At the start of this year, Santiam Hospital initiated a new program to help patients at three area clinics navigate their healthcare options.
Community Health Workers were placed into SH clinics in Aumsville, Sublimity and Mill City. Each CHW serves as a liaison between medical and social services and the community, improving access to the quality of care by addressing basic patient needs.
“When a new, or not recently evaluated, patient comes to the medical clinic for evaluation, they are presented with a form asking about basic needs such as safe housing, adequate food supply, and ease of transportation,” said Kim Klotz, who oversees the program. “CHWs reside in the clinic environment so that when a patient identifies a need, they can meet with that patient to further explore the situation and start the process of identifying resources and referrals to help them.”
Klotz said CHWs are also embedded in the communities they serve, attending such activities as vaccine clinics or resource fairs.
“Our goal is to have a CHW in each of our six identified Rural Healthcare Clinics,” Klotz said.
Melissa Baurer, who heads disaster services and community engagement for SH’s Santiam Services Integration, agrees that CHWs are instrumental in bridging care.
Baurer credits Erin Cramer, Director of Medical Clinics, for helping to develop the program.
“A new program needs to be supported by leadership,” Baurer said. “I appreciate the support this program has received. Kim Klotz has been wonderful in the direct oversight and securement of grant to hire the three community health workers we currently have.”
Each week, CHWs discuss patient needs and ways to find resources with Santiam Service Integration Coordinator Kim Dwyer, Colleen Bradford with ODHS Self Sufficiency, Klotz and Baurer.
“This is another program that utilizes our Service Integration model to support families,” Baurer said. “It’s great to see crossover amongst programs to meet the needs of our growing communities.”
Klotz said despite the proven value of CHWs, the move toward implementing them into a “traditional healthcare model is still being built out.”
“Funding for these positions is often soft, such as coming from grants, which is not reliable,” she said. “Our focus now is to have secured funding for the three positions by June and build out the team in 2023.”
Current team members are Josie Crocker with the Women’s Clinic and Santiam Medical Clinic, Crystal Filbey with Sublimity Medical Clinic, and Hannah Nelson with Aumsville Medical Clinic.
“Our team has weathered the growing pains of a new program marvelously and all state they ‘aren’t going anywhere,’” she said.
“The clinics they work in have adopted them into their workflow and also state that they ‘aren’t going anywhere.’ Patients are very grateful, and this is the part that makes the job so rewarding.”
For more information, call Santiam Hospital and Clinics at 503-769-2175.
