Thank you to all who attended this year's National Rural EMS & Care Conference and made it the success that it was! This year's conference had over 100 participants, a 50% increase in attendance. Over 90% of the attendees indicated they had gained knowledge from participating. The relevant, well-informed agenda brought together a wide array of attendees, including State Offices of Rural Health, state EMS directors, EMS Chiefs, health insurance specialists, medical directors, professors, trauma managers, EMT volunteers, community paramedics, and more.

A first-time guest noted, "In attending my first EMS conference, I was very impressed with the speakers, knowledge, passion, and overall best practice information shared." 

"This was the best conference so far,” said another attendee. “You did an amazing job, and I learned some amazing ways to help sustain our rural EMS. Thank you for all of your hard work!" 

All paid participants will receive instructions on how to access the password-protected recordings of the sessions. Participants will also receive a notice from the American Ambulance Association regarding a free one-year membership for attending the conference. Thank you to the RHIhub and the American Ambulance Association for their conference sponsorship! We hope you make plans to join us in 2022!

Are you a busy rural health professional that would like to learn more about using data in your everyday work? NOSORH’s newly redesigned Rural Health Data Institute (RHDI) will help participants find, analyze, and communicate data to inform program planning and decision-making.

The RHDI is a set of eight 90-minute web-based sessions designed to create a basic skill set for working with rural health data. Whether working with community health needs assessment (CHNA) data or implementing a quality improvement initiative, RHDI will provide the foundational skills needed to critically analyze, interpret, and communicate using data. Course sessions will typically occur on Monday afternoons from June 7-July 26. No “homework” is required for this course, though participation in online forums is encouraged. All sessions are recorded and uploaded to EduBrite, a learning management system, to watch at your convenience.

Click here for more information and be on the lookout for a registration link in the coming week. Questions? Contact Chris Salyers at [email protected] or (734) 881-9551.

A few web session opportunities for SORH, collaborative partners and stakeholders are on the horizon! Each of these hour-long web sessions, offered under the Connections for Community Care technical assistance umbrella, will be available at no charge. Keep an eye out for registration flyers and share widely!

FY 2022 Appropriations: As the deadline approaches for Congress to submit their funding requests to the House Appropriations Committee, NOSORH has asked Congress to increase funding for the SORH line of the State Office of Rural Health Grant program to $15 million for FY 2022. The appropriations timeline has been delayed because the Biden Administration has yet to release a budget request to Congress. The White House confirmed that the FY 22 budget proposal would be released in early May. The May release means the markup process in the House should begin in June. The Senate process traditionally follows the House by at least a month. NOSORH reached out to SORH and asked for them to contact their congressional delegation. Read More

When most people think of TruServe, they think of a data collection tool used by State Offices of Rural Health to track technical assistance or help submit PIMS measures to the Federal Office. However, as the Michigan Primary Care Office (PCO) has found, Truserve is so much more! The Michigan PCO first heard about TruServe from their partners at the Michigan Center for Rural Health and knew it would benefit their office.

Matt Strycker, NOSORH Program Manager, and Mark Barclay, TruServe Coordinator at the University of North Dakota Center for Rural Health, recently sat down with Amber Myers, PCO Director, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, to talk about how her office utilizes TruServe. Read More