I have recently shifted to facililating health system transformation as an independent contractor. I am excited to engage in projects where I can contribute my knowledge about primary care and behavioral health value-based care transformation, and my strengths in human-centered design, stakeholder engagement and facilitation, collaborative strategy and implementation planning, patient-centered communication, and visual thinking. Current projects include:-Leading multi-stakeholder planning and pilot implementation for Rapid Engagement Oregon with the Association of Oregon Community Mental Health Programs. Rapid Engagement is a policy and practice change initiative with the goal of making it easier, faster and more user-friendly to access outpatient specialty behavioral health services for members of the Oregon Health Plan.-Serving as the practice facilitator for the launch of universal social health screening within Kaiser Permanente Washington primary care, including facilitating member co-design, working directly with clinical teams, and contributing to evaluation design and execution.-Providing Collaborative Screening, motivational interviewing, trauma-informed care and person-centered communication training to primary care associations, hospital associations and health systems around the country.-Serving as the business lead with the Kaiser Permanente National Social Health program office to develop a web-based training for front line staff on patient-centered social health conversation skills.-Serving as a Practice Facilitator for the Kaiser Permanente Washington Integrated Pain Management program, with the goal of improving holistic pain care and opioid safety in primary care practice.

Rapid Engagement is pilot initiative with the goal of making outpatient public behavioral health access faster, easier and more user-friendly. In 2021, I led a multi-stakeholder planning and design process to describe Rapid Engagement, which was funded by the Delta Center for a Thriving Safety Net (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) and the Oregon Health Authority, and based on the Treat First model from New Mexico. In 2022, with support from the Oregon Health Authority, we launched our pilot, learning community, and program evaluation efforts in partnership with the University of Oregon. We will be implementing the pilot into mid-2023 and evaluating the results of proof of concept and hopefully transitioning to spread! For more information, visit: www.aocmhp.org/rapid-engagement

In this role, I worked with an incredible team from the Accelerating Care Transformation (ACT) Center at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute to implement universal social health screening and referral in primary care at KPWA. As the practice facilitator on the team, I partnered with clinical leadership and staff at our launch sites to implement and improve our universal social health screening and referral workflows, HIT tools, and patient communication. I also led the execution of the qualitative components of a mixed-methods evaluation of implementation factors and effectiveness of social needs-targeted interventions for patients who screen positive.

In the healthcare industry, user-centered design can improve and save lives. This online program helps you devise solutions according to patients’ needs and desired outcomes. The certificate is ideal for healthcare practitioners who want systems-focused, design-based tools for improving service delivery and for creatives focused on user-based research, design, and innovation.

Accountable for leading the development and delivery of OPCA’s technical assistance and training programs to support community health center care transformation efforts, with an emphasis on expanded care team roles, new modes of patient and population interaction and partnership, and improvement of whole person care. Areas of special focus include value-based payment readiness, trauma-informed practice, adoption of patient-centered social needs screening and intervention, and behavioral health integration.

Primary focus was leading strategy, development and implementation for dissemination of care and payment transformation models to primary care association partners around the country. Major efforts also included leading the development, implementation and evaluation of a model for patient-centered social needs screening, facilitating OPCA efforts to adopt and promote human-centered design (also known as design-thinking) for safety net health care innovation, and advancing community health center-community mental health program partnership.

Served as the day-to-day operational and strategic leader of a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration technical assistance and training grant to promote evidence-based practice in substance use disorder treatment for a four-state region in the Pacific Northwest. Responsibilities included strong focus on initiating and sustaining collaboration with key stakeholders, including government agencies, educational institutions, health systems and other service delivery organizations to design develop, and deliver training plans to support health system transformation. Specific areas of expertise contributed were motivational interviewing, the integration of substance use disorder treatment in primary care and the design and delivery of creative and engaging curriculum for workforce development.

Contributed leadership in the strategic development and day-to-day delivery of OPCA’s technical assistance on primary care clinical transformation and community health delivery system reform. Provided expertise in adult education, skill-based training and brain-friendly learning, with a particular emphasis on patient-centered communication, motivational interviewing, team work, behavioral health integration and SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment for Substance Use Disorders).

Conducted one-on-one motivational interviewing-based health coaching with clients experiencing a wide variety of risk factors, demographic circumstances, and stages of readiness to change. Coaching clients included employees of Oregon Health and Science University, lumber companies, hospitals, and city and county governments around Oregon.

Coordinated and implemented mixed methods research protocol evaluating factors relating to recruitment and retention in employee wellness programming, including focus groups, online survey, and semi-structured interviews under the mentorship and guidance of Principal Investigator, Susan Butterworth, PhD.