Colville Tribes
Colville Confederated Tribes
Colville Health Center
PO Box 150
Nespelem, WA 99155
Phone: 509-634-2842
Fax: 509-634-4116
Webpage: http://www.colvilletribes.com
About the Clinic
Facilities/Services Planning
Colville Inchelium Community Clinic
Colville Keller Health Station
Colville Omak Dental Clinic
MISSION
To promote and facilitate engineering planning and construction support for the IHS national facilities program by developing and enhancing relationships among Tribes, area offices, and Service Unit engineers and related professionals dealing in building health care systems.
Attainment of the IHS and DHHS missions
The DFPC mission is achieved by:
* Maintaining a priority list based on relative need.
* Supporting tribes when they choose to assume facilities-related responsibilities.
* Planning health care and associated facilities to minimize facility life-cycle costs.
* Planning, promoting, & constructing improvements to exist. Facilities where they are not optimally functional.
* Planning & constructing new facilities when existing facilities do not exist or cannot be effectively improved.
* Developing state-of-the-art facilities with efficient and effective facilities planning.
* Targeting the unmet need with limited resources for maximum effectiveness.
DFPC Vision
To be a Global Health Care Facilities Engineering Division leading cutting edge professionalism in support of Public Health advances and development of solutions to the Indian Health Service challenges.
Location
Health services are provided at ambulatory clinics located in three tribal districts, Nespelem, Inchelium, and Omak. The largest program is the Colville Health center in Nespelem, a 17,110 SF Indian Health Service facility constructed in 1934. This clinic provides a wide range of family practice oriented medical, dental and optometry services. The Nespelem clinic employs three primary care physicians of which 2 are full-time federal employees and the third being a contractual arrangement with the Coulee Community Hospital, two mid-level medical providers, two dentists, 1 full time and the other is on a Personal Services Contract, four full time Registered Nurses, one LPN and one public health nurse. The clinic is AAAHC accredited and bills for services provided to patients who are Medicaid or Medicare eligible or who have private insurance coverage. The Colville Indian Health Service also operates a satellite Dental Facility out of the Community Center located in Omak on the northwestern side of the Colville Indian Reservation. They are also in the process of opening a satellite pharmacy, which should be fully operational by the middle of FY02. The Clinic had a total of 33,651 ambulatory visits in FY01. The Colville Tribes operates a smaller health clinic in Inchelium. The 4,864 SF clinic in Inchelium was built in the 1970s and provides medical, dental and optometry 
services on a full-time basis. Inchelium had 4,360 primary care patient visits and 6,213 other patient visits for a total of 10,573 patient visits in FY2001.
The Colville Tribes also operates a number of health programs under P.L.93-638, Title I contracts with the Indian Health Services. These programs include community health nursing, community health representatives, nutrition, health education, mental health, social services, alcohol and substance abuse counseling, environmental health, and emergency medical services. The Tribes also operate a WIC program and a maternal support services project with non-IHS funding. Since 1981, the tribes has owned and operated a long term care facility in Nespelem. With 52 beds the Colville Convalescent Center provides residential care for reservation elders. The Center is supported by Medicaid reimbursement, private pay, and tribal funds. The Tribe’s Contract Health Service (CHS) program is operated by the Indian Health Services from the clinic in Nespelem. The Tribe’s Contract Health Service Delivery Area (CHSDA) includes Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, grant, Lincoln, Okanogan, and Stevens counties. The enrolled tribal population is 8,507 and with 50% living on or near the reservation. There are 13,355 registered patients, and 7,826 active users in the Colville Service Unit. The leading causes of death are heart disease, malignant neoplasm, motor vehicle accident, cerebrovascular disease, and cirrhosis of the liver.
About the Tribe
History
The Colville people are the descendants of eleven bands of Indians that were settled on the Colville Reservation. These bands are the Methow, Okanogan, San Poil, Arrow Lakes, Nespelem, Nez Perce, Palouse, Moses, Entiat, and Wenatchee. Most of the bands spoke a Salish or Sahaptin language, including nsalxcln, nhamcin, and nimipu. The 1.3 million acre Colville Reservation is located in the northeastern part of Washington, bordered on the west by the Okanogan River and on the south and east by the Columbia River. It covers parts of the Okanogan and Ferry Counties. The Colville Indian Reservation was created by Executive Order of President Grant in 1872. A 14 member council elected for two-year terms conducts tribal business. The Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Secretary are selected from this body and committees are appointed from council membership to manage tribal affairs.
Geography
Huge reservation encompasses half or more of Ferry County and a near equal area in Okanogan County. City: Nespelem, population 240. Elevation 1,900. County: Okanogan, population 31,600, Native American 3,540, 79% of nonwhite population, 11% of total population. 5,300 square miles. Ferry County: population 6,000, Native American 1,119, 93% of nonwhite, 18% of total population. 2,202 square miles. Counties’ north boundary represents almost half of the international border in north central Washington. Okanogan is home of Grand Coulee Dam. Omak (3,920) is largest town; Okanogan (elevation 835) is county seat. Annual rainfall 11.7 inches; average temperatures 38-63. Ferry County seat is Republic (population 965, elevation 2,503), where rainfall averages 14.9 inches and temperatures average 29.4-56.9. Primary industries of both counties include wood products, agriculture and in Ferry County, mining.
Other Information
Members
8,882 enrolled members.
Other Offices and Programs
They have an economic development plan in place and have several ventures going, e.g. timber sales, grazing and leasing.
Employees
Approximately 920, including part-time as well as full-time; in addition, there are 27 on call at the convalescent center. http://www.colvillecasinos.com
Housing
No tribal housing is available.
