Healthmeetingalaska2012

Last nights Cypress Health Region Planning Session With Alaskan healthcare provider Southcentral Foundation

The Cypress Health Region welcomed representatives from a healthcare provider in Alaska for a planning session yesterday.

CEO Beth Vachon said they've worked with Southcentral Foundation for a number of years, and made a trip there last year to look at ways to improve healthcare delivery for large, rural populations, “By inviting these collegues from another part of the world to come and spend some time with us is an opprotunity for more people with in our organization and our community to be able to see what we saw. And the potential of where we could get to by exploring some different models”

The Southcentral Foundation discussed how they use patient-specific integrated care teams to deliver healthcare in their area. Medical Director Donna Galbreath said they wanted to address issues that limited access to care for the population they serve, “We created a process where we could actually get more people coming through our healthcare system, that way actually the backlogs we're decreased and it opened up the door for people to be seen the same day that they want to be seen so they don't have to wait.”

Galbreath adds that they talked about using integrated care teams to help improve their healthcare system, which brings clients together with a specific team of physicians, nurses and other healthcare providers,“People who came to our clinics and we talked to them and said how can we improve our healthcare system, what can we be more effective at, what do you need what are your needs, and what people told us is they wanted to know their provider. Their Doctor or their PA, or Nurse practioner, they want to get to know them they don't want who ever happens to be their that day.”

Cypress Health Region CEO Beth Vachon said they often talk about using teams in their healthcare system, but believes there is room to grow, “What they look at in Alaska is actually colocating their team members in one open room so that their is always ongoing and constant dialouge around the patients that they are providing services to. That allows them to be far more intuned to what the needs are and then moving in the right direction as far as needs go."

Glabreath added their primary care unit serves a large, remote part of Alaska, saying if you put their service area on a map of the United States, it would be like somebody having to fly from California to Michigan to receive their primary care.


Cypress Health Region CEP Beth Vachon


South Central Foundation Medical Director Donna Galbreath