Not only did Sherman County Medical Clinic's District Administrator, Caitlin Blagg, worry about meeting Must Pass Measure 1.C.0, which states that PCPCHs must “provide continuous access to clinical advice by telephone” for Patient Centered Primary Care Home (PCPCH) recognition, she was also concerned about how meeting this measure would impact her already busy single provider and staff.
Our shared interest in effective interaction between primary medical care and mental health care facilitated an ongoing discussion about how our programs could work together more effectively and we began to dream of not just collaboration, but integration. We began to move together toward that goal.
Maggie, a Project Manager with ORPRN, interviewed Juli Gregory, RN, Education Director and Director of ConneXions at Good Shepherd Medical Center to learn more about how community health workers and primary care providers can work together to improve the health of their patients.
On October 9th clinicians, staff and patients from four primary care practices in Hermiston and Pendleton joined the Oregon Rural Practice-based Research Network (ORPRN) for a day-long Eastern Oregon Care Coordination (EOCC) summit at the Pendleton Convention Center. Participants identified local care coordination needs and explored best practices for managing referrals, transitions of care and medications in their practices.
These past few months, I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be a student intern with the Patient-Centered Primary Care Institute (PCPCI) as a part of completing my master’s degree in Public Administration: Health Administration at Portland State University.
The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has made heart health a priority through the campaign EvidenceNOW: Advancing Heart Health in Primary Care. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States; on an annual basis, Americans suffer over 1.5 million heart attacks and strokes.
In rural areas of our state access to the most basic health care services can be difficult, let alone treatment for substance use. The unavailability of health care in rural America has been the subject of many projects and studies, so there is a lot of information about the issues this poses for individuals in rural communities who are trying to manage their health and wellbeing. The uninsured rate is higher in the rural counties (nonmetropolitan) than in the urban (metropolitan) counties as reported by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment – better known as SBIRT - is a screening process that is a comprehensive, integrated, public health approach to the delivery of early intervention and treatment services for persons with substance use disorders, as well as those who are at risk of developing these disorders. SBIRT is used in primary care clinics, hospital emergency rooms, trauma centers, and other community settings that provide opportunities for early intervention with at-risk substance users before more severe consequences occur.
Institute programs rely on the content expertise of community organizations working to improve the quality of health care and the experience of caregivers. Without the leadership of these organizations the Institute would not be possible. Through a series of blog posts this month we are going to introduce these organizations and share more about their work through the Institute. If you would like to be connected to one of these organizations please visit their websites, or email the Institute if we can help answer questions or make introductions.
Kate Barrett, a care coordinator at Winding Waters Clinic in Enterprise, OR, shares how they came to develop and implement a mental health screening process for teens.
