OHSU Library

OHSU/Hood River Community Health Outreach Project

Oregon Community Health Outreach Project 1997-1999
Summary Statement

The Internet and other electronic resources provide a valuable source of health information for patients. Increasing providers awareness and use of these resources presents a viable means of getting this information to all patients. An outreach and training project was conducted to train health and mental health professionals to access electronic sources of clinical and patient education information. Providers at five agencies serving English and Spanish-speaking patients in Hood River County, Oregon, were targeted. Over a period of eighteen months, eighty-eight health professionals were trained to use the World Wide Web, Medline, Health Reference Center and other databases.

A Spanish language Web resource was developed, and a vehicle created for providers to publish much needed low literacy health materials on the Web. Frequent site visits were made by medical librarians to offer ongoing training and support, refreshers, and consultation on integrating the new information seeking behaviors into each particular practice.. Patients in Hood River now have providers who know more about patient education materials and clinical materials available electronically, and are able to access them for their patients and their own work. A model has been created for similar efforts in other communities, including underserved areas and areas with minority populations.

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Project Description

The OHSU/Hood River Community Health Outreach Project is funded by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine/Pacific Northwest Region. The goal of the project is to train health professionals working with underserved and minority populations to access electronic sources of patient education materials. The advent of electronic technologies, especially the World Wide Web, provides new sources of excellent materials available readily at a reasonable cost.

The project will:

  1. Train a target group of providers at five health and mental health agencies to use these sources;

  2. Make appropriate clinical and patient education software/consumer health databases available to them;

  3. Provide access to the Internet and, where necessary, equipment needed for connectivity.

Expected outcomes include the following:

  1. Information seeking behavior of providers will be changed to incorporate use of electronic resources as a routine part of patient care;

  2. The unique role of librarians in training providers, resource development, team-building and enhancing patient care will be demonstrated;

  3. Interagency collaboration to meet the health care needs of a minority population will be improved;

  4. A reproducible model for similar efforts in other medically underserved areas and with other minority populations will be created.

The project will begin in September 1997 and last for 18 months. Clinicians serving the Hood River area will be targeted, with a focus on its Hispanic population.

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Publications/Publicity

Links to Other Sites of Interest in Rural Health, Migrant Health and Minority Health
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