MOSES LAKE — Behavioral health care in Grant County may see some improvements. 

Dell Anderson, director of Renew, formerly Grant Mental Health, recently completed a Baldridge Fellowship and came back with some ideas, he said Thursday.  

“It's a one-year program, and it includes attending a quest for excellence conference,” Anderson said. “Then you do site visits throughout the year where you go visit the site of a national award-winning organization and they train you on the things that they've structured and put into place for their organizational excellence.” 

The Baldridge Executive Fellowship is a cohort of 18 individuals selected from across the nation, Dell explained, from different industries including health care, education and manufacturing. The other fellows represent organizations and companies like health care giant Kaiser Permanente, West Coast University and the Pennsylvania-based Washington Health System Foundation, according to the website of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which offers the fellowship.  Besides those companies, Renew looked like small potatoes, Anderson said. 

“This (program) is for top executives across the country, and so to be accepted into a prestigious program like this was a big deal,” Anderson said. “I felt like I'm just Dell from Moses Lake. But the cohort were amazing. They were accepting and they were asking my advice on things that we're doing in our field that they needed help with.”  

Learning in the field 

The cohort made site visits to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, the Kansas City National Security campus – an entity of the U.S. Department of Defense – and the Ritz-Carlton Marina del Rey Hotel in California, according to the NIST. In the course of those visits the cohort had the opportunity to interact with experts from Mid-America Transplant and aerospace manufacturer Stellar Solutions. Each had lessons to impart that Anderson plans to use in improving services at Renew. 

“At the Department of Defense, we got to see the processes that are used along some of our military defense systems and how things are created,” Anderson said. “What's interesting about that visit is that the things that they do there have to be perfect. They have to work … Along the way, they can see through data and measures what's happening in real time on a daily basis, to tell you where product is and what's occurring.” 

Anderson said that the Ritz-Carlton gave him some insights into customer service.  

“Ritz Carlton is the best in the world at customer service and customer engagement,” he said. “When you entered the facility you are welcomed. And I just asked myself, can we welcome our clients in the door in the same way that they're welcomed in a luxury resort? I think they deserve that. I think no matter where an individual is coming from, they deserve to have a place that's warm and welcoming, where they feel cared about.” 

When he arrived at the hotel, the staff not only knew who he was and welcomed him warmly, but also knew that he was running a little late. The hotel has a team that researches every incoming guest online, he said, so when he checked into his room, there was a photo of his family on the desk. 

“Every morning they have a huddle of the full team,” Anderson said. “They talk about the previous day's successes, they talk about what's to come (and) they talk about individuals who are coming in that need special attention.” 

Bringing ideas home 

The final step in the fellowship was what was called a capstone project, where the fellow takes what they’ve learned and applies it to their own organization. Anderson’s capstone project was an improvement to Renew’s substance use services in rural parts of the county. The way the system stands, clients have to drive to Moses Lake to access those services.

“They have to pay for gas or bus tickets or ways to get here,” Anderson said. “And what was concerning for me is that we have individuals who come from Grand Coulee or from Mattawa, so they're driving in over an hour each way, three times a week, coming in three times a week. I wanted to look at something that we could create to reduce the drive time, reduce this barrier, so individuals could access their substance use treatment.” 

Renew has been offering virtual services for the last couple of years for clients in crisis at the emergency room, Anderson said. Through the capstone project, he aspired to extend those so that people in outlying communities could access services from home. 

“We started with a pilot program out of Grand Coulee in November 2024,” Anderson said. “Through that process, anyone living in the Grand Coulee area that needs substance use treatment and is eligible for services, instead of having to drive to Moses Lake, they can now attend their intensive allocation group there at the Grand Coulee location.” 

One hurdle Anderson’s team faces was maintaining confidentiality, he said, because someone walking past and seeing a computer or phone screen could potentially identify other members of the group. So Renew staff created a special telehealth room where a client could attend the virtual meeting and maintain privacy. 

“Our next steps are to begin this at each of our sites,” Anderson said. “Grand Coulee was the pilot, and we'll be moving on to Mattawa, Royal City, Quincy and Ephrata as well, so the individuals don't have to travel all the way to Moses Lake to get that service. I'm not looking at this to replace in-person services, but I do believe that our clients deserve to have a choice in the way that they'd like to receive their service.” 

There’s no timeline established yet for rolling out the virtual service to those other communities, he added, but Mattawa will be the next facility to make it available, because it’s the one with the longest drive to Moses Lake. 

The principles Anderson learned through the Baldridge Fellowship have a number of applications at Renew, he said. In the last five years, Renew has grown from serving 1,500-1,600 clients per year to serving 4,600-4,800, he said.  

“We're here to serve our community; our doors are open,” Anderson said. “We are moving through different projects … to enhance each of our facilities so they are warm, welcoming and inviting for all individuals who come in for services.” 

    Renew’s Grand Coulee facility, pictured here, was the site of a pilot project to provide substance use services remotely throughout the county. Renew Director Dell Anderson was inspired to expand virtual services through his recently-completed Baldridge Fellowship.