Residents in smaller communities face a variety of challenges when trying to access health care, including geographical barriers, fewer providers and specialists as well as rising costs. This is compounded by the fact that chronic illnesses are statistically more common in these areas with aging populations.
These are trends that are expected to grow. OSF is tackling these issues now with the creation of a new model for smaller community health care. The venture, launched in Streator, Illinois, seeks different ways to provide care in smaller communities and aims to increase the overall health of these populations.
斯特里特的OSF健康中心正在转变为一个中心，不仅照顾个人的身体健康，而且努力积极地塑造整个社区的环境、社会和经济地位以及生活方式的选择。该组织正在招募各种以社区为基础的组织在健康中心内共同办公，使该设施成为满足健康和健康需求的便利场所。
OSF is utilizing software developed by Piece Technologies, a part of the OSF Ventures portfolio, to bridge the information gap that is typically prevalent among social service organizations and health care providers. Community-based groups and OSF will have the ability to better communicate about patients' well-being and intervene sooner in their health care.
Another technology being implemented within the Streator Center for Health is called Patient Wisdom. The online platform takes a deeper dive into patients’ lives by asking questions about their joys, struggles, what they wish their doctor would talk about and what concerns they may have. The idea is to collect this information community-wide to identify common issues our patients face, allowing us to better address the primary needs of the Streator community.
It’s our overall goal to make it easier for individuals and families to lead healthy lives and create an affordable, sustainable health care delivery system for smaller communities. We believe our work in Streator will lead to a model of health care that can be deployed not only in smaller communities within our health care system, but the world.