Oregon Office of Rural Health

Oregon State Flex Program

What is one Core Competency your state Flex Program is working on developing through Flex activities?

Core Competency: Addressing Community Needs

The Oregon Flex Program has re-envisioned its approach to population health within its Flex Program by addressing community needs in two core areas: 1) expanding its Forum on Aging in Rural Oregon to a larger focus by offering the Forum on Rural Population Health & Health Equity, which offers content and partnership-building opportunities based on CAHs’ (Critical Access Hospitals) Community Health Needs Assessments, and 2) consolidating several of its grant programs into the Population Health Incubator Program, which provides funds (from Flex and other sources) to seed innovative approaches and programs to address population health and health equity initiatives in rural communities. In addition to funds, grantees receive wraparound support through quarterly peer calls to discuss their programs and approaches and at least four webinars led by subject matter experts to support grantees with effective program evaluation methods, program sustainability plans, grant writing skills, and more.

What is one activity your state is funding through SHIP?

The Oregon SHIP (Small Rural Health Improvement Program) program began offering a menu of options for SHIP-eligible hospitals to choose from in 2022 because we found that several hospitals were beginning to struggle with identifying a SHIP project each year and were burdened by the contracting process to distribute SHIP funds to them. Menu options and vendors are vetted by ORH’s SHIP Program Coordinator to ensure that they meet SHIP project allowability and provide a high-quality level of programming for hospitals. ORH then contracts directly with the organizations providing menu options, which reduces the contracting burden for the hospitals. We have found that this approach has brought hospitals that declined SHIP funds in the previous years back into the program. In addition to the menu of options, SHIP-eligible hospitals may still identify their own independent project. Currently, approximately 50% of Oregon’s SHIP-eligible hospitals chose from the menu of options and the other 50% focus on an independent project.