PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOD SHEPHERD MEDICAL CENTER
The National Rural Health Resource Center bestowed national recognition on Good Shepherd Health Care System (GSHCS) for demonstrating innovation in care coordination and outcomes.
According to The Center, GSHCS has been progressive in keeping pace with health care transformation, which is crucial in providing access to health services for the community. The National Rural Resource Center recognized GSHCS for their outstanding innovation in care coordination through the ConneXions Program.
ConneXions is a program that was developed by the education department at GSHCS.
“ConneXions was developed with the simple idea, wouldn’t it be great if we could coordinate the accessibility and delivery of our regions health care services by essentially connecting community members with vital resources that they might not have otherwise knew existed,” said Juli Gregory, director of Education at GSHCS. “The idea was sound, and in addition to a community-wide outreach effort to help us launch this idea, we decided to work internally, starting with individuals that came through our Emergency Department.
“We began to utilize Community Health Workers (CHW) to work with patients and help them with some basic needs, e.g., financial concerns, disease and education training, medication management, healthcare coverage, housing, food, shelter, transportation, psychological issues, addictions, health and wellness screenings and classes, and connecting them with support services. As the program continues to develop we are being more proactive and trying to connect with our community members before they come into the emergency department.”
The Critical Access Hospital Recognition certificate was established by The National Rural Health Resource Center and the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) to recognize excellent work in critical access hospitals (CAHs) throughout the country. The recognition promotes excellence and innovation and honors the achievements and results of CAHs while publicizing successful strategies.
During this round of nominations, five Critical Access Hospitals were chosen nationally for recognition, GSHCS being the only hospital from Oregon. “The number of CAHs nominated by their state Flex Programs is impressive,” stated Sally Buck, Chief Executive Officer at The Center. “It is wonderful to hear of successful CAH models that embrace care coordination in their rural communities with providers beyond the hospital, clinic or health center. Care coordination processes benefit the patient and the overall community and will reduce the cost of health care.”
Health care delivered in rural communities is affordable, high quality and necessary to the good health of the entire community, said GSHCS President and CEO Dennis Burke.
“We are excited by the recognition the ConneXions program has received, but even more so for the many lives our community health workers are helping every single day – it’s a continuity of care these patients had not experienced before. Giving these patients more control, options, and solutions to their basic health care needs has made all the difference.”
ConneXions is a service of the Education Department at Good Shepherd Health Care System. For more information about the ConneXions program, or to find out about vital resources in the community that could help benefit you please call 541-667-3504.
