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Oregon Primary Care Association & CareOregon


Oregon Primary Care Association

The Oregon Primary Care Association (OPCA) is a 501(c)(3) membership organization of Oregon's safety net primary care providers that was founded in 1984. Its mission is to shape health policy and provide technical assistance to members in order to help increase health equities and access to comprehensive healthcare for low-income and vulnerable people in Oregon.

Its membership primarily includes the federally qualified Community Health Centers (CHCs) and affiliate members such as Rural Health Clinics, Indian Health Clinics and other community-sponsored clinics and organizations with similar missions and governance. The vision of OPCA is to be a catalyst and unifying voice of its members for collaboration, leadership, growth and sustainability by shaping public policy with knowledge, understanding and information and empowering members to deliver the highest quality service to low-income and vulnerable people in Oregon.


CareOregon

CareOregon's motto is, "Better Together." We are committed to improving and protecting the health of Oregonians on the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) and/or Medicare. We focus not just on health care — but on total health. Teaming with our members, their families and communities, we help them live better lives, prevent illness and respond quickly and effectively to health issues. CareOregon provides services to five Coordinated Care Organizations, supporting and enhancing sensible, localized, coordinated care for physical and mental health. We also support universal health care coverage by assisting in the formation of a CO-OP to serve people on Oregon's health insurance exchange, and offering Medicare plans and a small dental plan. In addition, we provide learning opportunities to health professionals designed to improve health delivery nationwide.


Oregon Rural Practice-Based Research Network

Oregon Rural Practice-based Research Network (ORPRN) was a partner organization in the Initiative and participated as one of the Medical Home Facilitator Team members. ORPRN coordinates clinical transformation activities between the Medical Home Facilitator Team and two partner clinics (Eastern Oregon Medical Associates and Winding Waters). ORPRN, founded in 2002, is an active clinical research network spanning rural communities throughout the state of Oregon. The network includes 171 clinician members in 50 primary care practices who care for over 240,000 patients. One out of every five rural Oregon residents receives their care in an ORPRN-affiliated practice. ORPRN is nationally recognized as experts in Implementation Science. The network conducts studies using at-the-elbow practice facilitation with their five Practice Enhancement Research Coordinators (PERCs) who have offices in rural Oregon. ORPRN provides practice facilitation for 31 primary care practices undergoing transformation to a medical home through four projects funded by CMS, AHRQ and private foundations.

  • Mission—The mission of ORPRN is to improve the health of rural populations in Oregon through conducting and promoting health research in partnership with the communities and practitioners we serve


Goals for the Initiative

The vision for the RCC was to use the resources and goals of this Initiative to pilot and build a statewide PCMH collaborative for sustained transformation of safety net clinics. The role of the executive sponsor was to oversee the learning community that supported the implementation of PCMH at partner clinics and to ensure that health policy supports the space for these clinics to test and apply change concepts that support attributes of PCMH.

The goal of the first year was:

  • Building working relationships across the existing medical home change efforts underway
  • Integrating PCMH change concepts tools with locally emerging successful practices
  • Finding effective ways to match clinic needs with varied approaches to practice consulting and knowledge transfer
  • Assessing what works


The strong foundation established in year one enabled us to use the national Project Team expertise and resources in years two through four for effective expansion of the scope and scale of the statewide learning collaborative. The Executive Sponsor worked on health policy to provide the space for learning what works. The goal was to ensure the right level of standardization of practice knowledge. Policies were shaped to set performance requirements while encouraging innovation in matching care delivery processes to population need.


Partner Clinics

  • Old Town Clinic, Central City Concern—Portland
    See a snapshot of this clinic’s work in the SNMHI
  • Community Health Center Inc.—Medford
  • Community Health Centers of Benton and Linn County—Corvallis
  • Community Health Centers of Lane County—Eugene
  • St. Luke’s Eastern Oregon Medical Associates—Baker City
  • Klamath Health Partnership—Klamath Falls
  • La Clínica del Cariño—Hood River
  • Legacy Clinic Emanuel, Internal Medicine—Portland
    See a snapshot of this clinic’s work in the SNMHI
  • Multnomah County Health Department, East County Health Center—Gresham
  • Multnomah County Health Department, Mid-County Health Center—Portland
  • OHSU Family Medicine at Richmond—Portland
  • OHSU Family Medicine at Scappoose—Scappoose
  • Outside In—Portland
  • Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center—Hillsboro
  • Winding Waters Clinic P.C.—Enterprise


Links


Key Contacts

Craig Hostetler, MHA
Executive Director
Oregon Primary Care Association
110 SW Yamhill Street, Suite 300
Portland, OR 97204
chostetler@orpca.org

David Labby, MD, PhD
Executive Sponsor, CareOregon
Medical Director for Healthshare of Oregon
315 SW Fifth Avenue, Suite 900
Portland, OR 97204
david@healthshareoregon.org

Sally Retecki, MBA
Lead Medical Home Facilitator
CareOregon
(503) 416-1709
reteckis@careoregon.org

Ariel Singer, MPH
Technical Assistance Curriculum Manager
Practice Transformation Facilitator
Oregon Primary Care Association
(503) 228-8852
asinger@orpca.org

Irma Murauskas, RN, MPH
Director of Primary Care Transformation
Practice Transformation Facilitator
Oregon Primary Care Association
(503) 228-8852
imurauskas@orpca.org

Jill Currey, MPH
Medical Home Facilitator
Oregon Rural Primary Care Research Network
(541) 962-3109
currey@ohsu.edu

Contact OPCA

Oregon Primary Care Association
110 SW Yamhill Street
Suite 300
Portland, OR 97204
www.orpca.org

Contact CareOregon

CareOregon
315 SW Fifth Avenue
Suite 900
Portland, OR 97204
www.careoregon.org