We’re Growing to Provide More Hope, Health and Life

For close to 30 years, Aviva Health has provided compassionate, high-quality health care to the people of Douglas County. Since its humble beginnings when it was known as the Open Door Clinic offering medical care to just over 1,000 underserved members of our community, the organization has dedicated itself to providing Hope, Health and Life to all who walk through its doors, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay.

Today, Aviva Health provides medical, dental and behavioral health care from eight clinic sites across the county. Every weekday, close to 200 staff members welcome neighbors of their community to Aviva Health. Close to 15,000 children and adults receive care here annually, accounting for just under 60,000 patient visits every year. While much has changed over three decades, our mission remains the same: Caring for the people of Douglas County by providing quality, compassionate, accessible and affordable health care.

Community Need

According to a recent Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study, the ratio of patients to primary care providers in Douglas County is 1,660:1. That same study indicates the ideal patient to provider ratio is 1,030:1,

showing that each area provider is shouldering an additional 630 patients beyond the recommended ratio. Couple those staggering statistics with an aging population burdened by poverty, a 13.4 percent unemployment rate and other social determinants of health, and it’s clear Douglas County is facing a crisis which, if not addressed, will adversely impact the community.

Already struggling to recruit and retain qualified, compassionate family physicians to the area and with the recent retirements of many older doctors, Douglas County is facing a health care provider shortage. But it doesn’t stop there: The problem will touch our economy and, even more important, the basic human dignity of the people of our community, a people we are called to serve.

It’s time to take bold measures to address the health care needs of our community. Aviva Health is poised, motivated and well-positioned to take those bold measures. And at the heart of our effort is a desire to honor our Mission by “Opening the Next Door” to better health care.

The Project

Aviva Health, in partnership with CHI Mercy Medical Center, recently launched the Roseburg Family Medicine Residency (RFMR), a first-of-its-kind program in Douglas County where doctors fresh out of medical school will train for three years to become exceptional, compassionate, Board-certified rural family medicine physicians. Aviva Health’s main Roseburg clinic is the primary outpatient clinical training site for the residents. At its peak, RFMR will train 24 doctors annually, preparing them for the challenges and rewards of rural practice. Studies have shown more than 50 percent of family medicine physicians put down roots within 100 miles of where they completed their residency, a strong indicator that many of our residency graduates will choose to practice in and around Douglas County.

The current clinic site is not large enough to house the residency at full capacity, let alone existing service lines like behavioral health, dental, pediatrics, and women’s health services. For that reason, Aviva Health is constructing a new, 31,000-square-foot, two-story, state-of-the-art facility and renovating the existing clinic space to ensure it has the space to support the residency and existing clinical operations. The new facility will include 34 new exam rooms, a space for residents to counsel with faculty, and on the second floor administrative office space and three conference rooms that will be available for use by partner and other community organizations as meeting spaces. The largest of the three rooms will include a teaching kitchen where Aviva Health staff will offer classes on wellness and healthy eating habits to residents of Douglas County.

Aviva Health plans to break ground on the $12 million project in the fall of 2020, with an anticipated completion date of winter 2021-22, in time to welcome its third cohort of physicians, bringing the program to full capacity with 24 residents in training.

The Impact

On the Community …

• Providing Hope, Health and Life to the people of Douglas County
• Partnering with other non-profit organizations to offer comprehensive support to our community
• Caring for the vulnerable and underserved, regardless of the circumstance
• “Opening the Next Door” to better health care

On Health Care …

• Serving an additional 3,300 new, unduplicated patients totaling 10,000 patient visits annually
• Training and retaining exceptional family physicians who are comfortable and deeply connected to a rural community
• Improving access to high-quality clinical services for a rural area that has been identified by the state and federal governments as having substantial unmet health care needs
• Addressing in a meaningful way a variety of social determinants of health that have a significant impacts on health, wellness and human dignity

On the Economy …

• Creation of 52 health care positions with a salary range well above the region’s living wage (on average in Oregon, a single physician either directly or indirectly supports 12.82 jobs)
• On average, one family medicine physician in Oregon supports $1.18 million in wages and benefits paid to local residents