August 12th, 2022
By Marris Alden, OPCA’s Health Policy Analyst and Jordan Frazier, OPCA’s Communications Manager
During National Health Center Week, OPCA had the opportunity convene at Wallace Health Center for a meeting with Interim State Medicaid Director, Dana Hittle, and her staff. Lisa Cline, the Executive Director at Wallace, hosted the meeting alongside her clinical and administrative staff in their new Rockwood facility and shared about the incredible work that they have been doing in their community.
Chief among this work was integrating dental and medical care into one facility – previously, the dental and medical clinics were separated by a parking lot which “might as well have been an ocean”, reflected members of Wallace’s clinical staff. Now, care is so integrated that if a patient is at a dental appointment and their records indicate they are also due for lab work, they can get their labs pulled without ever leaving their chair.
Future endeavors include an apartment complex with both market price and affordable housing options and continued growth of their social enterprises, all co-located on one campus with their clinic. OPCA shared the vital importance of health centers in Oregon with Director Hittle’s staff, highlighting the history and purpose of the Federally Qualified Health Center program and Oregon’s unique Alternative Payment and Advanced Care Model (APCM) program which FQHC’s are spearheading all over the state.
Thank you to Director Hittle and the staff at Wallace for making this event possible!
Learn more about the services Wallace offers and about the FQHC movement.
