Clinics’ Corner |
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PortlandCentral City Concern project gets national attentionCentral City Concern’s project to add a one-stop medical center to its Burnside facilities with the help of federal funds, reported in the winter 2009 issue of CareNews, has also gotten the attention of national press. |
Also in Clinics’ Corner:
 Multnomah County considers adding school-based clinic
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Linn and Lincoln countiesSamaritan receives grant to fight obesitySamaritan Health Services will launch a program to tackle childhood obesity in Linn and Lincoln Counties, thanks to an $85,000 federal grant. Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital, in Lincoln City, was given the funds by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration to create the “Coast to the Cascades Childhood Obesity Project.” The project also has funding from the Northwest Health Foundation.
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Multnomah CountyState grant funds study for east county school-based clinicMultnomah County has 12 school-based health clinics. Each one provides health care services to about 7,000 students every year. But all of them are in the west side of the county. A state grant is giving the county the resources to investigate a possible new clinic in east county. In addition to staff research, the county will be gauging need by asking residents of their opinion in a series of public meetings.
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Columbia CountyHospital proposal goes back to state regulatorsAs proposed by the Columbia Health District, a new Columbia River Community Hospital would be able to handle anything short of critical emergencies, including primary care. Adding a rural health clinic to help address access to primary care in the county is one of the fixes planners made to the hospital proposal to try to satisfy the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS). State regulators last October denied the first application for a certificate of need, which must be granted before the hospital can move beyond the planning stage. A second application, filed in July, generated numerous questions, which were the subject of the health district’s 123-page response in early March. Cost of the proposed hospital is in the range of $28–45 million. There is no firm deadline for the state to decide on the completeness of the application and to schedule a public hearing. Both steps are required before a decision on the hospital will be made. |
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New State TreasurerWheeler's final “State of the County” address touches health careShortly before he was appointed Oregon State Treasurer by Gov. Ted Kulongoski, then-Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler delivered his annual “State of the County” address. Wheeler’s address included a discussion of lack of access to primary health care for some in east Multnomah County, and Multnomah County’s collaboration with CareOregon to help redress the deficiencies:
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Home careSalem Hospital sells home care serviceSalem Hospital has agreed to the sale of its home care department to a Louisiana-based, for-profit company. The department had been up for sale since January. LHC Group, Inc., of Lafayette, LA, will rename the service Salem Home Care LLC. The organization is the largest home health provider in the mid Willamette Valley.
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Health care reformWhat is a primary care home? State committee defines standards, measures.The patient-centered primary care home (PCPCH) has been studied across America as a way to achieve high quality health care at a lower cost. But just exactly what constitutes a primary care home has not yet been defined clearly. In Oregon, pilot primary care home projects have been launched by CareOregon and the Oregon Primary Care Association to achieve health care improvement goals through wellness and prevention, coordination and integration of care, proactive management and support of individuals with chronic diseases and a patient centered approach to all aspects of care. And now the state has created a set of standards and measures by which to gauge effectiveness of the PCPCH. The Oregon Health Authority gave the assignment to a 15-member Patient-Centered Primary Care Home Standards Advisory Committee made up of patients, clinicians, health plans and purchasers. The committee issued its report in February. The committee developed six core attributes—access to care, accountability, comprehensive whole-person care, coordination and integration, continuity and person and family centered care—and standards that describe the care delivered by patient-centered primary care homes. Because of concern that misapplication of the measures could make access to high quality care more difficult, the committee also developed principles to guide policymakers in implementation of primary care home initiatives. The guiding principles fall into five categories: strategies for payment reform, incentives for delivery system change, strategies for measurement, encouraging continuous improvement and aligning incentives across the health care system. |
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Electronic health recordsFederal Recovery Act funds to boost Oregon use of health technologyTwo federal grants, part of the Federal Recovery Act, will inject more than $21 million to jumpstart a statewide health information exchange between hospitals, doctors’ offices, pharmacies and other health care providers. They will also help health providers develop electronic health record systems. Development and use of electronic transmittal of patient information is expected to will help lower Oregon’s health care costs and promote the most effective and efficient care in health care settings across the state. Already Oregon providers use electronic records at a higher rate than most states. Kaiser Permanente Northwest adopted the nation’s first electronic medical records system in 1996, and now about 66 percent of Oregon health care providers (physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants) have access to electronic health records, compared to 44 percent nationally. But without a statewide electronic health record system, health care providers can’t reach from one medical records system to another to fill critical holes in their patients’ health history. The 2009 Oregon Legislature created a Health Information Technology Oversight Council within the Oregon Health Authority to coordinate Oregon's public and private statewide efforts in electronic health records adoption and develop a statewide system for health information exchange. The federal grants will help fund that effort.
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Children’s healthGrant helps state boost children’s health careTen states, including Oregon, have been awarded a total of $100 million to improve health care services for children of low-income families. Oregon’s portion of the grant, $11 million, will be used over a five-year period. Oregon received the grant in partnership with the states of Alaska and West Virginia to fund a demonstration project. The project will investigate improvements in children’s health through new technologies and improved care delivery.
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