OAHHS Hospital Voice Fall/Winter 2020

7 Fall/Winter 2020 From charity care to parenting classes, Oregon community benefit programs improve public health and well-being throughout the state. They’re more crucial than ever now with the coronavirus. In the midst of this menace, the challenges couldn’t be greater, especially given the difficulty of delivering services during social distancing and less in-person contact. Some community benefit programs, such as CHI St. Anthony Hospital’s health-outreach program at senior centers, have temporarily shut down due to restrictions on large gather- ings and visitors at facilities. But many of Oregon’s hospitals and health systems have adapted to the urgencies and uncertainties of the coronavirus, adjusting their commu- nity benefit programs to continue serving their communities. They’ve accelerated and expanded existing programs and quickly formed new ones. Many have begun delivering care to vacant parking lots, farm fields, and front doors. Oregon’s hospitals and health sys- tems have depended even more on forming and fostering community relationships in the COVID era. They’re building more active, ongoing and sustaining partnerships with county public health agencies as well as community organizations, school districts, and other stakeholders. And they’re doing it well. “Our hospital and health systems are engaged with and anchored in their communities, not just a place to go when you’re sick or injured. They build connections with their patients and community members through local assessments, which inform the community benefit program investments that are made. Many hospitals have identified social determinants of health as a key priority,” says Rebecca Tiel, MPH, Director of Public Policy with OAHHS. “The future for community benefit programs is a collaborative model,” she says. “We’ll see more of a collec- tive impact, where hospitals are working with different entities, all rowing their boats in one direction.” Here are six hospital and health systems with oars in the water: Outbreaks and Outreach: Samaritan Health Services When over 120 Pacific Seafood workers in Newport tested positive for COVID-19 in June, it hit the whole town hard, especially the immigrant community. Newport was effectively handling the coronavirus when suddenly health officials were hurled into responding to a major outbreak. They rose to meet the challenge. Lincoln County Public Health (LCPH) and Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital (SPCH) began a collective response, but they found a significant barrier: Some of those workers are indigenous Guatemalans whose sole language is Mam, not Spanish, and they didn’t understand the meaning of their test results and instructions. “Right away, we sent two bilingual Spanish-speaking staff members over to [LCPH], and paid their salaries,” says Dr. Lesley Ogden, CEO of Samaritan Health. Lincoln County contracted with local Mam speakers for translation. The County also has turned to Samar- itan’s experts for the content of its online COVID-19 public-service Spanish-English videos, now in Mam, too. SPCH and SNLH have made similar language changes to their call-in centers and online presence. Their enhanced social media content gives bilingual information on the science of COVID-19, prevention, testing, and treatment. Contact tracing needed Spanish interpretation, and SPCH sought the help of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and Centro de Ayuda, a Newport nonprofit. Fortunately, one of SPCH’s employees speaks Mam and is bilingual, and was willing to be trained as a certified interpreter. “The indigenous-Guatemalan commu- nity is large enough here. We’ve got to have that commitment to them,” says Dr. Ogden. She understands the need to offer different resources for different minority groups. “So, it’s been helpful for us to meet with the Lincoln County Board of Commis- sioners and community stakeholders,” Dr. Ogden says. “We very much are relying on the County, which has more frequent contact with some of our minority populations, and Oregon’s hospitals and health systems have depended even more on forming and fostering community relationships in the COVID era. continues 