Promoting Preventive Health Care for All

The untimely death of an uncle and the unexpected refusal of a nearby hospital to care for him had a profound impression on Harris County Hospital District administrator Alicia Reyes.

She was only 16.

"That’s when I knew I had to do something to help people," she recalled.

Reyes is now the administrator of the hospital district’s Community Health Program, the Houston area’s first true integrated health care system that annually has nearly 550,000 patient visits at its 11 neighborhood health centers, a dental center, six school-based clinics, 13 homeless shelter clinics and five mobile health units.

In her nearly 30 years with the hospital district, 22 years as Community Health Program administrator, Reyes has never forgotten her uncle and his lack of adequate health care. In fact, his memory strengthens her belief that taking care of people early is the right thing to do.

"It makes perfect sense to take care of people’s health care needs while their illnesses are still manageable," she said.

The recent addition of three 40-foot mobile units is helping the hospital district reach many more people, particularly in areas where there are few health care providers. Mobile units offer free immunizations, medical screenings for diabetes, heart disease and hypertension, as well as healthy lifestyle information for weight loss and exercise.

Reyes believes everyone, regardless of economic status, is entitled to quality health care and that expanding preventive care is in the public’s best interest.

After graduating from high school in Arizona, Reyes left for Texas, where she received a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Dominican College. Her nursing education taught Reyes a lot, but her summer jobs were instrumental in developing her dedication to public health care.

In the summer of 1969, Reyes traveled to Mexico, where she shared her nursing skills with colleagues in Puebla. She saw first hand the need for skilled health care providers and developed her bedside manner while caring for sick patients there. The following summer, she volunteered at Casa de Amigos, then one of only a few public health care providers in the predominantly Hispanic area of near-northside Houston.

A burgeoning community, Hispanics from across the city arrived at the center daily for health care. While there, Reyes worked alongside Dr. Carlos Speck, the center’s medical director, and learned from him the value of providing health care to everyone.

After graduation, Reyes was hired in 1970 by the city health department as a field nurse. Her job required tracking the care of 100 families, many of them tuberculosis patients. The work was intense, but rewarding. Later that year, she went to work for the hospital district at Casa de Amigos.

The following year, Reyes and her husband moved to Milwaukee where her husband was completing his degree. While there, she got a job with a migrant advocacy organization and was charged with the daunting task of opening five family planning clinics. The community had a large migrant working population, with little or no health care.

Admittedly overwhelmed, Reyes met the challenge head on. In little time, she convinced the community of the need. Within five months, she had opened the clinics.

"That was one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had, but it taught me a lot," she said of Milwaukee. "I was a real wimp, but this experience really taught me to be strong. The experience of creating something important for the community helped me develop the inner strength to strive for what I believe is right."

Reyes returned to Houston the following year, resuming her career with the hospital district. She again landed in the north side in an enormously busy clinic that also housed a city health clinic and county mental health facility.

"I like to say we started in the basement, then moved on up," she said.

Under the reign of Joseph Alton Hewett, who was then the administrator of the hospital district, the Community Health Program grew to eight health centers located in neighborhoods throughout the county. Reyes credits Hewett’s leadership with much of the program’s successes over the years. After Hewett’s death in 1979, she assumed his position as administrator and has remained ever since.

As a testament to his influence, a portrait of Hewett still hangs in the Community Health Program conference room of the hospital district’s administration building.

Reyes believes the hospital district plays a vital role in the community and she wants more people to realize it. Her hope is to continue to offer preventive and primary care so that people won’t need costly emergency care or hospitalization.

"The hospital district will never have all the resources necessary to take care of all the indigent and uninsured residents of Harris County," she said. "No one is ever going to do it alone. We will need partners to take care of all of these individuals. Together we can do it."

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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