2004 Champions of Health links and resources
Champion of Oklahoma Health
Dr. Gordon H. Deckert
State Board of Health member Dr. Gordon H. Deckert was chosen as the Champion of Oklahoma Health in 2004 for his visible, sustained leadership on state public health issues. He led the effort to create the Oklahoma State Department of Health’s “State of the State’s Health Report,” an annual health report card for the state.
Dr. Gordon H Deckert
“State of the State’s Health Report,”
Champion of the Uninsured
Bedlam Community Health Project - Tulsa
Initiated in August 2003, the Bedlam Clinic’s objective is to provide access to primary and specialty health care, free of charge, to indigent and uninsured individuals.
Through an innovative campus and community partnership, the project operates using volunteer health care professionals, students from OU and OSU schools of medicine and donations from local industry.
Education and Awareness Champion
Schools for Healthy Lifestyles - Oklahoma City
Schools for Healthy Lifestyles was formed in 1997 to combat Oklahoma’s declining health status by focusing on students, their families and educators. The program promotes physical activity and fitness, provides nutrition education and awareness, tobacco use prevention, and safety and injury prevention. The program was founded by the Oklahoma County Medical Society, the Oklahoma City-County Health Department, the Oklahoma State Department of Health and the Oklahoma City Public Schools.
Schools for Healthy Lifestyles
OklahomaCountyMedical Society
Oklahoma City-County Health Department
Oklahoma State Department of Health
Oklahoma City Public Schools
Champion of Health Care in Rural Oklahoma
Oklahoma State University Telemedicine
The OSU Telemedicine network, established in 1994, allows physicians to consult or examine patients from a remote location. Today OSU manages and operates telemedicine sites in Oklahoma, along with distance learning locations that help doctors stay up-to-date when they choose a rural practice.
OSU Telemedicine
Minority Health Champion
Choctaw Nation Preventive Health Services - Talihina
Choctaw Nation Preventive Health Services provides health care and health care education for Native Americans and their families in counties in southeastern Oklahoma. The Choctaw Nation’s programs focus on prevention of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other conditions prevalent in the community. Through health assessments, coordination of community coalitions and education, the Choctaw Nation Preventive Health Services provides vital health improvement resources for the area.
Choctaw Nation Preventive Health Services
Professional Health Care Champion
Dr. Don Wilber - Midwest City
Dr. Don Wilber, a pediatrician at the Oklahoma City Clinic in Midwest City, is being recognized for his volunteer efforts to improve children’s immunization rates. Dr. Wilber has served as chairperson of the Oklahoma State Immunization Advisory Committee since 1993. As chairperson, he has led successful efforts to add the hepatitis B vaccine to school and day care requirements. He currently is a driving force behind the Oklahoma State Department of Health’s “OK By One” campaign to promote on-time immunization of infants under one year of age.
Oklahoma City Clinic inMidwest City
OKState Dep of Health’s “OK By One” campaign
Legislative Health Champion
Oklahoma State Senator Angela Monson - Oklahoma City
Senator Angela Monson served in the Oklahoma State Senate from 1993-2005. A nationally noted advocate of health care reform, Sen. Monson was a member of the steering committee of the Reforming States Group, a Milbank Memorial Fund health care initiative, and served on the board of Families USA Foundation. She served as a National Advisory Committee member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s State Coverage Initiatives program. In 1998, Sen. Monson was appointed to the National Advisory Council to the National Health Service Corps by then-Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, and later chaired that council until 2002. During her time in office, she authored a substantial amount of health reform legislation, and was an advocate for affordable, accessible health care for all Oklahomans.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
State Coverage Initiatives program
National Advisory Council to the National Health Service Corps
Ageless Hero
Lucille R. Fancey
Coffee Creek Riding Center for the Handicapped - Edmond
Lucille Fancey operates the therapeutic riding center for the handicapped that she founded over 30 years ago. Specially designed games and exercises target areas of need for disabled riders, while the horses provide freedom and enjoyment.
Fancey advocates that an active lifestyle contributes to physical and mental well being, as well as long life.
Coffee Creek Riding Center for the Handicapped
Health and Medical Media Champion
LeAnne Taylor - KOTV-The News on 6, Tulsa
LeAnne Taylor, KOTV–The News on 6 reporter and morning show host, was diagnosed with breast cancer in Fall 2003. Also a wife and mother of two children, LeAnne didn’t miss a day of work through her four months of chemotherapy, followed by 33 radiation treatments.
LeAnne began sharing her story with her audience when her treatments led to hair loss. She kept her sense of humor by acquiring a wardrobe of wigs evoking personalities including Dolly Parton, Tina Turner, Marge Simpson and many others.
Her public education efforts about early detection, which began long before her personal ordeal, have firmly positioned LeAnne as an outstanding spokesperson for breast cancer awareness.
LeAnne Taylor
Corporate Health Champion
Chesapeake Energy Corporation - Oklahoma City
This Oklahoma employer has woven fitness into the daily routines of its employees and is reaping the benefits. Their commitment to keeping employees and their families healthy and fit continues to expand. The company operates a 40,000 square foot corporate fitness center, an on-site restaurant/cafeteria with healthy meal choices, a “Good Health Benefit” of $600 per employee and family member for preventive health care and screenings, employee assistance program, running and cycling clubs, on-site Weight Watchers class and more.
Chesapeake Energy Corporation
Education and Awareness Award of Merit
Oklahoma Alliance on Health or Tobacco - Oklahoma City
The Oklahoma Alliance on Health or Tobacco is a group of organizations dedicated to public education and public policy changes related to tobacco use. Its members include non-profit public health organizations, professional health care associations, senior and child advocates, health system advocates, community based coalitions and ethnic group representatives.
The Alliance has worked successfully to educate lawmakers about tobacco-related issues and to provide critical leadership culminating in a series of recent landmark legislative successes.
Health Care in Rural Oklahoma Award of Merit
Harper County Turning Point - Laverne & Buffalo
One of just 7 Oklahoma counties – of 77 total – without a health department, Harper County organized a grassroots effort to meet the needs of its residents. Primarily located in two towns — Laverne with 1,100 residents, and Buffalo with 1,200 residents — this rural northwestern Oklahoma county formed the Harper County Turning Point Partnership.
The group worked together to educate the public and garner support for the sales tax needed to fund the initiative. The vote passed by 91 percent, and Harper County Health Department opened in Laverne with a satellite clinic in Buffalo in July 2002.
Harper County Turning Point
Corporate Health Award of Merit
Comanche County Memorial Hospital - Lawton
Comanche County Memorial Hospital turned Hospital Week 2004 into a series of activities designed with employee health improvement in mind. Called “Live it Well,” the week developed into an ongoing effort including Weight Watchers classes, health assessments, brown bag lunch education sessions and a walking program.
The hospital is spreading its successful program throughout Lawton with this month’s launch of “Walk it Well,” a community-wide walk challenge.
Comanche County Memorial Hospital