ORHQN Current Programs

Oregon is a hotbed of quality activities these days. ORHQN is currently working on these projects:

12/2/2008
Ron Wulff of Harney District Hospital (HDH) explains HDH's implementation and management process of the Rural Performance Measurement benchmarking software.

The Quality Council (QC), chartered by the ORHQN board, formed March 2008 and is comprised of rural quality leaders. The Quality Council is charged to develop strategic initiatives that will drive improved performance and demonstrate excellence in rural health care.

The QC is involved with the following four efforts. Please see documents to the right for further details on each initiative.

• Balanced Scorecard and RPM - Lead: Virginia Sandau, Co-lead: Heather Edwards
  
  
• Patient Safety & Patient Safety Culture - Lead: Julie Fontanilla, Co-lead: Suzi Bean
  
  
• Patient Satisfaction and Service Excellence - Lead: Elaine Young, Co-lead: Patti Baker
  
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• Public Reporting and Transparency - Lead: Brandie Manuel, Co-lead: Ron Wulff
  

The ORHQN, in a partnership with the Oregon Office of Rural Health (ORH), has developed an external peer review process and provides this service to participating member hospitals on a fee-for-service schedule. The charge is around $35 per chart for external peer review. Through this network, they offer a true peer-to-peer, objective, and rural-appropriate medical opinion. They provide a safe and confidential environment for peer physicians to share opinions, personal learnings, current information, and education. The ORHQN believes creating a safe peer-to-peer learning network, with physicians supporting physicians, is key to improving the safety and quality of patient care delivery. The ORHQN and ORH coordinate and provide oversight of the peer review process. The ORH provides a confidential and balanced rotation among participating network providers. Confidentiality is protected and maintained. However, to encourage peer-to-peer learning, they also provide an option for dialogue between peers, if both parties agree.