Most conversations about healthcare start in the exam room. That’s understandable. Care feels personal. It happens one patient at a time, often in moments of vulnerability, urgency, or relief. So when something feels broken—long waits, limited access, rushed visits—we instinctively look to the people closest to the experience: clinicians, hospitals, or policymakers. But the most […]
When national headlines focus on healthcare consolidation—hospital systems acquiring physician practices, private equity buying clinics, insurers merging into ever-larger entities—it’s easy to assume this is simply how healthcare works now. But in Southern Oregon, a quieter and more instructive model has been operating for decades. AllCare Health, the coordinated care organization serving roughly 70,000 people
Physician-Owned and Proud: How AllCare’s B Corp Model Puts Community Before Profit Read More »
The Sugar Nomenclature Problem: Why Language Matters Healthcare policy and public health messaging suffer from imprecise language around “sugar.” This linguistic ambiguity enables misleading marketing, confuses consumers, and undermines effective policy. The Problem: The term “sugar” encompasses dramatically different molecules with distinct metabolic effects: Why It Matters: Identical chemical formulas (C₆H₁₂O₆) don’t guarantee identical metabolic
Sugar Policy Reform: From Metabolic Crisis to Evidence-Based Regulation Read More »
Southern Oregon doesn’t suffer from a lack of people who care about healthcare. It suffers from a system that makes caring harder than it needs to be. Across Jackson and Josephine counties, patients report difficulty accessing care, providers report burnout and overload, and communities experience growing mistrust toward medical institutions. These issues are often discussed
Healthcare doesn’t fail because people stop caring. It fails when systems designed for a different era are asked to meet modern needs. Across Southern Oregon, clinicians, administrators, and community leaders are navigating a quiet but consequential transition. Digital tools—once seen as add-ons—are becoming the infrastructure through which care is coordinated, decisions are made, and trust
In Southern Oregon, healthcare is often described as available. Clinics exist. Hospitals operate. Insurance coverage—particularly through Medicaid—has expanded dramatically over the past decade. On paper, access appears to be improving. And yet, for many people living in poverty, healthcare remains functionally out of reach. Not because services don’t exist—but because an invisible wall stands between
The Invisible Wall: How Poverty Quietly Denies Access to Healthcare Read More »
Throughout our exploration of the healthcare experience, one fundamental truth has stood out: true collaboration between patients and providers enhances care. By closely examining patient-provider interactions, reviewing various relationship models, and gathering firsthand experiences from both sides, we’ve uncovered key insights that influence the quality of healthcare today. Trust repeatedly surfaces as a crucial element
What We’ve Learned from Working with Patients and Providers Read More »
In 2023, Jackson County recorded more than 100 overdose deaths—each one a person, a family, a network permanently altered. The numbers alone are staggering, but they obscure a deeper truth: this crisis is not simply about substances. It is about how pain is treated, how care is accessed, how policy is implemented, and how systems
Why This Emergency Is Bigger Than Drugs—and What Southern Oregon Must Fix Next Read More »
Sleep deprivation rarely makes headlines. There are no press conferences for lost REM cycles, no emergency declarations for chronic fatigue. Yet its consequences quietly ripple through every system we care about: healthcare utilization, workplace safety, learning outcomes, mental health, substance use, and long-term neurological disease. In communities like Jackson County, sleep loss isn’t just an
The Problem We Don’t See—Because We Don’t Hear It In healthcare, language is not a courtesy. It is infrastructure. Every diagnosis, consent form, medication instruction, and follow-up plan depends on one foundational assumption: that the patient and provider understand each other. When that assumption fails, the consequences are rarely dramatic in the moment—but they are
