2024 Oregon Rural Health Excellence Awardees
Meet the 2024 Oregon Rural Health Awardees:
With the nominations open year-round, Oregon’s rural health care and community-based organizations are encouraged to submit their nominations anytime throughout the year via the Oregon Rural Health Excellence Award webpage. Organizations can submit more than one nomination for their organization. It's time to start sharing your successes and allow your peers to learn from your outstanding efforts!
Each year, ORH will recognize one rural hospital, one rural health clinic, one rural local public health department, one rural EMS agency and one community-based organization. Nominations are due by Aug. 31 each year, and awardees will be recognized at the annual Oregon Rural Health Conference, which is held each October.
If your organization has celebrated success in improving the quality of care or health in your community, we want to hear from you! Please submit a nomination.
ORH congratulates the 2024 Oregon Rural Health Excellence Award awardees! Read about their outstanding projects below:
Wallowa Memorial Hospital, located in Enterprise, won the hospital award for its community balance and fall prevention program. The program, designed to reduce fall rates among the community’s older adult population, was first identified when the hospital’s director of quality and risk management was working on a final project for her master’s degree and identified an alarming rate of sustained fatal falls in their county. The program, which now has a waiting list due to its success, integrates physical therapy, clinic coordination, community outreach and a targeted fall prevention algorithm to identify and support high-risk individuals. By leveraging existing data and developing new metrics, the hospital can actively monitor program outcomes and measure the program’s impact on fall reduction in their community.
The program includes a free community balance class for older adults through the physical and occupational therapy department, with classes held twice a week for eight weeks. The Berg Balance scale is administered to each participant at the beginning of the first class and again at the end of the last class to determine program effectiveness. Since its inception, over 200 individuals (10% of the county’s older adult population) have participated in the program.
The program recently added an avenue for people to continue to improve their strength and balance after completing the balance class, through which participants maintain movement and exercise by utilizing the popular walking trail surrounding the hospital campus. Here, they can participate in “Walk-With-a-Doc” sessions and use exercise equipment along the trail to help with balance and strengthening.
This initiative represents a significant step toward enhancing community health and well-being by proactively addressing the issue of falls.
St. Alphonsus Medical Group – Baker City won the RHC award for their project focused on improving long wait times and dropped calls when patients reached out to their clinic.
A telephone call is often the first step a patient takes to engage with a health care system. Patient service representatives at clinics assist patients with administrative questions, appointment scheduling, billing questions and navigating the system. They also handle calls from patients, providers and pharmacists regarding medical care, treatment orders and refill requests. Providing prompt service through telephone access is crucial to patient engagement, satisfaction and access to care.
When St. Alphonsus Medical Group – Baker City identified a 22% call abandonment rate and found that the average speed to answer a call was two minutes and 43 seconds, they knew they needed to address this issue.
Utilizing frequently reviewed and adjusted Plan, Do, Study, Act cycles, they identified goals to reach an abandoned call rate under 5% and to decrease the average speed to answer calls to less than 30 seconds. The clinic changed staffing, workflows and processes, which has shown significant results. Abandoned call rates decreased to 3.73%, and the average speed to answer calls reduced to an average of 25 seconds. This clinic’s commitment to close monitoring of call measures and adjusting workflows and processes is ongoing, with the aim of further streamlining and decreasing call metrics.
South Morrow County Seniors Matter, located in Heppner, won the community-based organization award for their overall service to the community. The organization was born in 2023 from the vision of two hospice workers who recognized a crucial need to revive a senior meal program in their community, which had been discontinued due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They took proactive steps to establish a nonprofit organization, assemble a board, secure grants, hire a cook and recruit volunteers.
Since serving its inaugural meal on July 11, 2023, South Morrow County Senior Matters has significantly impacted the lives of the community’s older adult population. In its first year alone, it provided over 3,500 lunches to an average of 70 older adults each week. The initiative has been bolstered by the support of more than 100 volunteers from all eight community churches as well as local high school students. Additionally, the program has integrated over 40 speakers from a variety of community organizations to address relevant topics each week.
In April 2024, the organization further expanded its services by opening a senior center twice a week. The center offers group exercises, older adult-focused classes and a range of social activities to help keep participants engaged. The response to these new offerings has been overwhelmingly positive, providing older adults with valuable opportunities to enhance their health and well-being.