CMH to open Warrenton clinic

Published 4:00 pm Thursday, November 15, 2012

WARRENTON Warrenton will soon have its own resident primary-care doctor.

Columbia Memorial Hospital plans to open a clinic near Staples and OReilly Auto Parts at U.S. Highway 101 and Ensign Lane. The clinic will offer primary-care and urgent care services.

Weve always considered Warrenton part of our primary service area, but weve never really had any tangible presence in Warrenton Access [to preventative health care] is driving the need to bring more physicians to town, said hospital CEO Erik Thorsen.

Right now theres a feeling that too much care is being provided in the emergency room, Thorsen said. This helps provide access in the right place.

With national and statewide health care reforms changing the way Medicare and Medicaid programs are administered, CMH and other hospitals are reevaluating their business models and focusing on keeping people healthy.

For the hospital, opening the clinic supports its goals of serving people locally, Thorsen said. Its part of the longer term strategic plan for the hospital.

Moving into primary-care is new for the hospital, but is part of its goal of transitioning toward preventative care. This is a little different employment model for us. We dont usually employ primary-care doctors, Thorsen said.

Oregons new coordinated care organization (CCO) model decentralizes Medicaid spending for health and mental services. Columbia Pacific Coordinated Care Organization to took over managing services in Columbia, Clatsop, Tillamook and part of Douglas counties Sept. 1.

It will work with a community-based governing board and advisory council to direct spending in the region.

If you look at the population on Medicaid, 20 percent of the people incur 80 percent of the cost, said Patrick Curran, a Columbia Pacific CCO board member and director of business integration for CareOregon.

That additional cost often is a result of preventable visits to urgent care or the emergency room by people with chronic health problems, he said. If we can better provide those services at an earlier time, we can achieve that triple aim of improving health, increasing the quality and availability of care, and keeping health care affordable.

There needs to be more than one option for the CCO to contract with, Thorsen said. Currently, Coastal Family Health Center in Astoria is the main primary-care provider for people on Medicaid.

Although the clinic is open to anyone, Thorsen said, Our focus will be to serve the Medicare and the Medicaid community.

Ken Boucher, director of the CMH Medical Group, said the 3,600-square-foot clinic could serve as many as 8,500 patients a year. He anticipates hiring for the clinic one internal medicine physician, three nurse practitioners or physicians assistants and five other support staff.

Thorsen said these will all be new positions that pay family-wage and above. These are good jobs, he said.

The Warrenton clinic will share electronic records with the hospital, which should make it easier for patients to stop for lab work or to visit urgent care at whichever location is most convenient for them.

It will also allow the hospitals radiologist to remotely read x-rays taken at the Warrenton clinic.

Making the investment in the imaging equipment out there is substantialits huge but it will prevent people from having to come in [to the hospital] to basically have a picture taken, Thorsen said.

Boucher said he anticipates that the clinic will be open mid-year 2013. The largest hurdle to opening is hiring a doctor, he said.