Northeast Oregon Network (NEON) is a successful recipient of a grant funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration, in which Lisa Ladendorff, NEON’s Executive Director, will evaluate and direct the community based project.

The Wallowa County Patient Activation Project is designed to address specific community health concerns (speculated with NEON’s local Community Health Assessment Data from 2011) by utilizing Continuous Quality Improvement disciplines and interventions by Behaviorists in a primary care setting to reach the following goals:

• Increase patient self-efficacy as a result of lifestyle behavior changes through the use of patient activation interventions provided by Behaviorists in the primary care setting.
• Improve patient health outcomes by reducing the impact of social determinants of health on Wallowa County citizens though the use of health literacy assessments and educational campaigns, integration with community nutrition programming, and public health and social services programming.
• Create long term sustainability in the system by reducing overall cost of care and reinvesting savings in prevention, health education and patient activation interventions.

The Wallowa County Patient Activation Project is truly a collaborative effort of multiple organizations from Northeast Oregon.  All of the consortium partners have worked together in a variety of partnerships over the last eight years, and have already implemented several joint projects.  Community Partners involved in this project include:

• Winding Waters Clinic, a tier 3 Patient Centered Primary Care Home also certified a Rural Health Clinic,  serving as the main intervention site and providing the Lead Clinician, QI Team Coordinator and data analyst staffing;
• The Wallowa Valley Center for Wellness, a Community Mental Health Agency, providing the behaviorist staffing and the behavioral health QI Team Member;
• Wallowa Memorial Hospital, a health district operated Critical Access Hospital, serving as a QI Team members, STEPPS trainer, and data collection for total cost of care measures;
• The Wallowa County Public Health Department, a local public health department, providing QI Team Membership and health literacy assessment;
• Building Healthy Families, a local prevention agency, providing social service QI Team membership and also working on health literacy issues;
• And Northeast Oregon Community Connections, a local action agency, providing social service QI Team membership and support for community nutritional program changes. 

Please contact NEON if you would like more details about this project in Wallowa County.

Lisa Ladendorff, LCSW
Executive  Director
Northeast Oregon Network
1802 Fourth Street, Suite A
541-624-5101 phone
541-624-5105 fax
www.neonoregon.org