Ask any group of people in Lane County if they know about Cascade Health, and “most of them will raise their hand,” says Tara Hubbird, the local nonprofit’s business development director.
That’s likely because Cascade Health — a health care organization with multiple clinics in Eugene and mobile, on-site, home, and workplace services across Lane County — offers such a broad range of programs. All combined, it’s a valuable resource for hospice and palliative care, occupational therapy, and other health needs in the area.
Pete Moore Hospice House is one of Cascade Health’s crucial community services, caring for Lane County residents at the end of life. It’s the only place of its kind in the Eugene area and just one of three in the state that offer the level of care Cascade Health provides.
The Pete Moore Hospice House’s team of skilled and passionate professionals provides around-the-clock, full-service patient care tailored to a family’s wishes. The Cascade Health Foundation’s primary focus is raising funds to support Pete Moore’s important services.
Sarah Jane Peterson, LCSW, has worked at Cascade Health for 15 years as a therapist and in hospice and palliative care. “I think it’s a unique agency,” she says, “because we are a nonprofit, and we provide wonderful services for people. I love the team that I work with, and I feel like we do excellent care in the community.”
Along with hospice care, Cascade Health offers specialty physical therapy — osteopathic, hand, pelvic, and oncologic, among other specialties — and provides occupational health services for both employers and employees, offered at on-site and mobile care clinics. And the not-for-profit’s counseling and employee assistance programs (EAP) attend to patients’ personal and professional mental health.
Cascade Health’s role in Lane County is unique, Hubbird says. Around the country, similarly focused nonprofits are “usually connected with a hospital.” And at one time, that was also true of Cascade Health.
Before 2003, all of Cascade Health’s services were under the McKenzie-Willamette umbrella. “A for-profit entity bought McKenzie-Willamette, a nonprofit hospital,” she says, “and they only wanted the hospital itself — not all the community programs.”
So those service providers broke apart from McKenzie-Willamette, and “Cascade Health was born,” Hubbird says. Since then, it has added departments and programs as needed, including the Pete Moore Hospice House.
“We’re the perfect fit” for Lane County, she says. “We’re small enough to be flexible, and ever-changing with patients’ needs,” but robust enough to have the latest equipment and technology, providing quality service in the health care sector.
Given Cascade Health’s nonprofit status, local help is always welcomed — no experience necessary. “All hospice programs have volunteer opportunities,” Hubbird says, and “we would love to have more volunteers in direct patient care and administrative needs as well.”
All of Cascade Health’s services are listed at CascadeHealth.org, with information for patients, employers, and referring providers alike. Insurance covers most of what Cascade Health does, and the organization accepts Medicaid, Medicare, the Oregon Health Plan, and most major private insurance, as well as private pay options.
Most of Cascade Health’s offerings require a referral from a primary care doctor or a specialist. “But some don’t,” Hubbird says. In those cases, “people can just come to us and ask.
