Board member profile: Janet Hamilton
Having worked in healthcare information consulting for 20 years, Janet Hamilton was a natural fit for Project Access NOW Board’s Operations Committee. As a close partner of the Free Clinic of Southwest Washington, the home of Project Access Clark County, and Janet’s employer, Columbia United Providers (CUP), dispatched Janet to help Project Access get off the ground.
“I feel honored and humbled to be a part of such an incredible group of people,” Janet said. “I’ve learned so much from the staff at Project Access NOW and everyone on the Board.”
As the Director of Information Services, Janet oversees smooth functioning of systems, processes, and databases at Columbia United Providers, a community-based health plan provider. She brought her expertise to Project Access Clark County and to and to Project Access NOW.
CUP now produces ID cards for Project Access patients, processes claims to track services and monitor equity among providers, and supports Project Access Clark County in a number of other ways. She also helped Project Access NOW troubleshoot its old database and define requirements for its new system that is being developed by a local partner, VistaLogic.
Janet has been a Board of Directors since the fall of 2008, and she’s chairing the Operations Committee. She said, “Now that we’ve tackled a number of day-to-day, programmatic issues like the database or differing procedures between each local program, we are now beginning to focus on dealing with more strategic challenges, like designing improving regional support for local programs or potential expansion to other community partners.”
Janet has enjoyed her service on the Board. “Everyone brings such a wealth of experience to the table, I’m in awe. We all wear a lot of hats in our lives, and what unites us is that we care very deeply about the state of healthcare. Each of us has different opinions about the solutions, but we all agree that resolving the big issues will take time, while we’re helping people today. It feels good to be a part of that.”
Janet also appreciates the support of the staff at CUP. “People who support Project Access within my organization get to have little direct contact with the program and its benefits. We’re in the background. But though we’re short staffed and everyone’s contributing to the community in a number of other ways, people work really hard, bringing their best problem solving skills and positive attitudes to situations that can sometimes be very complicated. I’m fortunate to work with such incredible staff.”
