On Monday, the Oregon Senate confirmed my appointment as your new director. I am honored by the opportunity to build on your successes and ensure good health for everyone in Oregon, which includes our most vulnerable populations. We have a tremendous responsibility to bring excellence to Oregonians, and I’m already impressed by your level of commitment and passion.
In an effort to improve the work we do every day, I have already looked at our OHP call center where callers waited as long as 49 minutes to talk to someone, and many calls were dropped all together. In the past few weeks, our team has addressed this issue through a series of solutions. I’m pleased to report the wait time for callers is now only two to seven minutes. When we work together, we achieve excellent outcomes.
Another important strategy is to focus on financial stability. To that end, we are realigning the way our agency is organized to streamline our approach to achieving our mission. These are a few of the early adjustments to be implemented by July 1, 2015:
- Suzanne Hoffman will immediately return to her role of chief operations officer (COO). Many thanks to interim COO Linda Hammond, who will stay on for a limited duration as director of strategic initiatives and help us through our transition.
- We will recruit for a chief financial officer to replace Kelly Ballas, who recently retired.
- We will not have an OHA deputy director.
As we continue to move forward, we will have a clear vision of what we need to accomplish. In the meantime, thank you for your patience and support, and most of all your commitment to our mission of helping Oregonians achieve good health.
I believe that change is a given in the challenging world we live in. It does make us stronger. I am committed to keeping you all apprised of upcoming improvements to the agency and progress on our goals. Look for a message from me every other Friday.
Thank you for being part of the team,
Lynne
To your health: Take the stairs. Regular stair users have greater leg strength and aerobic capacity than non-climbers. Studies show that risk of cardiovascular disease and death is lower among regular stair climbers. Taking the stairs is sometimes faster than waiting for the elevator, can relieve stress, and it’s free. |
