Columbia River
Community Health Services Wins National Health Service Corps
Award of Excellence
Less
than two years ago, Columbia River Community Health Services
nearly closed its doors. At that time, it was a private
practice — one of only two primary care providers in the
sparsely populated frontier country of north Morrow County
in Oregon — operating under the name of Boardman Health
Care Center. When its physician, Dr. Robert Boss, was ready
to retire, a collaborative workgroup sought and received
grant monies to continue operations, ensuring the needs
of the community would be met. The transformation to a
non-profit organization would bring on many changes…office
hours would be extended, mental and dental health services
would be added, OB/GYN services would be expanded, staff
would be added and the name would be changed to Columbia
River Community Health Services.
With
8,000 patient encounters annually, CRCH sees the majority
of the 11,000 residents in the area. The clinic also serves
a large Latino population. To assist the center in serving
its Latino patient base, CRCH hired a Promotora, or outreach
worker, to help with health education efforts, disease management,
patient relations and translations. Her assimilation into
the community gives CRCH a pulse on how the clinic can better
serve the Latino population.
Last
year, CRCH participated in a project with Medicare to improve
lipid testing for Latino patients with diabetes. Working
with seven other clinics in the rural areas of Oregon, CRCH
contributed substantial information about the patient population
and an understanding of the issues to the project. The
consortium used this information to develop the educational
materials now in use, and CRCH gleaned information from
the project that assists in patient care.
Preventive
care and health education plays a large role at the clinic.
Educational and self-care materials are combined with classes,
screenings and immunizations. From the smallest patients
who undergo well-child exams to adult preventive care, CRCH
takes steps to encourage patients to engage in healthy behaviors
to lengthen their lives and improve their quality of life.
Dr.
Robert J. Boss, CRCH Chief Medical Officer, said, “We have
started a disparity program for diabetes, hyperlipidemia,
hypertension, asthma and high-risk pregnancy…Our goal is
to standardize the level of care in all of these areas,
and we have established an audit team to monitor and evaluate
our level of care.”
Dr.
Boss continued, “It’s good news to hear good things like
winning the National Health Service Corps Award of Excellence,
but the far bigger accomplishment is that we’ve got the
grant and the clinic to provide some stability for medical
care for several years to come.”
Learn about other
NHSC success stories.