Believe it or not, we are approaching the first anniversary of receiving our HRSA grant for the Healthy Rural Hometown Initiative in May 2022. Our first year was a planning and development year. We have worked hard to develop a program that will benefit our community.

We started signing up patients for the Partners Improving Patient Health (PIPH) program on April 1. We are so excited about it. The PIPH program helps patients thrive who have diagnoses of Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and Cardiovascular Disease (CVD). This also includes a history of Heart Attacks and High Blood pressure.

With this program, we have implemented a patient and caregiver engagement tool called TapCloud. TapCloud is a personalized app to match our vision, mission, and values. Patients and caregivers can use TapCloud to check in and share how they’re feeling and any symptoms they may be experiencing. In addition, the care team is informed of patient progress in real-time, ensuring that patients in need of support are responded to promptly and efficiently.

TapCloud is an easy-to-use platform that patients can access through any computer, smartphone, or tablet. It includes the following:

• Personalized care instructions and reminders

• Individualized symptom tracking based on the patient’s conditions, procedures, and medications

• Emotional health and well-being status and progression,

• Multi-media educational resources

• Secure communications, including messaging and video visits with families and caregivers

We are pleased to announce we have hired an experienced Social Worker with the program. Rocio De la Torre will work with program participants to identify social and economic barriers they may be experiencing that work against their optimum health. She is attending the initial participant meetings with Angela Bly, RN. Rocio is very knowledgeable about various insurance programs as she has worked with Aging and Long-Term care program withing WA Dept of Social and Health Services prior.

We feel there will be SO many opportunities for our patients with this program to learn more about their condition and how it is treated. We can help set up action plans for when symptoms get worse and address them early before they require a trip to the ER or end up as a hospitalization. We really hope to help those living with these conditions have better quality of life.

Dawn Meicher ARNP