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November 13, 2015 OHA Director's messages on the web
To: All OHA employees
From: Lynne Saxton, Director

Reaching every corner of Oregon

To the OHA team:

Next week will be a busy one for the Oregon Health Authority. We are hosting the Coordinated Care Model Summit, Health and Early Learning Forum, and the Health Equity Conference, as well as participating in legislative days. These various events exemplify the depth and reach of our work as we engage with our partners and explore opportunities to bring access to better health to Oregonians.

Governor Brown has proclaimed next Thursday, November 19, Rural Health Day in Oregon. I’ve lived and worked in rural Oregon at different times throughout my life, and I know our state is truly special because of the remarkable Oregonians who make rural Oregon their home

National Rural Health Day is celebrated across the country on the third Thursday in November. One in five Americans (and Oregonians) resides in rural areas. These communities are wonderful places to live, but they face unique health care needs: accessibility issues, a lack of health care providers, the needs of an aging population suffering from a greater number of chronic conditions, and larger percentages of un- and underinsured citizens.

Health care providers and systems in Oregon are vital sources of innovation and resourcefulness and also act as major economic drivers within the communities they serve. But their role and the vital resources they deliver are magnified tremendously in rural Oregon.

We help coordinate these providers, systems and communities to meet outcomes—using local flexibility—which creates the backbone of health system transformation in rural Oregon. In fact, rural Oregon may be a step ahead in this regard; they’ve been coordinating to deliver the triple aim to rural Oregonians out of frontier necessity for decades.

One recent example of this sort of frontier collaboration is the Winding Waters Clinic in Enterprise. Winding Waters is a patient centered primary care home serving the Wallowa County area, and the first to receive our new 3 STAR designation for true transformation. The outcomes that they’ve achieved through their innovative, integrated model of care sets a new and impressive standard.

Winding Waters Clinic  

Staff members at Winding Waters Clinic in Enterprise.

 

You can learn more about celebrating the power of rural health on the National Rural Health Day website.

I’m proud to be part of a team that strives to reach every Oregonian and help them to achieve better health.


Thank you,
Lynne


To your health: Prepare to quit smoking during the Great American Smokeout on November 19. If you're a smoker, quitting can be the single most important step you take to protect your health and the health of your loved ones. Smoking causes immediate damage to your body, and it threatens your future with increased risks for cancer, heart attack, lung disease and early death. Many people have probably urged you to quit smoking already, but we all know that quitting can be hard. Just as every journey begins with a single step, so, too, does quitting. For help, visit www.smokefreeoregon.com to get tools and coaching that will help you to live a healthier, smoke-free life.

OHA on the web