Elizabeth Forer is the chief executive officer and executive director of the Venice Family Clinic, the largest free clinic in the nation, which provides services to 23,000 patients a year at seven locations. Before joining the Venice Family Clinic in 1994, she served for five years as executive director of Settlement Health and Medical Services, a nonprofit community health center in East Harlem, New York. She also directed a department at Metropolitan Hospital in New York City. Ms. Forer is a California HealthCare Foundation Health Leadership Fellow.
Lack of primary care and attention to chronic disease are the real ills of the health care system, panelists said at a seminar on health care reform for California Broadcast Fellows.
Anthony Iton, public health officer for Alameda County, says that 3 out of every 4 health care dollars goes to the treatment of chronic disease. "It is the elephant in the room. If you're not talking about chronic disease, you're not talking about health," he says.
