| OHA Articles - Oregonians tell their story | |
 The Oregon Health Authority is working in partnership with the Northwest Health Foundation to gather and share stories about health and health care.
Share your story! E-mail us  Recent articlesHome health visits keep Grants Pass man out of the hospital Before Stephen Calhoun connected with a primary care team at La Clinica in Jackson County, his health care services were driven by emergencies. He would wait until his uncontrolled blood pressure spiked or chest pain flared or he was out of breath. Then he'd land in the hospital.
Read more... Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber announces how federal dollars will help Coordinated Care Organizations give better health care at lower costs More than 150 people — business men and women, lawmakers, county public health providers, hospital workers and university students — filled a room at Central City Concern in Portland today to hear Governor John Kitzhaber explain how Oregonians are on the road to better health and better care at a more sustainable cost.
Read more... The Case for Prevention: $57 "Savings" Ends Up Costing $2 Million and - Nearly - a Life For lack of a new $57 shower chair, Bart Clifford suffered an injury and a gangrene infection that put him in the hospital for months, required multiple surgeries and skin grafts, and ran up more than $2 million in medical costs.
Clifford's case is a dramatic example of how the patchwork system of uncoordinated health care can be "penny-wise and pound-foolish." Read more... Better-coordinated care for those eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare holds promise for improving health, while curbing costs Ruth McEwen suffered a broken neck and nearly died in a devastating house fire when she was 3 months old. The fire killed her mother and severely burned her father — and left Ruth a quadriplegic from spinal cord injuries.
"I don't have control of my limbs," she says. Read more... From 40 ER visits to zero in one year: coordinated care makes the difference for asthma A few years ago, St. Clair Davis was going by ambulance to hospital emergency rooms so often that a social worker from Multnomah County Emergency Medical Services complained about the cost.
Davis, in his late 20s, had several health problems, including asthma. He had trouble managing his prescriptions... Read more... "Already-screened" individuals helping colorectal cancer prevention effort For Tom Foeller of Oak Grove, it was the "second wind on life," after his doctor caught and treated his colorectal cancer, that drove him to get involved. For Mary Schutten of Portland, it was watching her mother suffer from the disease, which screening could have prevented.
Read more... Asthma: Coordinated care keeps children active and out of the hospital Asthma attacks used to send Malik Wilkerson to the emergency room once or twice a month. But the coordinated care he received from his primary care team helped bring his disease under control.
Read more... OSH staff improve patient care, save money The art of public service is doing what is best for your clients while being as efficient as possible. Recently, transportation staff at Oregon State Hospital's Portland (POSH) campus took this art to the next level with a common sense solution that has both improved patient care and saved time and money.
Read more... Portland certified medical assistant delivers coordinated care Certified medical assistant Paula Williams wears many hats at Portland's Northeast Health Center. She helps ensure the best coordination of care, keeping her young patients from going to the emergency room unnecessarily and gaining the trust of their parents.
Read more... Out of the ER and into primary care: Bend project leads the way By connecting emergency room "frequent fliers" with the right kind of care, Bend community health worker Becky Wilkinson helps patients get well while also aiding Oregon's drive toward better health, better care and lower costs. As a plus, the ER diversion frees up emergency medical staff to deal with true emergencies.
Read more... Fighting more than cancer, a patient's voice for health information technology Spurred by frustration over access to her husband's medical records, Regina Holliday has become a national voice for patients, advocating for better communication between patients and providers through the use of electronic health records and information exchange.
Read more... In South Corvallis, '100% Lincoln' gives big boost in health coverage More kids than ever will have a healthy start to the school year in South Corvallis.
Thanks to an extraordinary effort by parent and community leaders, the percentage of students with health care coverage at Lincoln School has grown from 32 percent to more than 90 percent in just one year. Read more... OSH patients find hope through nature-based therapy People have long recognized the benefits from being outdoors, and Oregon offers an abundance of opportunities. With its great natural beauty and scenic landscapes people can find inspiration, adventure, and, for a group of Oregon State Hospital patients, hope.
Read more... Outside Inside program brings community resources to OSH patients When patients cannot be in the community, you bring the community to them. Oregon State Hospital is doing just that through a new program called the Outside Inside Speakers Bureau.
For some patients, the idea of reintegrating back into the community can seem overwhelming... Read more... OSH patients help create art piece for new hospital lobby When visitors walk into the lobby of the Oregon State Hospital next year, one of the first things they'll see is a bronze relief sculpture depicting the stories, dreams and ideas of more than 40 of the hospital's patients.
The sculpture is part of Oregon's Percent For Art program... Read more... Patients move in to newest wing at Oregon State Hospital Patients were greeted by smiling faces, open spaces and welcome baskets as they walked into their new units at Oregon State Hospital yesterday.
The move was the second in a series of three patient moves into the new facility. The hospital is opening in phases as each new section is completed. The third and final move is planned for early 2012. Read more... Oregon State Hospital showcases new treatment wing More than 600 friends, family and community members got a behind-the-scenes look at Oregon State Hospital's newest patient living and treatment wing — Trails — during an open house July 29.
The open house provided an opportunity for the public to tour the recently completed facility... Read more... Governor talks health care with coastal communities Next Governor John Kitzhaber met with community leaders in Coos Bay last week to update them on Oregon's progress toward a more effective, affordable health care system and ask for their continued help to get the job done.
Read more... You are invited to an open house at Oregon State Hospital Next Friday, July 29, Oregon State Hospital invites the public to explore the recently completed patient living and treatment wing called Trails. The public will be able to take self-guided tours from 1 to 4 p.m. and again from 5 to 8 p.m.
Read more... New mental health crisis center offers path to healing For people experiencing a mental health crisis, having a safe, local place to stabilize can make all the difference. In Multnomah County, a new secure center will serve some 850 residents a year who do not need hospital-level care.
Read more... Diabetes: An opportunity for coordinated care Diabetes challenges patients, doctors and the health system. It's a chronic illness that can bring severe complications, sometimes requiring hospitalization. But timely, well-coordinated care can hold diabetes in check, helping people stay healthy and curbing costs.
Read more... Governor Kitzhaber signs bills to begin transforming health care in Oregon Joined by an Oregon Health Plan client and an OHP provider, Governor Kitzhaber signed Senate Bill 99 and House Bill 3650 into law at the World Trade Center in downtown Portland on Friday, July 1...
Both bills had overwhelming bi-partisan support. Read more... Unique Oregon study demonstrates value of health insurance People are more likely to get care, stay healthy, feel better and avoid financial crisis when they have health insurance, a nationally watched Oregon study shows.
The findings, while they may sound like a "no-brainer," help put to rest questions long posed by critics... Read more... Healthy Kids Program Cuts Percentage of Uninsured Oregon Children in Half According to the Oregon Health Insurance Survey released by the Oregon Health Authority this week, the percentage of children without health care in Oregon has been reduced by half - from 11.3 percent in 2009 to 5.6 percent in 2011.
Read more... Exercise can help arthritis suffers feel better Doris Lilly of Bend, who is in her 70s, knows first hand the ups and downs that come with arthritis. "I call them valleys when I'm not doing so well," she said. The Oregon Health Authority's Public Health Division provides an Arthritis Exercise program.
Read more... Healthy babies: Not just a 9-month matter A coalition of local organizations and immunization advocates was recognized with an "Innovation Partnership" award last month at the annual Oregon Partnership to Immunize Children (OPIC) awards in Portland....
Read more... Community groups, immunization advocates honored for partnership A coalition of local organizations and immunization advocates was recognized with an "Innovation Partnership" award last month at the annual Oregon Partnership to Immunize Children (OPIC) awards in Portland....
Read more... Patients hone life, work skills through vocational services Thanks to the Oregon State Hospital's vocational services programs, patient Ben Chase has gone from wallflower to working with confidence with fellow patient...
Read more... Oregon's new Health Insurance Exchange law gives hope to the Moultons On Tuesday, June 7, Oregon lawmakers passed legislation to create an Oregon Health Insurance Exchange. The exchange will create an Oregon-based central marketplace for individuals, families and small businesses to have access to affordable, high-quality health care.....
Read more... Dave Dahl of Dave's Killer Bread shares message of hope with patients at Oregon State Hospital Mental illness is not a barrier to success according to Dave Dahl, founder of the company that makes Dave's Killer Bread. Dahl recently visited with patients and staff at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem to share his story of recovery from mental illness and drug addiction....
Read more... Oregon State Hospital team raises money, awareness about mental illness Oregon State Hospital staff and patients put on their walking shoes to raise awareness about mental illness Sunday, May 22, for the ninth annual NAMI Northwest Walk along Portland's waterfront. More than 100 hospital employees, patients, family members and friends made up "Team OSH," raising more than $13,000...
Read more... Weight loss at work gets results Offering weight loss programs at work allows employees to save time and support one another while engaging in one of the most important and challenging efforts to improve health.
Last year, for example, Rogue Community College offered employees an onsite Weight Watchers program as a free health benefit... Read more... Dental care in the ER: wrong place, wrong time When someone shows up in a hospital emergency room with a toothache, it's not just the patient who hurts. Dental treatment in the ER -- inefficient, costly and untimely -- is a sign of missed opportunity for preventive health and a failure for coordinated care.
Unfortunately, it happens a lot... Read more... For Oregon doctor, the future of coordinated health care is already here As Oregon policymakers consider legislation to improve how the state delivers health care to hundreds of thousands of Oregon Health Plan clients, some local doctors are already pointing the way to better care at lower costs.
Family doctor Nick Gideonse says he was concerned that rising costs and mounting paperwork... Read more... Improving health and lowering costs through "Living Well" Across Oregon, communities are working to address the suffering and expense that come with chronic diseases.
More than 1.5 million Oregonians, about 61 percent of adults, have a chronic health condition. These can include arthritis, asthma, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure... Read more... Oregon advocates, innovations in children's mental health honored Children and families facing mental illness can feel isolated, as if they are the only ones facing a crisis. But a gathering of families, lawmakers and policymakers in Salem for Children's Mental Health Awareness Day this week showed that help is available - and that with early interventions and effective treatment, children and young people can recover...
Read more... A team approach to targeting congestive heart failure A coordinated approach to health care is helping patients such as Ted Hanberg manage several chronic illnesses at once without landing in the hospital every few weeks.
Hanberg, 83, has several chronic illnesses including diabetes, kidney disease and congestive heart failure... Read more... Lowering obesity and improving health - one vegetable at a time More than one in five Oregon children are overweight or obese. Nationally, the proportion of overweight and obese kids has tripled over the past 20 years. Overweight children grow into overweight adults. Today more than 62 percent of adults in Oregon are overweight or obese...
Read more... Better care, lower hospital costs through coordinated approach Better coordinated care for patients improves health and reduces costs. In one such program, focused on Oregon Medicaid patients, hospitalization rates declined by 18 percent since 2008 under the team-based "health home" or "medical home" model...
Read more... Public Health Week: The Skin You're In The Titanic carried enough lifeboats for just 53 percent of its passengers — a fact that public health researcher Thomas LaVeist translates into today's public health terms.
"Space in a lifeboat was a scarce resource," he says. "And when resources are scarce, who you are determines who gets access..." Read more... Healthy Kids Celebration Marks More Than 85,000 Children Insured Last week in Salem, lawmakers, community partners and stakeholders gathered to celebrate a milestone in the effort to improve the health of Oregon kids and teens. Since the program expanded in 2009, the Oregon Health Authority's Office of Healthy Kids has brought health coverage to more than 85,000 uninsured children across the state....
Read more... Students see the power of art therapy during visit to OSH The instructions were simple, but the possible outcomes were limitless. Without using words, make a picture that finishes this sentence: "This is me; I am..."
For five minutes, 20 visiting students participated in the "directive" - an exercise commonly used during art therapy sessions for patients... Read more... Oregon Public Health Week panel: Domestic violence is preventable In a typical year, 24 Oregonians die of injuries from domestic violence. But in late 2009, the toll spiked to 18 deaths in just over a month, including five murder-suicides.
"Imagine if we had 18 deaths from measles in a month," said Dr. Bruce Goldberg, director of the Oregon Health Authority. Read more... Portland clinic a model of coordinated care, focus on prevention
The team-based practice at OHSU’s Richmond clinic is a model for the kind of coordinated care approach that is a centerpiece of the plan to transform the way the state delivers services to Oregon Health Plan clients.
Read more... Streamlining administrative processes would require less time with paper The Women's Clinic, the oldest medical practice in Oregon specializing in the health and care of women, has nine obstetrician-gynecologists.
But given the rampant complexity of medical insurance these days, the clinic also employs four people whose job is to bill patients... Read more... Coordinated care gave Mary Lindsey the skills needed to succeed Mary Lindsey remembers the date like a birthday: Nov. 11, 2008. In fact, it is a sort of birthday - the day Lindsey checked herself into Portland's Hooper Detox Center and "got clean."
She was 35 years old, and by her own account didn't know "how to live." She had started abusing drugs... Read more... Transformation Team Vision provides an opportunity for Oregon A bipartisan group of legislators, health care providers and patient advocates has handed off to the Legislature its vision for sweeping changes to Oregon's health system. The plan developed by the Health System Transformation Team calls for reducing reduce waste and inefficiency and making long-term investments in preventive care...
Read more... Oregon State Hospital CNA Program honored Physical changes are taking place at the Oregon State Hospital (OSH), but it's the internal changes that often have the greatest effect on the hospital's ability to assist its patients on their path to recovery.
In yet another example of the ongoing transformation process, OSH was recently recognized for its successful Certified Nursing Assistant Program... Read more... ^ Back to top |
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