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Oregon Community Health Access Collaboratives

Member Profile

Jefferson Regional Health Alliance (JRHA)

Key Contacts:

Chair – Jim Watson (541) 488-0582 jimnsue@mind.net
Facilitator – Jon Lange lange@sou.edu
Convener – Kathy Bryon Kathy@gordonelwoodfoundation.org

Sponsors/Collaborative Members:

1. Kathy Bryon MPH, Gordon Elwood Foundation
2. Hank Collins, Jackson County Health & Human Svcs.
3. Allen Douma MD, Administrator of OMAP
4. John Forsyth MD, Community Health Center
5. Tom Hannenburg, Providence Medical Center
6. Keri Hecox, MD, La Clinica de Valle
7. Mark Marchetti, Ashland Community Hospital
8. Andrew Mebane, MD, So. Oregon Rehab Center & Clinics at Dept. of VA
9. Belle Shepard MPH, Josephine County Public Health
10. Laura Brennan, PacificSource Health Plan
11. Earl Potter, Southern Oregon University
12. Bill Thorndike, Medford Fabrication
13. Roy Vinyard, Asante Health System
14. Jim Watson, Hospital CEO (ret.)

Alternates:
Joe Graf, Southern Oregon University
Brian Herwig, Providence Medical Center
Scott Kelly, Asante Health System

Counties Served:

Jackson County – population approx. 150,000

Collaborative Incorporated:

Jefferson Regional Health Alliance was incorporated in 2005.

Overview and Structure:

In 2004, the Gordon Elwood Foundation and collaborators convened over 60 key leaders from insurance companies, hospitals, county health departments, local state university, corporations, school districts, nurses, and physicians, to talk with Peter Senge, researcher and writer, about healthcare and “Learning Organizations.” This leadership group birthed in 2005 a “think tank” called the Jefferson Regional Health Alliance (JRHA) to improve the health and healthcare resources of southern Oregonians. The JRHA is a non-profit organization aimed at addressing systemic issues from a higher vantage point. The collaborative functions as a brain trust for the region on the current healthcare system. It provides a place to develop the relationships of the Alliance members who are key to the provision of health care services and system thinking in the region. It is also a place from which the community can begin to better coordinate and leverage resources to endure a healthy community and effective health care delivery system. Stakeholders represent the health care services and interests of the region.

Mission:

Jefferson Regional Health Alliance is a collaboration of regional community leaders from all sectors acting in a leadership role to improve the health and health care resources of southern Oregonians.

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

The JRHA is working on two primary initiatives:

• An Integrated Crisis Response Proposal

The Jefferson Regional Health Alliance (JRHA) selected mental health services as the first area of inquiry for health services improvement. Subsequently the JRHA received and evaluated a descriptive mapping of current mental health services in Jackson County and a summary of best practices from around the nation. Based on the information received, the Alliance chose improved crisis response services as the highest priority for the planning process. A Work Group was organized and met on three occasions to identify the architecture and operation of an integrated crisis response system.

A hub or center-based crisis response program is envisioned. It may be described as an intake, triage, “clearing house” or “control tower” approach to assuring timely and effective services to persons in crisis. It incorporates in a single facility many of the components regarded as essential to fully operational crisis response systems.

The JRHA is now pursuing technical assistance toward further operationalizing this project and toward gaining needed community buy-in in order to secure necessary funding.

• Nurse Workforce

The JRHA, through the Alliance member Kathy Bryon of the Gordon Elwood Foundation, has put the nursing workforce shortage on the top of its priority list of potential collaborative projects. The Gordon Elwood Foundation is supporting the creation of a regional nursing workforce plan, and to assist in the implementation of the plan the foundation has applied for a grant through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Partners in Nursing Future Initiative. In partnership with the Rogue Valley Workforce Development Council & The Job Council, along with multiple other community partners, the JRHA is working toward the following four goals:

1. Increasing the number of nurses entering schools of nursing by increasing spaces in the educational institutions locally.
2. Providing sufficient clinical training and mentoring so that graduates are ready for the workforce.
3. Graduating more nurses locally and employing them locally throughout the region.
4. Increasing the number of nurses who are retained in the nursing profession throughout the whole community.

The first year of the project will unveil the strategic implementation plan for nursing workforce priorities and strategies to ensure nursing excellence in the Rogue Valley, as well as present a community education campaign on the current realities of the nursing workforce. Concurrently, this initiative will create the structures, policies and procedures that will be required to ensure effective implementation, management, and evaluation of selected workforce strategies and collaboratively funded projects. Collectively, this initiative will provide the ongoing structure and capacity to make meaningful and continued change in response to regional nursing workforce challenges.

How is/has sustainability being/been achieved?

JRHA has relied on funding from its members and from small grant dollars received from the state and foundations, as well as in-kind donations from foundation and business members.

What goal or objective has your collaborative targeted?

JRHA has targeted adult mental health crisis access and assessment and health care workforce issues.

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

The convening of this group has provided ability to look as a whole community at issues that would usually fall to the public health department to address alone. It is too early to measure impact in numbers– initiatives of serving the public with access as well as more effective health care are in the process of being conceptualized and operationalized.

Has your collaborative enhanced revenue?

JRHA has brought grant revenue in the amount of $20,000 from outside Jackson County; for the purpose of better coordinating and addressing the gaps in needed health care services, in Jackson County. Since 2004 there has been in-kind support of over $50,000 and member support of $80,000 to bring these leaders together 8 times a year.

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

Too early to measure numbers served.

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

2005: $90,000
2006: $50,000 value
2007: estimated at $50,000 value

Lessons Learned:

• Leadership needs to be comfortable with the chaos of the collaborative process. Building “collaborative muscles” among leaders is key.
• It takes time to build trust.
• There must be something of interest for each member of the group in order to bring people to the table.
• Meetings must reflect those areas of interest in order to maintain engagement. Important to have the right people at the table.
• Strong facilitation is key in order to keep the comfort level as high as possible when addressing complex and competitive issues.

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