As our healthcare experts on the ground, our local providers are intimately connected with their patients and living the realities of providing care in an imperfect healthcare system. They can identify clearly what needs to change to improve health outcomes. But they often lack the funding and capacity to make those great ideas happen.

In 2013, our sister organization, the Center Oregon Independent Practice Association (COIPA), started a grant program to fund those innovative healthcare improvement projects within their network of providers and clinics. The program was funded by COIPA providers from their earnings from the OHA Quality Incentive Program; essentially reinvesting their reward for providing high quality care to fund their colleagues’ most innovative ideas to continue improving that care.

In 2016, COIPA supported the creation of the Central Oregon Health Quality Alliance as a foundation to house the grant program and expand supporting projects and initiatives beyond the COIPA network. Since then, COIPA continues to be a significant contributor to COHQA’s work of supporting healthcare innovation from idea to adoption.

Over the last 10 years, COHQA has impacted the quality of healthcare across a range of specialties, issues, and patient demographics across our 40,000 square mile service area from North Klamath up through the Gorge and into Eastern Oregon. Through our partnerships with healthcare providers, public health, clinics, private and community foundations, and nonprofits, we have supported and invested $1.6 million in over 60 projects that are reshaping healthcare in this region.