Lake Chelan Community Hospital working on Latino outreach

CHELAN – The Lake Chelan Community Hospital and Clinic Board of Commissioners were given a business plan progress report on the first pillars at their regular meeting on Feb. 26.

The business plan was approved in December and it was agreed by the board that every quarter updates should be given. CEO Steve Patonai, explained that they are using a color coding method to help them identify where along the process of fulfilling the strategy they are. “We are using green if we are on target to meet by the deadline, red is we haven’t started it yet, we haven’t put a lot of focus on it yet or there’s concern that we will not hit it by the deadline. Yellow is kind of in the middle, we are tracking it behind schedule, but we are optimistic that we will get there,” he said.

The vision element for the community pillar involves comprehensive outreach, wellness and education and this year as Community Relations Director Celeste Hankins mentioned that there’s two overall goals. “The first one is to implement a comprehensive and communication plan, the other one is to increase wellness and education offerings by 10 percent,” she said.

Such pillar has four different strategies, and three of them are on “green.” The only strategy on “yellow” deals with developing and implementing outreach plan for Latino population. Wellness/Outreach Director Agustin Benegas mentioned that they are working on putting together a diabetes class in Spanish, now that they have found a certified trainer. The class that she has taught is more of a hand-on and visual, he mentioned.

Latinos for the most part are more involved in wellness outreach during school related events. Parents get to learn about the hospital and they get a blood pressure screening by EMTs during school functions.

Hankins and Benegas have a print goal in mind for Latinos, they want to keep it simple and related to them. “We will at least have one good comprehensive print that goes out,” said Hankins.

This month, the board will hear on the “quality” and “service” pillars during the meeting scheduled for March 25, 1:30 p.m.