Initiatives

Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc. supports a variety of special initiatives that allow us to respond to the unique health care needs and opportunities of the communities we serve. Methodist Healthcare Ministries’ special initiatives take shape in many forms.

Advancing Health in South Texas Engagement Series

Related article: Methodist Healthcare Ministries granted Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award

In 2015, Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc. was awarded an engagement grant from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, an independent nonprofit, nongovernmental organization located in Washington, DC, to host a two-year Advancing Health in South Texas Engagement Series. The series aims to develop a framework to guide patient participation resulting in increased levels of trust between patients and academic and public health systems to better address the most pressing patient concerns; and an actionable engagement strategy between patients, community organizations, managed care organizations, public health systems, policy makers, academic institutions, and university systems to ensure authentic patient engagement in the future dissemination of research findings and evaluation.

Methodist Healthcare Ministries will assemble patients and stakeholders across a 20-county area in South Texas to develop a coordinated regional approach for patient-centered research and evaluation among university systems, academic institutions, managed care organizations, and public health systems. Methodist Healthcare Ministries will convene these stakeholders for a series of meeting to create planning tools, identify a common research agenda, and design the necessary infrastructure needed for relevant and meaningful patient informed research dissemination strategies for the next decade. Methodist Healthcare Ministries believes the quality of care is greatly improved when patients are well-informed to become their own health care advocates.

Series documents and reports

Unidos Contra La Diabetes

Unidos Contra La Diabetes is a community partnership dedicated to preventing diabetes. For many years, the members of this partnership have worked diligently to improve the health of children and families in the Rio Grande Valley. Now, existing efforts are being built upon and partnerships are formulating into a collective unit to magnify the impact on this important challenge. Unfortunately, our community is suffering from an unprecedented diabetes epidemic – one that has touched the lives of almost everyone who lives and works in the Rio Grande Valley. Today, 16 percent of adults in the Rio Grande Valley report that they have diabetes, and many others go undiagnosed. Recognizing the complexity of the challenge, a group of community leaders came together in the fall of 2014 to form a steering committee dedicated to the idea that what we can accomplish together to prevent diabetes is much greater than the sum of our individual efforts. The group is comprised of leaders from hospitals, community clinics, foundations, universities, churches and community-based organizations. The effort was launched with support from Methodist Healthcare Ministries, the Meadows Foundation, and the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute.

The goal of Unidos La Contra Diabetes is to reduce the number of new cases of type II diabetes in five years, resulting in a 10 percent reduction in the prevalence of diabetes by 2030. We are committed to doing this by integrating primary and behavioral health for people at-risk for diabetes in our community, with a emphasis on meeting the needs of low-income and underserved populations.