Success in health care depends on practitioners working together. Three local organizations are making a practice of coming together to build relationships across disciplines to create a force capable of transforming the health care delivery system in Oregon.
Inspired by an award-winning project of the Oregon Physical Therapy Association (OPTA), a new monthly gathering of health care professionals called Health Care Night Out is set to launch in Oregon. OPTA has joined with the Occupational Therapy Association of Oregon (OTAO) and the Oregon Speech-Language and Hearing Association (OSHA) to launch Health Care Night Out, which will meet in cities across Oregon on the third Thursday of every month to build relationships to improve health care.
“Health care is the most complicated industry in America,” says OPTA President Derek Fenwick. “We don't stand a chance in our goal to help patients if we work alone. When we work together, we win. It's that simple.”
Health Care Night Out launches on Thursday, October 15th, 2015, in more than 20 locations all over Oregon, and will continue to meet on the third Thursday of every month going forward. Find the location nearest you, and learn how to start a Night Out event in your community at www.HealthCareNightOut.org.
“For more than three years, our profession has met monthly in cities all across Oregon to begin the work of forming stronger relationships to improve physical therapy. It became clear that this was bigger than physical therapy when health care providers from other disciplines began attending our events. Occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists began their own events and the momentum has been building ever since. We are so excited about this new partnership and we hope to see the conversation continue to grow quickly to include other health care professions both within and beyond Oregon,” says Fenwick.
Jan Cuciti, OTAO President, states “The mission of OTAO is to support our occupational therapy profession through advocacy, education, and networking. Health Care Night Out not only accomplishes this, but also ensures this reach extends to our rehab partners to benefit our clients. This is a true win-win-win. I’m excited for all of us.”
“Our organization is about two things: communication and relationships,” says OSHA President Andy McMillin. “These form the basis of our work with clients, and OSHA strives to encourage these same two values among professionals. Health Care Night Out has created an environment where Oregon’s speech, language, and hearing professionals can get to know each other outside of the work-day world. Developing these types of relationships helps our professional community identify important topics, and more importantly, it puts us in a position where we can work toward our collective goal to do more together to improve health care in Oregon.”
Each organization coordinates their own respective events called PT Night Out, OT Night Out, and SLP-AUD Night Out. These events then meet monthly for either interdisciplinary or discipline-specific gatherings, depending on the needs of each individual community. The collective effort of all the health professions involved will take place during monthly Health Care Night Out gatherings.
About Oregon Physical Therapy Association
The Oregon Physical Therapy Association is a chapter of the American Physical Therapy Association which represents more than 93,000 physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, and students of physical therapy nationwide and more than 1,300 physical therapists, physical therapist assistants and students across the state of Oregon.
To learn more about how physical therapy helps improve movement, visit MoveForwardPT.com.
About Occupational Therapy Association of Oregon
The Occupational Therapy Association of Oregon, a 501 (c)(6) tax-exempt organization, is a community of Occupational Therapy practitioners formed around our passion to help others find quality and balance to life.
For more information about occupational therapy, go to What is OT?
About Oregon Speech-Language and Hearing Association
The Oregon Speech-Language & Hearing Association is recognized by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association as the official professional organization representing more than 2000 licensed Speech-Language Pathologists, Audiologists, and Speech-Language Pathology Assistants in Oregon.
To learn more about OSHA and the work we do, visit www.oregonspeechandhearing.org.
