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Oregon Community Health Access Collaboratives

Member Profile

Coalition of Community Health Clinics

Contact Person:

Tracy Gratto, Executive Director
(503) 546-4991
tracygratto@coalitionclinics.org 

619 SW 11th Ave, Ste 225
Portland, Oregon 97204
www.coalitionclinics.org 

Sponsors/Collaborative Members: 14 safety net clinics

Children’s Community Clinic
Old Town Clinic
Mercy and Wisdom Healing Center
Outside In Medical Clinic
National College of Natural Medicine
PACS Family Health Center
NARA – Native American Clinic
Rosewood Family Health Center
New Life Slavic Medical Clinic
S.W. Community Health Center
North By Northeast Clinic
The Wallace Medical Concern
OHSU Richmond Clinic
West Burnside Chiropractic Clinic

Counties Served:

Multnomah County

Collaborative Incorporated: Yes

Overview and Structure:

Clinic members are board of directors. The Coalition hires an Executive Director and three additional staff members.

By coming together in collaboration, the clinics are able to leverage community resources to provide primary care, specialty care and affordable medications to low-income people without medical insurance. The Coalition clinics have become the catalyst of this community’s efforts to take care of its residents. Many providers volunteer their time to treat patients for free at the clinics.

Local foundations, businesses, churches and individuals give money and resources to support the work of these clinics. To varying degrees all of the hospital systems and Multnomah County Health Department offer access to their resources to support the work of the clinics.

It is through these contributions that the Coalition clinics are able to cut costs and provide so much high quality patient care with precious resources.

The number of patient visits that the Coalition clinics provide each year and the total amount of federal funds and community resources that the clinics are able to generate make the Coalition and its member clinics a major player in regional health care. The Coalition presents a collective social and political voice about health care issues on behalf of the vulnerable individuals and families we support.

Mission:

The Coalition of Community Health Clinics' mission is to support member clinics in their efforts to provide low-cost or no-cost care for low income people who are uninsured and underinsured. Part of the Coalition's role includes facilitating cooperation among member clinics and other health care providers in an effort to increase access and enhance the quality of health care services.

What services does the collaborative offer – Identify the Critical Activities being undertaken:

• Emergency Preparedness for 6 counties – technical assistance and surge planning
• Interpretive Services – increasing capacity among staff and volunteers to provide quality interpretation services
• DOCS Project Access – organizing donated medical care services (specialty care, hospitalization, pharmacy, ancillary services)
• Medication Voucher Program – free med vouchers to clinic patients
• Access and Referral – streamlining referral services between clinics and providing up to date detailed information about clinic and other social services
• www.coalitionclinics.org
• Volunteer Program – increase volunteer services within clinics
• TA – organize peer to peer technical assistance between clinics
• HUB – provide a single point of communication between clinic staff, the outside public seeking planning and partnership opportunities as well as fundraising and donations
• Advocacy – use clinic data to advocate for clinics and the patients they serve.

How is/has sustainability being/been achieved?

It isn’t at this point…raising money is a hard thing to do when direct services are in such high demand.

What goal or objective has your collaborative targeted?

• Economies of Scale:
  Create economies of scale that benefit member clinics and patients.
• Influence:
  Effectively influence safety-net policy and funding decisions made by state and local entities and funders.
• Capacity:
  Connect members to critical information, partnerships, technical assistance, training and other resources.
• Client Services:
  Provide accurate and accessible clinic information to the community.
• Motivation:
  Nurture hope, humor, and determination among clinic Directors.

What measure of performance has your collaborative achieved that impacts the target population?

Weakness – we have a grant into NWHF to help with this, but measuring what we do at the Coalition is hard to quantify in terms of impacts.

How has you’re your outcome prevented/reduced other problems or demonstrated cost savings?

See above.

Has your collaborative enhanced revenue?

We raised over 400,000 the first year (this year) and have only raised 120,000 next year – this is a concern…

How many People have you or does your collaborative serve by program area and/or active enrollment and individual members served per year?

181,000 visits were provided by Coalition clinics last year.

What is the collaborative’s annual budget by revenue (please include in-kind funding in your numbers)

This current year budget is 577K

Lessons Learned:

• Fundraise early.
• Evaluate early.
• Don’t grow too fast.

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