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About the Organization
CHOICE Regional Health Network is a nonprofit organization
dedicated to improving the health of people living in Washington State. CHOICE was
established in 1993 as a workgroup among the nonprofit and public hospitals in the
region to ensure that all residents had access to quality health care. CHOICE has
built a strong provider consortium based on natural collaborative opportunities
among partners, including: seven public and nonprofit hospitals, five public health
jurisdictions and hundreds of practitioners, who collectively serve 16,000 clients.
Partners
SeaMar Community Health Center, Mason General Hospital, The Clinic at West Olympia,
Catholic Community Services Southwest, St. Peter Family Practice, Oakland Bay Pediatrics,
Mt View Women’s Clinic, North Mason Medical Clinic, Grays Harbor County Public Health
and Social Services Department, Grays Harbor Community Hospital, Centralia Community
College, Providence Health and Education Center, Providence Centralia Hospital,
Centro Integral Educativo Latino de Olympia (CIELO), Washington State Public Health
Association, and a number of small rural practices.
About the Service Area
Five rural central western Washington counties (Grays Harbor, Mason, Thurston,
Lewis, and Pacific).
Click here to view their service area map.
Existing Language Services
CHOICE has conducted extensive outreach to the Latino community under a HRSA
grant, helping individuals and families gain access to care through existing programs.
Some facilities in the region recruit bilingual providers and staff, while others
rely more heavily on family members to serve as interpreters. One hospital has provided
interpreter training for bilingual employees and community professionals, and a
local community college has identified potential collaborations between their Spanish
and nursing departments and is committed to providing Spanish heritage speakers
with formalized instruction in Spanish.
In developing its approach, CHOICE is responding to a unique arrangement in the
state of Washington on the reimbursement for interpreter services offered through
Medicaid. When interpreters are needed, provider offices must call a regional broker,
who contacts one of three interpreting agencies to obtain a contract interpreter.
The system has several known inefficiencies and has led to increased costs for travel
in this rural area and a serious reliability problem. Pressure for change in the
system creates opportunities for collaboration and the pooling of funds to maximize
federal Medicaid match dollars, while increasing the level of support for a viable
language services program.
Latinos have found work in agriculture, dairies and in many service industries,
particularly around the state capital, Olympia. While immigration to Central Washington
State had been predominantly male and seasonal, it has taken on an increasingly
communal and permanent nature as immediate and extended families are reunified.
Communities of individuals from Guatemala and the Mexican state of Oaxaca have formed
in several small towns. The Latino communities are young - 41% under 18, 80% 40
or younger. The median age of females is 18, resulting in a general demand for reproductive
services. More than half of Latinos say they need help with speaking, reading, or
writing English. Approximately 25% of Latinos in Washington are undocumented. The
percentage is likely much higher for the five-county region. This has key implications
for access to care, particularly as the state of Washington has ended Medicaid eligibility
for undocumented individuals and children.
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[1] Study of the Cascades
East Area Health Education Center for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
http://www.cascadeseast.org/pdf/wirthlin-study.pdf
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