St. Charles IDs significant health needs across region

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- St. Charles Health System’s Board of Directors has approved Community Health Needs Assessments for Bend, Madras, Prineville and Redmond, the organization said Wednesday.

Each CHNA covers the next three years (2020-2022) and identifies six significant health needs for its respective region.

The health needs were identified based on a combination of phone surveys, focus groups, interviews and the Central Oregon Health Council’s regional health needs assessment, among other sources. St. Charles and the health council collaborated to conduct the research and develop the CHNAs.

For St. Charles Bend, the six significant health needs were identified as: Stable Housing & Supports; Address Poverty & Enhance Self Sufficiency; Upstream Prevention: Promotion of Individual Well-Being: Substance & Alcohol Misuse Prevention & Treatment; Behavioral Health: Increase Access and Coordination; and Promote Enhanced Physical Health Across Communities.

The 2020-2022 assessments are available on the St. Charles website, along with more information.

Every three years, St. Charles is required to conduct a health needs assessment for each region served by one of the health system’s hospitals. These assessments help guide the selection of a priority focus and the development of the regional health implementation strategy (RHIS) for the health system.

As St. Charles and the Central Oregon Health Council move forward with their implementation plans, the goal is to align efforts for increased collective impact. The information in the CHNAs will also help guide St. Charles’ allocation of funds, resources and time to local community nonprofit organizations.

The Community Benefit team will conduct interviews with individuals from each facility to determine priority areas and create work plans for the next three years. In April, the board is scheduled to approve the priority focus and the RHIS for 2020-2022.

From 2017 to 2019, Community Benefit’s board-approved priority focus was suicide prevention. Successes from that initiative include:

• Trained 2,404 individuals in suicide prevention training Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR)
• Provided 143 QPR trainings throughout Central Oregon (including 11 in Spanish)
• Awarded $241,087 to organizations in the region offering suicide prevention work
• Designated St. Charles as a “Zero Suicide” organization
• Implemented the Columbia Suicide Risk Assessment in our clinics

About St. Charles Health System

St. Charles Health System, Inc., headquartered in Bend, Ore., owns and operates St. Charles Bend, Madras, Prineville and Redmond. It also owns family care clinics in Bend, Madras, Prineville, Redmond and Sisters. St. Charles is a private, not-for-profit Oregon corporation and is the largest employer in Central Oregon with more than 4,200 caregivers. In addition, there are more than 350 active medical staff members and nearly 200 visiting medical staff members who partner with the health system to provide a wide range of care and service to our communities.