PHIMC announces Protecting Our Patients (POP) Campaign, created to mobilize health care teams to reduce stigmas that hinder healthy patient outcomes. PHIMC, with a 22-year history of partnering with individuals and organizations to develop, implement, and direct life-changing public health programs, is tackling a critical health challenge with the POP Campaign. The POP Campaign is currently implementing two initiatives: integrating routine HIV screening into general health care and providing affirming health care for all, especially those most marginalized from healthcare systems. The campaign, designed to promote practices that improve patient experiences, has successfully launched in eight pilot sites throughout Chicagoland hospitals and clinics and is now ready for implementation on a larger scale.

Funded by Illinois Department of Public Health through a project with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, POP was created from a need to ensure that the entire health care team, from receptionist to physician, provides each patient with comprehensive care and a positive experience, without social stigmas. The campaign uses an innovative model that features stories from real individuals to empower health care champions as heroes within their practices. Armed with necessary tools, from training materials to peer support to communications strategies, champions are primed to mobilize action across their entire health care team. The champions promote best practices by leading their peers in understanding stigma and their responsibility to reduce it, while facilitating opportunities to keep the conversation and campaign alive.

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