PORT TOWNSEND — From Brinnon to Port Townsend, there are many data points that can be tracked.
Dunia Faulx, the director of population health and care transformation at Jefferson Healthcare, interprets those numbers and works to find the gaps in between.
Faulx and Dr. Molly Parker, the medical director of population health for Jefferson Healthcare, provided a biannual update to hospital commissioners recently. They took a high-level approach and included many community-wide issues such as housing and food security.
“What we’re trying to do is identify gaps in our community needs, and also we hear from the community and hear our professional colleagues what the gaps are, and that helped you guys figure out we needed dental care,” Parker told the board March 27. “We need to figure out how to integrate behavioral health, work on medicated-assistant treatment for opioid addiction and work on reproduction health needs in the community.”
One service the hospital might expand is surgical abortion services, which began in 2016, Parker said.
“We feel like we’re in a place right now where we have it humming,” she said. “We are doing a good job with this, and we’re ready to open it up. As the only surgical abortion provider on the Peninsula, we’re ready to let our Clallam County colleagues know that this service is available for low-risk, early first trimester terminations.”
Overall, Faulx dives into public information such as education levels, employment and poverty, and she identifies trends where intervention might help.
Faulx used Brinnon as an example. About one in seven people have diabetes and the same number have a cancer diagnosis, according to data she studied from 2017. That’s typical of most Jefferson County communities, Faulx said.
In Brinnon, they found transportation to be a roadblock.
“There are two buses in the morning and two buses in the afternoon,” Parker said. “How can we, as a hospital system, help arrange appointments so that’s something that’s feasible for them, or work with our transportation partners to make this more doable?”
The hospital also works with Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP) with six units of housing to help stabilize individuals and work with them to find a permanent solution. Faulx said case workers meet with individuals every two weeks. She estimated the process can take between a year and 18 months before individuals are on their own.
That’s in addition to the OlyCAP shelter, which Faulx said is full every night with 40-45 people.
As a point of civic engagement, the hospital plans to implement a participatory planning and budgeting program within Chimacum High School, complete with a student board and a voting process. A $5,000 grant and possible matching funds would be used on a project the students select.
“Other places like Tacoma did it at the elementary, middle and high school levels,” Faulx said. “The No. 1 thing they wanted was bathrooms, and the school district agreed.”
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Jefferson County Managing Editor Brian McLean can be reached at bmclean@peninsuladailynews.com.
