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Affinity Health System honored for firearms education

07 / 17 / 2006

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MENASHA, Wis. – Affinity Health System received recognition from the U.S. Department of Justice for its dedication to Wisconsin firearm safety and from the National Foundation for Trauma Care as one of the nation’s Best Practices in hunter safety training.

United States Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Doug Painter, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Inc., gave the award for Affinity’s aggressive firearm education and Project ChildSafe gunlock distribution programs.

ChildSafe has supplied Affinity Health System with 21,000 gun locks to distribute to Wisconsin residents in the past 11 years, 13,000 of those in the last 18 months. It has also supplied area outdoor and firearms enthusiasts with firearms education and free materials about gun safety.  

Affinity Health System trauma services was named one of the nation’s “Best Practices and Exemplars” for its hunter education initiatives. Affinity now provides all hunter education instructors in the state access to interactive software which will soon be available to these Wisconsin Hunter Education instructors at the Affinity Web site. The software was purchased through a partnership between the Affinity Health System, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Mercy Health Foundation, and it focuses on the safe handling of firearms and supplements students’ general understanding of gun safety.

The initiative educates students age 11 to 90 and supplies teaching firearms designed for youth and female students. Matching equipment to the needs of the students is essential to the program’s success. As a result, 25-30 percent of all students are female.

John Walsh, the program director of Affinity Health System Trauma Services, states, "We are really proud of the recognition given to these programs. The programs are a collective effort from every department within the organization, this is the result of a lot of people proudly working together to meet the real and anticipated needs of our customers.  The organizational mindset is changing safety practices that will continue to have a long lasting impact our community."

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For the Editor:
Affinity Health System, a Catholic mission-oriented regional health care network, is a partnership of Ministry Health Care and Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare. Affinity Health System is the Fox Valley’s third largest employer, according to the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and is ranked 24 among the top 100 integrated health care networks nationwide (Verispan 2008). Both St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton and Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh rank among the top 1 percent among hospitals nationwide in terms of quality and efficiency, as determined by the 2007 Premier | CareScience Select practice National Quality Award. Network Health Plan has achieved Excellent accreditation status from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), the highest possible level. It is ranked 37th among the 250 rated health plans in the nation in terms of customer satisfaction and clinical performance, according to the U.S. News and World Report/NCQA Best Health Plans in America listing. Members of Affinity include Mercy Medical Center and Mercy Health Foundation, Oshkosh; St. Elizabeth Hospital and the St. Elizabeth Hospital Community Foundation, Appleton; Affinity Medical Group, a regional network of 23 family practice and specialty clinics in 13 communities; Calumet Medical Center, Chilton; Network Health Plan, Menasha; and Affinity Occupational Health.