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» A magazine for and about Oregon Community Hospitals.
Oregon’s 32 small and rural hospitals provide essential health care services within the
communities they serve, and for many towns, they are the largest employer.
However, Oregon’s small and rural hospitals are managing
in a time of unprecedented change in health care delivery as
the Affordable Care Act and Coordinated Care Organizations
continue to transform the health care system. They need
support as they address these challenges.
They now have programs to help. At the close of the 2016
Legislative Session, Senator Alan Bates (D-Ashland), Rep.
Nancy Nathanson (D-Eugene), and Oregon’s rural hospitals
announced the inclusion of $10 million in the state’s budget
to fund programs designed to help ensure the sustainability
of rural health care.
The projects are specifically designed to keep rural
communities healthy and were developed following a
listening tour, conducted in a partnership between the
Oregon Health Authority, the Oregon Office of Rural
Health, and the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health
Systems.
“These investments in our rural health will improve lives
and economies,” said Sen. Bates, Co-chair of the Joint
Committee on Ways and Means, who helped shepherd the
projects through the legislature. “Health systems are not one
size fits all and I am glad to see rural areas getting specific
tools to meet their needs.“
The programs focus on topics such as access, population
health, virtual health care, workforce shortages and care
transitions. They were chosen based on their demonstrated
track record of success in other states and provide several
different opportunities for hospitals to get involved
depending on their specific needs. The four programs, free to
any rural hospital, are:
Fostering local access to care
In this program, hospitals will work with a national
consultant to establish transitional post-acute care
programs, a model that has found success in many
Midwestern hospitals. The goal is to improve readmission
rates, increase patient satisfaction, and provide the tools to
transition patients back to their rural communities. This not
only helps reduce the cost of health care and transportation
to urban settings, but also helps free up capacity at urban
hospitals.
Fostering population health management
Today, rural health care leaders operate with very different
understandings of how to manage the health of the
population. This program will allow a broad array of rural
providers, not just hospitals, to build a shared platform of
knowledge about population health and invest in common
improvement strategies. The multi-week educational series
includes group training and coaching focused on rural
communities and culminates in a certificate of population
health management.
Implementing virtual clinics
This new care delivery model will increase access to urgent
care and/or after-hours care without additional brick-and-
mortar facilities. A virtual clinic is staffed around the clock
and offers patients visits via video conference or telephone.
This program improves access in rural communities
immediately through the addition of up to 20 providers
through a virtual office, with the effect of redirecting care to
a more appropriate setting.
“With the funding now in place, it is
up to hospitals to take the initiative
to commit and implement these
programs. This is a unique investment
in rural health care in Oregon, and
it is imperative that hospitals take
advantage of this rare opportunity.”
Four transformation programs open to all rural Oregon hospitals
BUILDING A HEALTHY RURAL OREGON