we do is centered around our patients,” said Tashjian, a physician at the clinic and president of the group. “We provide measurably better care when we include the diabetes educator and the care coordinator.”

Dr. Janet Wright, executive director of the Million Hearts Initiative, flew in from Washington, D.C., to present the award to the clinic. She said she heard Tashjian speak at a conference about the clinic’s practices and was blown away by what she heard.

“They were executing what we were implementing in theory,” she said. “…They were showing the rest of us what the essential principles were. Chris and his team have been a wonderful source of advice. ”

For more please read the Sept. 19 print version of the Herald.

Tags: communities, news, ellsworth, wisconsin, health