For AmeriCorps Member Kiara Isaza, Maternal Health Advocacy is a Year-Round Effort

Aspiring obstetrician-gynecologist (OB/GYN) Kiara Isaza is a Public Health AmeriCorps member in Zufall Health’s West Orange prenatal program. Recently, for Maternal Health Awareness Day (MHAD), Isaza and prenatal staff provided critical self-advocacy resources to pregnant patients—an experience she says she’ll be carrying with her to medical school and beyond. Like all teams at Zufall, the prenatal program works hard to bridge gaps in health care access and reduce disparities. Many patients...

Legal Issues Are Health Issues: How One Zufall Health Case Manager is Paying Forward the Help His Family Received

When he was 10 years old, Zufall Health case manager Erik Moran, his sister, and their mother faced wrongful eviction from their rented house in Morris County. The family was given one month to vacate their home—a violation of their lease—and suffered constant harassment from their landlord. The landlord spoke only English, and Moran’s mother, an immigrant from Ecuador, only Spanish. Moran took on the distressing responsibility of translating their heated...

Building Healthy Communities

By Eva Turbiner, President and CEO Emeritus, Zufall Health As we enter early 2023, almost three years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the focus on the importance of access to health care and robust public health is fading. Happily, Somerset County consistently ranks as one of the healthiest counties in New Jersey according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute....

Meet Your Provider: Pablo Fragoso, RPh

Growing up as a Cuban immigrant in New Jersey, accessing health care wasn’t easy for Zufall Health clinical pharmacist Pablo Fragoso, RPh, and his family. His father worked for small businesses that did not offer health care benefits, leaving the family uninsured. A great deal of his father’s income was spent on medical emergencies, including his mother’s time in the hospital. Joining Zufall in 2021 gave Fragoso the opportunity to...

Zufall Health Awarded More than $650,000 to Confront the HIV Epidemic in Essex County

Zufall Health’s HIV Services program is implementing a new, status neutral system of HIV care in Essex County, New Jersey, thanks a grant of more than $650,000 from the New Jersey Department of Health’s Division of HIV, STD, and TB Services. The grant program, Comprehensive Status-Neutral HIV Services for Focus Populations, is part of the state’s efforts to elevate HIV strategy in line with efforts to end the epidemic nationally....

Zufall Brings School-Based Care to High-Need Franklin Township

Zufall Health recently welcomed patients to our very first school-based health center! The new center, located on the campus of Hillcrest Elementary School in Franklin Township in Somerset County, marks Zufall’s tenth clinical site. A school-based health center (SBHC) is a health care facility within a school or on school grounds. The SBHC staff and school nurse work collaboratively to enhance the health and well-being of students, reduce absences, and maximize...

Why We Celebrate Pride

Happy Pride Month! LGBTQ+ people and allies observe Pride Month each June with rallies, parades, festivals, concerts, workshops, and dance parties. Learning about our country’s 50-plus-year history of Pride, the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights, and the continued marginalization of the community is also an excellent and meaningful way to commemorate the occasion. Did you know Pride Month began with a riot? The Stonewall Riots were a six-day series of LGBTQ+ protests...

Rippel Foundation Grant to Support Zufall Health COVID Services

Zufall Health has received $25,000 in general operating and programmatic funds from the Rippel Foundation, a national foundation focused on health system transformation. Zufall was one of nine organizations “advancing equitable, sustainable approaches to health and well-being in New Jersey and other communities” awarded funding. The grant marks the second consecutive year that Rippel has provided financial support to Zufall. Eva Turbiner, Zufall President and Chief Executive Officer, said that, like...

En un Nuevo Video, Zufall Health Analiza la Crisis de Salud Materna en Mujeres Negras de Nueva Jersey

En Nueva Jersey, la tasa de mortalidad en madres, un cálculo de cuántas mujeres mueren du mujeres negras se ven más afectadas que las mujeres de otras razas. Una madre negra en Nueva Jersey tiene siete veces más probabilidades que una madre blanca de morir por complicaciones relacionadas con la maternidad. Durante la Semana de la Salud Materna Negra (BMHW, por sus siglas en inglés), desde el 11 al 17 de Abril, en...

Zufall Health Examines New Jersey’s Black Maternal Health Crisis in New Video

In New Jersey, the maternal mortality rate – a measure of how many women die during pregnancy or up to one year after giving birth – is one of the highest in the U.S., with Black women affected more than women of other races. A Black mother in New Jersey is seven times more likely than a white mother to die from maternity-related complications. During Black Maternal Health Week (BMHW), April...