The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Sisters has reached a milestone in access to health care as Mosaic Community Health assumed operations of the Sisters School-Based Health Center (SBHC) last month.

On November 9, from 4 to 6 p.m., Mosaic Community Health will host an open house at the clinic, located at 535 North Reed Street (adjacent to Sisters High School). Visitors will have the opportunity to tour the facility and meet with staff.

The center is expanding operations from two days a week to four days a week, thanks to a partnership between Mosaic Community Health, St. Charles Health System, and Deschutes County.

Elaine Knobbs-Seasholtz, Mosaic’s director of strategy and development, noted that Mosaic is able to do this in part because of a School-Based Service Expansion federal grant. “It will be $350,000 from HHS (Health and Human Services) for each of two years. The main emphasis of the grant is for school-based health centers to not only be access points for medical care for any child in the community (0-18 years old), but also offer integrated mental health support at the site.”

Knobbs-Seasholtz told The Nugget that the grant represents an extraordinary investment in health care in the small community of Sisters.

Local access is critical. Knobbs-Seasholtz told The Nugget that having expanded pediatric care and other services, including behavioral health, available in town removes a significant barrier for working parents, who otherwise might have to take hours out of their day and away from work to access care in Bend or Redmond.

In addition to medical and behavioral health care, providers at Mosaic SBHCs emphasize prevention, early intervention, risk reduction, and the development of healthy habits with their young patients. Mosaic SBHCs are open to anyone from birth through age 18; patients do not need to be a student at the school where the SBHC is located.

In addition to saving parents time by reducing hours of missed work to transport children to appointments, SBHCs have goals of:

• Providing patient-centered care for all students, regardless of insurance status.

• Reducing costs related to unnecessary hospital stays and use of emergency rooms.

• Improving education outcomes — because healthy kids learn better.

Under Mosaic, which operates six additional SBHCs throughout Central Oregon, the health center will provide a pediatric-trained medical provider, a full-time behavioral health consultant, a community health worker, plus clinical pharmacy, Oregon Health Plan enrollment, and nutritionist support. Deschutes County Behavioral Health staff will also be located on-site.

Mosaic Community Health is a nonprofit providing comprehensive care for all. For information on contributing to their efforts, see Partners in Giving in this edition of The Nugget.