skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

A "Medical Home" On the Range for Rural Oregon

play audio
Play

Thursday, July 25, 2013   

REEDSPORT, Ore. - Imagine a medical checkup that focuses on how you're doing instead of what's wrong.

A growing number of small-town health clinics in Oregon are reorganizing their practices to become "medical homes." Patients are able to call on a team, not just a doctor, for health questions and recommendations.

On the coast, some clinics in the Columbia Pacific Coordinated Care Organization have adopted the medical-home model. Mindy Stadtlander, a clinical systems innovation program manager for CareOregon, helped with the transition and said it's a more neighborly way to improve patient care.

"The provider and the team that takes care of them knows about them. They know their family, they know their history," she said. "They can call them in for visits when they haven't been in for a long time and they're needing some up-to-date prevention or other health screenings."

The focus in a medical home is on staying healthy and managing chronic conditions, explained Stadtlander, which also saves money, rather than waiting until a problem becomes serious to get care. The care team looks beyond a person's medical chart, sometimes recommending social services or community activities.

The medical-home model has built-in challenges in rural areas, where clinics are small and there's a shortage of providers.

Dr. Janet Patin, a family practitioner who moved from Ohio to Reedsport to be part of Oregon's health-care transformation, said she thinks other doctors would do the same.

"This is really exciting medicine - to be able to give people better care, the care that we know we can provide, that people deserve," said Patin, who practices at Dunes Family Health Care. "That's going to be a recruiting benefit. I think people are going to want to be part of that, as providers."

The biggest challenge isn't geography, she said; it's getting people to see the health-care system, and their role in it, differently.

"What we're trying to do," she said, "is shift patients' to thinking, 'I am the most important member of my health-care team,' you know. 'How can you help me be healthier?' You don't go to the doctor and say, 'Fix me.' "

Patin said small towns have one advantage in setting up medical homes, because the providers often are well acquainted with patients and their families.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Many factors affect a customer's bill amount, including energy usage, weather, and the number of days in a billing period, according to Arizona Public Service. (Jason Yoder/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …


Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

Social Issues

play sound

A mix of policy updates and staffing boosts has helped to put wage theft enforcement on the radar in Minnesota, and officials leading the efforts are …


More than six in 10 Americans favor keeping the abortion pill mifepristone available in the U.S. as a prescription drug, while over a third are opposed, according to a Gallup poll. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

New research shows more than six in 10 abortions in the U.S. last year were medically induced, and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto - D-NV - is …

Social Issues

play sound

Colorado is working to boost the state's agricultural communities by getting more fresh, nutritious foods into school cafeterias - and a new online …

Social media platform X temporarily shutdown searches of "Taylor Swift" following the release of explicit deepfake images in early 2024. (Mdv Edwards/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Missouri lawmakers are concerned with protecting people from the potential risks of the increasing accessibility of AI-generated images and videos…

Social Issues

play sound

A 2023 study from the University of Nebraska Medical Center concluded the number of Nebraskans with a mental health or substance abuse disorder has pr…

Environment

play sound

A farm group is helping Iowa agriculture producers find ways to reduce the amount of nitrogen they use on their crops. Excess nitrates can wind up …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021