Dr. Sara Kennedy is the new President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette. Before coming to PPCW, Kennedy was the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Operating Officer at Planned Parenthood Northern California. Kennedy is an OB-GYN and also has a master's degree in public health. She's passionate about helping address obstacles toward better health. Below is an excerpt from our conversation with Kennedy.
Source Weekly: Is there anything you are particularly excited about, coming to PPCW?
Sara Kennedy: One of the things that I really admire about this affiliate, and that we will do more of, is recognizing this profound time-sensitive need with the Dobbs decision, making abortion essentially restricted or banned in 21 states and knowing that that entire eastern part of Oregon has very few health care options for folks, specifically around reproductive and sexual health care.
Within 12 months, PPCW fundraised, found a location, did renovations and opened this new Health Center in Ontario, Since August 2022, we've seen a 1,500% increase in patients from Idaho traveling to Ontario. I think that's remarkable. That's very fast in health care and very fast in the Planned Parenthood world, and what we're seeing is this incredible need in eastern Oregon.
SW: Was there anything that surprised you when coming into this role?
SK: We are a fee-for-service provider like all other health care providers, so we provide a service and then we get a reimbursement rate back from whatever insurance that patient has. That was actually pretty shocking for me, because Oregon has a reputation and a really well-intentioned supportive legislature and healt care leaders who very much support sexual reproductive health care. The fact is that our current reimbursement rates do not cover our costs.
Eighty-five percent, depending on the year, of what we do has nothing to do with abortion. So, we might have good funding from these specific year-to-year programs that provide money to support abortion care, but we don't have adequate or robust funding for 85% of what we do, which is well-person care, gender affirming care, infertility care and contraception, STI care. All of that... we're losing money on.
The way that we survive is through supporters and donors because they help fill the gap between what we're making, what we're being reimbursed for from the state and the pretty significant deficit that we have.
SW: Is there anything you hope to accomplish or address here in Oregon?
SK: Yes, so much. One of the things that I'm really looking forward to is how we further grow our services in Central and Eastern Oregon. We have multiple centers in Portland and obviously this thriving center in Bend, but we know that there are lots of communities out there that can't get to Bend, and there is no other place that really does what we do as well as we do it. I think that there's a huge opportunity for us to be bigger and bolder and to grow.
One of the things I'd really like to see PPCW do is lean into and develop stronger coalitions with public health departments. We've had a 2,100% increase in syphilis in the state of Oregon over the past 10 years. Syphilis traditionally has been thought of as a disease that is mostly experienced by men who have sex with men. What we're seeing in Oregon, and throughout the country, is that one of the fastest growing populations who are getting diagnosed with syphilis are people who can become pregnant.
There's truly an epidemic of STIs, with syphilis leading that across the state of Oregon. That is something we can own by having targeted, evidence-based interventions around syphilis.
SW: Is there anything else you'd like to add?
SK: I want to recognize the extraordinary team for the care that they're delivering in Central Oregon because it's the only Planned Parenthood in Central Oregon, so we're really serving a really critical need. I think that was reflected when the City of Bend issued a proclamation that recognized sexual reproductive health care that's being provided by PPCW and the Bend Health Center. It was a really big honor that the City Council and the mayor recognized this in that way. I'm super proud to be able to be a leader of an affiliate where that's recognized.
