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Jennifer Poast, DO, MA

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Biography

Dr. Jennifer Poast is a practicing physician at San Ysidro Health Center and works conjunction with the SDSU Graduate School of Public Health. The San Ysidro Health Center has been providing low cost, high quality, comprehensive primary care services to residents in San Diego's South Bay Region. 84 percent of SYHC's patients are Latino and 69 percent of the patients live at or below the Federal Poverty Level. The San Ysidro Health Center has been recognized as an innovator and leader in health services, especially in collaborative efforts with Mexico to address health issues along the border.

Dr. Poast's National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Center on Minority Health & Health Disparities (NCMHD), Comprehensive Research Center in Health Disparities (CRCHD) funded pilot project is described below.

Pilot Research

Dr. Poast's Pilot research examined the hypothesis that intense physician-supervised case management will decrease readmission rates and mortality in patients recently hospitalized with Congestive Heart Failure. Previous to this study, there was no research in CHF case management in a community setting or with the Latino population. The long-term goal is to design and implement culturally-sensitive interventions to improve CHF outcomes in clinics serving low-income Latino populations. The study utilized a prospective, randomized interventional design. Researchers tested if intensive case management will improve health outcomes, decrease resource utilization and costs and improve patient health status.