Dr. Robert Post

DCHC's Chief Medical Officer

Robert M. Post MD completed his medical degree at the University of Missouri and his Family Medicine residency and faculty development fellowship at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. In addition, he also completed the Advanced Training Program at the Intermountain Healthcare Delivery Institute. Prior to Katrina he served as residency faculty at LSU, and since that time has coordinated a multitude of resident and student programs at DePaul CHC, including LSU, Tulane, Xavier, and Loyola. Recently DePaul has launched its own programs for Physician Assistant students, Nurse Practitioner residents, and Dental residents to specifically train providers to serve in underserved sites such as community health centers.

Since 1997 Dr. Post has served as the Medical Director for DePaul Community Health Centers (formerly known as Daughters of Charity), which is focused on primary care and preventive services in underserved communities. DePaul utilizes an integrated team care model centered around the patient, including behavioral health, social determinants of health, and population based interventions to eliminate health disparities in the communities we serve. It has been recognized as a “Center of Excellence” by the United Health Foundation, and was selected as one of 30 sites nationwide for the Robert Wood Johnson Program “Learning from Exemplary Ambulatory Practices.”

The majority of our grants and research activities have been focused on improving outcomes through changes in care teams and health delivery systems. They have included relatively simple interventions to improve screening rates for cancer (breast, cervical, colon, lung) and infectious diseases (HIV, Hepatitis C), longer term interventions for health-related behaviors (smoking cessation, pre-diabetes, diabetes), to more intensive team-based interventions for high-risk populations (co-morbid behavioral health, homeless, intensive care management). Throughout all of these, Dr. Post has integrated students and residents in the design, implementation, and evaluation for those who are interested in population-based interventions and outcomes.
 

Dr. Coleman Pratt

DCHC's Program Director

Dr. Pratt has spent his entire career working with vulnerable populations, having worked with incarcerated patients, in community health, with socially vulnerable medically complex seniors and with homebound patients. His focus is on health care administration and delivering patient centered evidenced based care, that is population and outcomes focused. Currently, in addition to his role as Program Director of the DePaul Community Health Center Family and Social Medicine Residency Program, he is a member of the faculty at Tulane in the Department of Family Medicine. Outside of medicine, Dr. Pratt enjoys spending time with his family, his pets, and taking advantage of all the wonderful things New Orleans has to offer.

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Dr. Thomas Santamaria

DCHC's Associate Program Director

Originally from El Salvador, Dr. Santamaria moved to the United States during high school. After graduating from Dartmouth College, he taught high school chemistry and physics in Miami before moving to New Orleans for Medical School at the Tulane University School of Medicine. Santamaria completed his Family Medicine Residency in New York, then worked as a Family Physician in a Spanish-speaking immigrant farmer community in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Thrilled to return to New Orleans, he continues to fight for better access and care for underserved communities at DePaul, mentoring future generations of Family Physicians.

Clinical Interest: Management and prevention of chronic disease through healthy lifestyle habit formation with an emphasis on nutrition.