Coulee Medical Center has made a commitment to residents of the Grand Coulee community, recently announcing that it will participate in the National Rural Accountable Care Consortium, which is designed to help rural Medicare patients live long, healthy lives.
The program works to improve the quality of life and reduce the cost of health care in rural communities, create economically sustainable health systems and support provider satisfaction, which helps retain talented care providers in rural areas.
Coulee Medical Center will hire and train a care coordinator to work closely with patients and help seniors stay healthy, get care when it is needed and avoid expensive and redundant tests. The medical center will also have access to information that will help its physicians evaluate the services of distant specialists and providers to make the best possible recommendations to patients.
While Coulee Medical Center will initially introduce the new programs only for Medicare patients, it hopes to later expand the services to patients with other kinds of insurance.
“As a community, we need to take responsibility for our health and for each other, and encourage each other to stop smoking, eat healthful foods and get regular exercise,” Coulee Medical Center CEO Debbie Bigelow said.
The consortium includes more than 250 rural community health systems across 40 states, also including:
- Columbia Basin Hospital
- Columbia County Health System
- Confluence Health
- East Adams Rural Healthcare
- Ferry County Hospital District No. 1
- Kittitas Valley Healthcare
- Lake Chelan Community Hospital and Clinics
- Lincoln County Public Hospital District No. 3
- Odessa Memorial Healthcare Center
- Sunnyside Community Hospital & Clinics
- Tri-State Memorial Hospital
Click here to learn more about the consortium, and click here to read more in an article in the Grand Coulee Star about Coulee Medical Center’s participation. (Tim Pfarr)
