UC Irvine Joins Hospitals Offering Preventive Care

UC Irvine’s medical school, in an effort to increase community awareness of preventive medicine, announced Monday that it will offer a new executive health program to Orange County businesses and residents.

Officials with the UCI College of Medicine say the program is designed to assess, identify and treat major risk factors leading to chronic or catastrophic disease.

“Many times, one change in a person’s life style can alter potential problems,” said Dr. James Lindberg, the program’s director. “Just lowering the blood pressure of a person can prevent a fatal heart attack.”

Traditionally, health-care programs created for the corporate world also bring high financial rewards for medical institutions, which reap new patients not only for the initial checkup but also for the subsequent treatment of illnesses that have been diagnosed. The programs also can boost the public image of the institution.

However, officials at UCI--which owns financially troubled UCI Medical Center in Orange--said money and image were not their prime motivation.

‘Real Need ... in Community’

“One of the main reasons for this program is because there is a real need for preventive information in the community,” Lindberg said.

According to UCI medical officials, the billions of dollars spent each year by businesses on employee health care could be reduced by early detection of health problems.

UCI joins two other Orange County institutions--United Western Medical Center-Santa Ana and Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center--in offering executive health programs.

The evaluation offered by UCI is tailored to the individual, depending on age, medical history and needs.

During the procedure, a complete analysis of the patient’s current state of health is determined by screening for diseases and assessing cardiovascular fitness. The tests will be given at the new UCI Medical Plaza on the university campus. Patients may be referred to the medical center in Orange.

In the second phase, a computer analyzes the patient’s health habits, such as diet, activity levels, stress levels, cancer risks and other factors.

When the evaluation is complete, the information is compiled in a report, which a physician from the program reviews with the patient.

“What makes our plan different from other wellness programs is that, following the comprehensive medical report reviewing all pertinent areas of health risk, our physicians personally review the data with the patient and recommend changes,” Lindberg said. “Other plans either mail the results or have physicians briefly go over them by telephone. We feel that personal counseling is essential to individual goals.”

The program will cost about $1,000 per person. So far, the hospital has obtained one client, Ford Aerospace in Newport Beach.

Lindberg acknowledged that the increase in privately insured patients will help UCI Medical Center’s ailing financial status.

‘Hospital Will Benefit’

“Of course, this hospital will benefit from the new private patients this program will attract,” Lindberg said, “as it will also allow us to fund various other programs the university is interested in and wants to pursue.”

Earlier this year, UCI Medical Center threatened to drop its Medi-Cal contract because of money woes. The medical center, which has 6% of the county’s hospital beds, treats more than half of the indigent patients, according to officials. They say the hospital was being reimbursed for just half of those patients’ costs.

“‘We have no problem with the hospital having programs that bring in more funding,” said Vicki Mayster, health advocate for a nonprofit organization that assists the poor. “We realize the hospital has to have resources to keep many of its programs available and also to avoid bankruptcy.”