Tyson gives $350,000 to health care providers

SPRINGDALE — Tyson Foods gave almost $350,000 to Northwest Arkansas health care providers to ease access to care for Marshall Islander and Hispanic people, the company announced Wednesday.

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Northwest campus in Fayetteville received $200,000 from the Springdale-based company, while another $90,000 went to Mercy Northwest Arkansas, according to Tyson. Community Clinic also received a grant of about $59,000.

The donations were part of about $600,000 in all given to health care groups in Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas and Nebraska operating near Tyson facilities, whose work forces are often largely immigrants.

“We’ve taken a close look at health care opportunities in Tyson Foods communities, and these investments represent our willingness to listen to key stakeholders and understand where we can make the most impact,” Debra Vernon, Tyson’s senior director of corporate social responsibility, said in a statement.

The university gift will pay for outreach and educational videos in Spanish, Marshallese and English to teach such essential pieces of the health care process as reading a health insurance card, for example, UAMS spokeswoman Dana Engelbert said.

The campus includes a free clinic for Marshallese patients and previously made videos in their language about the mumps and its vaccine after a recent outbreak hit the islander community particularly hard.

The video format has several advantages over other approaches, Engelbert said. They can reach people of all literacy levels and will feature native speakers, who can deliver information clearly and help make minority members more comfortable in a health care setting.

“We all benefit from a healthy community,” she added.

The Mercy and Community Clinic grants will cover the cost of hiring liaisons, essentially health care navigators for Tyson team members, the groups said. Both will be bilingual, with Mercy’s liaison fluent in Spanish and the clinic’s in Marshallese.

Mercy’s liaison will go to Tyson’s facility in downtown Rogers to reach workers in person, Mercy spokeswoman Jennifer Cook said. The liaison will help schedule appointments with a primary care doctor, do assessments and so on.

“We know people, especially with the language barrier, sometimes have trouble accessing the health care system,” Cook said, adding the program is a year-long pilot, which could be expanded afterward. “We would absolutely be very excited, if that worked, to continue. We think there’s a real high need there.”

Tyson spokesman Derek Burleson said the company will consider keeping the program if it‘s successful.

Community Clinic is a low-cost provider with locations in Springdale and several other cities, which serves a heavily minority community. Director Kathy Grisham said the grant will go to a liaison who will help primarily Marshallese Tyson workers make and keep appointments and make small changes to their daily routines for better health, for example.