Community Programs and Screenings

Community programming at Lankenau Medical Center

With a close proximity to Philadelphia and a large and diverse community, Lankenau offers a variety of community partnerships and programming. Our goal is to include something to meet the full spectrum of health needs of the people within our community. To help us reach this goal, we performed a comprehensive health needs assessment.

Using that data and information, we set out on a mission to transform people's health in the communities we serve. Through community health screenings and programs, we are working to help residents have affordable and easier access to healthy foods, as well as the social, medical and financial services they need.

These are just a few of the programs that are supporting the community:

Philly Food Bucks and Food Trust farmers markets

In partnership with The Food Trust and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health's Get Healthy Philly initiative, we piloted a Philly Food Bucks project to work hand-in-hand with our outpatient practice.

Through the program, eligible patients of Lankenau Medical Associates, a primary care practice, receive $10 in Philly Food Bucks, which they can redeem at Food Trust farmers markets in Philadelphia to purchase healthy food. This encourages patients to shop for fresh fruits and vegetables—the foundation of a wholesome, healthy diet.

Turning the corner store into a healthy community asset

In partnership with The Food Trust, our Heart Smart Corner Store initiative aims to convert the corner store into a healthy community asset by offering health screenings, education about healthy eating and medical referrals for at-risk adults right at the corner store, close to home. Highlights of the program include:

• In-store and community-based education on healthy eating and heart disease prevention, including taste tests and cooking demonstrations
• Free health screenings (such as blood pressure and BMI) conducted on a monthly basis by health professionals
• Referrals and follow-up for all participants with high blood pressure
• Referrals to the smoking quit line and insurance exchange

Health education in primary care

Lankenau Medical Associates and Lankenau Obstetrics and Gynecology Care Center recently added health educators to the medical team to support patients in achieving better health outcomes.

Health educators serve as key members of the team, providing one-on-one counseling about healthy eating habits and smoking cessation during patients' regularly scheduled visits.

In addition, bi-weekly pop-up nutrition classes are held in the practice's waiting rooms. These classes provide nutritional information, transforming "waiting time" into a time for learning useful and relevant information.

The pop-up class curriculum is interactive, designed to meet the needs of all participants. The class also serves as a launching pad for continued conversation between the physician and the patient.

Pop-up nutrition classes—In the past year, health educators held more than 100 classes in the waiting room, reaching more than 1,100 patients.

Pop-up food demonstration classes—Every patient receives healthy ingredients from the farm and a recipe to try at home!