Well, water* you doing? (*what are)

You're probably wondering, "Gee, KFo drove across country to some desolate place in the middle of the palouse, had a mild panic attack, lives in a place with no internet or cell phone service... what's going on?!" Amazingly enough, last night when I came home Jeremy (Suzanne's daughter's boyfriend), who happens to know a thing or two about computers, fixed the wireless fiasco! So I'm proudly sitting at the dining room table, connected to the rest of the world -- not just to the deer, gigantic beetle-like creatures, and lack of trees to hug. Onto the good stuff. The last few days have, entailed a great deal of briefing on what my position actually involves. My work calendar has found itself filling quickly with meetings and other appointment, and my desk now fully represents me. Needless to say, they're keeping me busy! My position at the Pomeroy Medical Clinic, technically entitled "Community Health Promoter", will deal with initiating the Health Home Strategic Plan. In the past year, the hospital received a grant to fund this project and partnered with the Washington Health Foundation campaign to make Washington the healthiest state in the nation (I'd like to say Massachusetts ranked 5 overall in 2008-ish). So, the Health Home encompasses more than just an individuals personal medical history, but broadly covers the community one lives in, socioeconomic status, and environmental factors which clearly impact health. From my general understanding, this project has been in the works for several years now at Garfield County Hospital as they try to pioneer the rural health system into encouraging their patients, healthy and those with chronic diseases, to be active in their health outside of the doctors office. They developed the Health Home website (http://www.healthhome.us) to provide the community a general location to locate information relevant to their health conditions. Overall, they want people to have a grasp on how to achieve a healthy lifestyle and know what’s out there for them. I will basically be doing some research on those with chronic conditions, specifically diabetes and cardiovascular conditions, and assessing their needs. I’ll develop a “game plan” workbook so they have an organized place to manage their health. Along with this, I’ll be making a “play book” which will list all the health related resources in the community, this will be distributed to everyone in Pomeroy. Eventually, they hope to span out to all chronic diseases and eventually preventative health, so identifying at-risk individuals and treated them early. I anticipate doing some patient teaching and community education, along with many other tasks to make this initiative get into action. Note: this is very general and loose description because, well, it’s the weekend. Hopefully it makes a little bit of sense. Needless to say, the hospital hopes to complete this project in the next 3-5 years… so as many people have told me, I’ve got a lot of work to do in 10 months! I must say, I am very excited to be on board with this project. They make me feel very official and emphasis the importance of my position and how much it will make a difference to those in the community, as well as making the hospital a pioneer in rural healthcare. So, I am prepared to “Get Things Done for America!” Go AmeriCorps!