JOHN DAY — Strawberry Mountain Urgent Care has partnered with another company to make monthly check-in calls to Medicare patients with chronic illnesses.

According to Jenna Knowles, foundation and public relations director with the Blue Mountain Hospital District, Grant County’s high population of Medicare patients makes it hard for the health care providers at Strawberry Mountain Urgent Care to see all the patients.

Joan Sonneberg, director of outpatient and provider services at Strawberry Mountain Urgent Care, said ChartSpan, a chronic care management company, began contacting the clinic’s Medicare patients with chronic conditions to see if they’re interested in signing up for the new service.

People enrolled in the ChartSpan service will receive calls from a registered nurse or other qualified professional to check on how they are doing with their health care conditions and medications and advise them on whether they should make an appointment to see their doctor.

Sonneberg said ChartSpan would create a report and send it to the clinic to be put into the patient’s chart to be reviewed by the patient’s doctor.

The clinic found that many Medicare patients with chronic conditions were only coming in to see a doctor when they became ill, according to Sonneberg.

With a service like ChartSpan, Sonnenberg said, the clinic staff is in a better position to anticipate how things are going with a patient and get them in for an appointment before the patient’s condition becomes too serious.

When ChartSpan started reaching out to Grant County Medicare patients last week, a representative spoke to a patient with a respiratory condition and noticed she did not sound like she was doing very well.

Sonnenberg said ChartSpan got the patient in touch with a health care provider and the patient was at the clinic the following day.

Those with questions can call Strawberry Mountain Urgent Care at 541-575-0404.