Community members, hospital leaders discuss local health needs

Community members had the opportunity to give their perspectives on the community’s health needs to the leaders of Coquille Valley Hospital and Bay Area Hospital.

Brian Moore, President and CEO of Bay Area Hospital, introduced himself at the event on Tuesday, April 30, along with Coquille Valley Hospital Chief Executive Officer Jeff Lang.

“This is one of the opportunities that we get to really listen to our population – our patients, our community – around what the issues are in our community that affect health status,” said CEO Lang.

“We have an obligation as healthcare entities to do our best to try and make this area the best place to live and to have the best possible healthcare services available. So, we appreciate your feedback,” he said.

Bay Area Hospital CEO Moore echoed Lang’s sentiments.

“This is very, very important for all of us to hear your concerns. Thank you again for your time. And we look forward to hearing from you throughout the afternoon,” Moore said.

Before breaking into small groups, those who attended the event got an overview of the goals for the forum, along with a breakdown of the feedback that hospital staff had already received through one-on-one in-person interviews and email surveys.

Facilitator Kurt Bennion, the director of Health Care and Life Sciences CLA, said that about a decade ago, Congress passed a law that said hospitals, every three years, need to go out into the community and ask what the major health issues are.

This community forum was part of that process.

“Just what are the major health issues you see in the area? Who's impacted the most by those health issues? What are the root causes of the health issues? Because honestly, if we're trying to change the community, we want to figure out the root cause and attack that, versus just treating the symptoms,” Bennion said.

“Then, what can we do about them? It's pretty easy to identify the problems. The real challenge is figuring out how to change things. It's the solutions that are tough,” the facilitator said.

Some of the main health concerns that had already been identified and were further discussed at the community forum were: Access to care, mental health, substance abuse, obesity, and other issues.

A forum for medical providers to give their input was also held later the same day.

After receiving and studying the input, hospitals must publish a report on the findings. Coquille Hospital has until June 30 to publish a report, and Bay Area Hospital will have until Dec. 31 to publish their findings.

After the report, facilitator Bennion said hospital leaders would be tasked with addressing the issues.

“It's called an implementation strategy,” he said.

“They'll spend the next three years trying to make things better for everybody - which, as I mentioned, is by far the biggest challenge in the whole process, how we make things better,” Bennion said.