January 18, 2011

Urban Health Institute plans to hold community forum

The Urban Health Institute has announced that it will be hosting a community forum focused on Johns Hopkins’ Access Partnership. Launched in 2009, The Access Partnership is an innovative program that provides free specialty-care access to uninsured patients who live in the neighborhoods around The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Bayview Medical Center. It is the first of its kind in Baltimore.

Ron Peterson, president of The Johns Hopkins Hospital, will serve on the panel, as will faith leaders involved in the preliminary conversations about health care access for East Baltimore.

TAP proved so successful that it expanded from covering patients living in ZIP codes 21205 and 21213 to include clinic patients from 21202, 21231 and 21224. Roughly 1,130 patients who live near the two campuses are eligible.

The Community-Hopkins Forum on The Access Partnership will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 2. It is open only to invited guests.

Other Johns Hopkins participants are Barbara Cook, medical director of TAP; Anne Langley, director of Health Policy Planning, Johns Hopkins Health System; and Sai Ma, assistant scientist, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and TAP evaluator.