Open House Offers a Glimpse of BHC Progress

by | Jun 2, 2017 | BHC News, Patient Education

Open House

In 2015, the Bateman Horne Center began a transformation. Once the Fatigue Consultation Clinic (FCC) and the Organization for Fatigue & Fibromyalgia Education & Research (OFFER), two separate organizations with regional footprint came together to make a global impact.

A small handful of donors invested greatly in our dream and ensured we had the resources needed to launch a world-class center of excellence that is squarely targeted on bringing ME/CFS and FM to the mainstream. It is the powerful combination of an active and specialized medical center of excellence with an innovative research program, under one roof, that allows us to most effectively lead the way to first-class care for all those impacted by ME/CFS and FM.

In August of 2016, another small handful of donors allowed BHC to move into a larger space that will allow us to reach more patients in new and innovative ways. We are finding that our new location provides fresh opportunities for us to grow and develop.

  • Patients have noted that the new and upgraded space allows us to be more efficient.
  • Research, clinic, and testing appointments (e.g. NASA Lean test) run more smoothly without having to fight for space, improving the efficacy of our research efforts.
  • Staff meetings, lunches, board meetings can now all be held on site, allowing us to work more cohesively toward our goals.
  • Additional offices give us the room needed to continue to expand staffing and serve more patients.
  • Our new Education Center now houses the monthly meetings that are broadcast  live and later housed in our Patient Library.
  • We are developing a more robust education program that offers patients – local and abroad – the opportunity for experiential learning through expert-led classes and workshops on self-management of things like fatigue and pain.

All of these efforts will move us further down the road toward making ME/CFS and FM mainstream medicine; closer to a day when patients are readily diagnosed, effectively treated, and widely met with empathy and understanding.

In May we held an Open House; a great opportunity to show patients the other offerings our center has and potentially get them more involved. Some had never seen the research or education spaces and they were very excited to learn what is happening now and what’s under development. Many mentioned that our office space is much nicer than anything they would have imagined. It was important to us to give patients a first-class experience and model what they should be receiving everywhere. While many noted our staff growth over the last year, they were excited to learn of our plans to expand even further. We even had a few former patients show up who have not been into our clinic for years because their health has been manageable; it was great to see those friendly faces again.

 

Proud and excited for all we’ve accomplished, we are also impatient knowing that thousands of patients with ME/CFS and FM do not have access to a qualified and compassionate diagnosis, much less the care they deserve. With the continued support of many we can make first-class care the standard for ALL those experiencing ME/CFS and FM.