Karen DeSalvo (at the podium, top photo), Tulane physician and executive director of the Tulane Community Health Center at Covenant House, addresses visitors and media at the center's anniversary celebration and health fair. The founding residents and clinical staff (below) gather to celebrate the year of community service.

Tulane University and Covenant House on Wednesday (August 2) celebrated nearly a full year of clinic operations at the Tulane Community Health Center at Covenant House, 611 N. Rampart St. The center opened in the days following Hurricane Katrina as a source for tetanus shots for residents in the French Quarter, Treme and downtown New Orleans.

Services expanded as demand increased. To date, more than 7,800 patients have sought care at the clinic. The center's services now include adult primary care, mental health counseling, geriatric care and health education. Spanish translation services are available.

The celebration included a health fair open to the public where free screenings for blood pressure, post-traumatic stress disorder, diabetes and cholesterol were offered for adults while children played with clowns and had their faces painted in a special kids' area.

Physician Karen DeSalvo, executive director of the center, considers the clinic to be a model of neighborhood-based health care for the city of New Orleans. During the event, DeSalvo explained that her vision of the future of health care is for more clinics in neighborhoods, so that patients can walk to their doctors instead of having to take public transportation.

She also discussed a system of electronic patient records, which, with patient consent, could be shared between clinics in the network so that patients could go to a variety of locations and receive continued care.

DeSalvo also is chief of the division of general internal medicine and geriatrics at Tulane. She is associate professor of clinical medicine and holds the C. Thorpe Ray Chair in Internal Medicine.

Speakers at the event included Scott Cowen, president of Tulane University; Paul Whelton, senior vice president for health sciences and dean of the Tulane University School of Medicine; Craig Richardson, vice president of health care strategy and development with Johnson & Johnson Health Systems; and Stacy Horn Koch, executive director of Covenant House.

The center is able to continue its work through supporting partnerships with 15 community groups. Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Systems provided seed money that has allowed the center to expand and seek funding from other entities.

"We are responsible for the communities in which we live," said Richardson, explaining the Johnson & Johnson credo of charitable giving. "This clinic lives and breathes that belief. But Johnson & Johnson had the easy part. You are actually building a new and improved care system for the people of New Orleans."

Cowen agreed, adding, "I am proud of this effort because it demonstrates one more way that Tulane is helping in the recovery of New Orleans."

In the future DeSalvo hopes to expand the center's services, including more examination rooms and a mobile health unit. The clinic is open from 9 a.m. to 4 pm Monday through Thursday and from 9 a.m. to noon on Fridays. For more information, call the clinic at 504-584-1167.