This newsletter is brought to you by the Community Health Systems Development Team at the Georgia Health Policy Center, funded through a contract with the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP).
Welcome to the Rural Health Link: Rural Health Services Quarterly Digest. This newsletter will share program updates, the technical assistance (TA) schedule of events, as well as a variety of resources focused on rural health services. Each issue will also feature a grantee spotlight article. We welcome your feedback. If you have any comments or recommendations for future content, please reach out to us at chsdteam@gsu.edu.
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Grantee Spotlight: Adagio Health |
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Adagio Health is working to address breast and cervical cancer screening and vaccinations in Western and central Pennsylvania. They are partnering with health care providers in the service area, as well as state-level partners the Pennsylvania Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program and the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition.
The Georgia Health Policy Center recently spoke to Adagio Health’s Casey Monroe, senior director of health promotion and disease; Gabrielle Sorce, cancer screening patient navigator; Sierra Maher, care navigator in the cancer screening department; and Tracy Frank, the cancer screening program manager, about these efforts.
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Rural Health Care Coordination
Program (Care Coordination)
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Announcements from FORHP
Diana Alatorre will officially take the reins as the Program Coordinator of the Care Coordination Program on December 6. We are grateful for the leadership that Nkem has provided for the Care Coordination Program and for helping to ensure a smooth transition to the new coordinator.
Webinars
The recording and slides from the webinar on “Positioning Your Care Coordination Initiative for Long Term Sustainability” are available here.
“Sustainability Formative Assessment” February 23, 2022, 3:00 p.m. ET
In this webinar, we will review the Formative Assessment template (due in the Electronic Handbook on November 30, 2022) and a set of assessment and facilitation tools that you can use to gather partner input into the Formative Assessment Plan.
Year One PIMS Review Calls
In early 2022 (January monthly calls), your project officer and technical assistance (TA) provider will review with you your PIMS Reports submitted in November 2021. The purpose of these calls is to clarify any questions around the data entered and take a deeper dive into the status of your team’s data collection and utilization practices for care coordination.
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Delta States Rural Development
Network Program (Delta States)
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Learning Opportunity
A resource was shared by your TA provider on Understanding and Addressing Racism as a Social Determinant of Health at the beginning of December. We will continue to discuss and study this resource and will hold a webinar in February 2022 to learn more on how to integrate these concepts in your work and organizations. Be on the lookout for webinar information coming soon. You can find the resource here.
Reminder: Delta States Email Address Use through December 2021
Reminder to use the Delta States email address deltastatesprgm@hrsa.gov for all communications with your project officer during the months of September - December 2021.
Quarterly Report for COVID-19 Supplemental Funding Review
We will review quarterly reports on December and January monthly calls.
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Small Health Care Provider Quality
Improvement Program (Rural Quality)
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Welcome New Project Officer (PO) to the Small Healthcare Provider Quality Improvement Program
We welcomed Sachi Khushu to the Quality PO Team in the summer of 2021. Sachi comes to HRSA from the Seattle & King County Department of Public Health, Prevention Division, where she worked as a Disease Research and Intervention Specialist as a member of the COVID-19 Contact Tracing Team, assisting with their local prevention and control efforts by investigating the impact of COVID-19 in the community and providing support for impacted individuals. As a former Peace Corps volunteer, Sachi served in Cameroon as a Community Health Educator where she designed and led community training programs for malaria, HIV/AIDS, maternal & child health, family planning, and nutrition, as well as organizing and implementing a Girls Empowerment Camp for adolescent girls targeting topics such as leadership, communication, sexual health, and HIV/AIDS. A graduate of the College of William & Mary, she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with a concentration in Globalization, focusing on Global Social Problems and International Community Health and Development. Sachi’s previous work history also includes time spent in Nairobi, Kenya as a Public Health Educator with Tandaza Trust, helping homeless and economically disadvantaged street families in Nairobi, as well as interning with the Maasai American Organization/Community Health Partners organization.
Year 2 PIMS Reviews
Thank you for your engagement with your TA providers and project officers to discuss your year 2 PIMS reports. We hope that the feedback and insights provided have been valuable and helpful as you continue program activities and data collection in this final year.
Small Health Care Provider Quality Improvement Program Webinar: Planning for Sustainability
Thank you for your participation in the webinar Planning for Sustainability, which was held on December 15. This webinar was a chance to introduce grantees to the template that will be used to produce the final grant program deliverable: a sustainability plan. The recording of the webinar, slides, and template will be posted to the grantee site here. The sustainability plan is due in June 2022.
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Rural Health Care Services
Outreach Program (Outreach)
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Office Hours: The Business Case for Addressing the Social Determinants of Health in a Rural Primary Care Setting
Thank you for attending the Office Hours discussing how to apply The Business Case for Addressing the Social Determinants of Health in a Rural Primary Care Setting toolkit. A recording of the event and the toolkit are available here.
Deliverables Review
Thank you for your recent submission of the Assessment Plan (regular track), Community Assessment Phase 1 & 2 (HRHI track), and Cost Savings Estimation Plan Phase 1 (HRHI track). Your project officer and TA provider will discuss these deliverables on monthly calls this month and early 2022.
Rural Health Care Services Outreach Program 2018-2021 Sourcebook
The Rural Health Care Services Outreach Program 2018-2021 Sourcebook is available here. This document provides contact and project summary information for 59 projects funded during the Rural Health Care Services Outreach Program's 2018-2021 funding cycle, including a specialized track of 12 Health Improvement Special Project grantees focused on addressing cardiovascular disease. It includes a summary of overall program impacts and a cohort snapshot, as well as detailed individual project profiles.
HRHI Quarterly Peer Group Calls
Chronic Disease Prevention HRHI Grantees: Thursday January 20, 2022, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. ET
SUD/Accidental Injury Prevention Grantees: DATE TBD
We look forward to continuing our quarterly peer calls in 2022. These peer group calls are driven by your interests and needs as you implement your grant-funded initiatives. They are a forum to pose questions, asks, and offers with peers.
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Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management
Strategies Program (RMOMS)
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Webinar: Strategically Planning for Effective Program Implementation
Thursday, December 16, 2021, from 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. ET
Thank you for joining yesterday’s webinar, Strategically Planning for Effective Program Implementation. We hope you will apply some of the insights and resources shared by the technical assistance team. To access the presentation and webinar audio, please visit the RMOMS programs page found at this link.
Peer Group Call: Connect and Share with other RMOMS Awardees!
January 4, 2022, from 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. ET
We are looking forward to the first peer call of 2022! You will be joined by peers from your cohort as well as peers from cohort 1. These peer group calls are driven by your interests and needs as you implement your grant-funded initiatives. They are a forum to pose questions, asks, and offers with peers. If there are ever any specific topics or issues you would like to explore on a future call, please reach out to your TA provider, Tanisa Adimu. Your project officer, Vicky Tsai, sent an email with more information and presentation requests for the peer call on January 4.
Grantee Meeting: 2022 Learning Institute (Grantee Meeting) for State MHI/RMOMS
April 4 - 6, 2022 (tentative in-person location: Durham, NC)
SAVE THE DATE! In partnership with the Maternal Learning and Innovation Center (MHLIC), we will host an annual Learning Institute for all six RMOMS teams, as well as nine states who have been funded under the State Maternal Health Innovation program. The Learning Institutes are an opportunity for team-based, active learning and peer sharing that your team can immediately apply to challenges in your work. Save the dates for the 2022 event: April 4-6, 2022. We anticipate in-person (Durham, NC) and virtual participation options and will be in touch with additional detail soon.
We're looking for RMOMS team members to join the Planning Committee. Interested? Email Alice Pollard at MHLIC.
Check out MHLIC Resources
The Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center is a national resource center working to connect maternal health learners with maternal health “doers” across the country, cataloging and disseminating best practices related to maternal health improvement.
You can explore the MHLIC online Resource Hub to find hundreds of resources to support your work. You can also follow MHLIC on Linkedin and Twitter to learn about newly added resources and upcoming events.
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The challenges and opportunities for rural America are complex. While rural economic development has come a long way in the last 40 years, we still have a lot to learn. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s latest blog features a discussion on rural economic development, the challenges and opportunities facing rural America, and what the future holds for improving rural economies. Click here to access the blog.
The rate of new COVID-19 vaccinations in rural counties fell slightly in November. Rural counties reported that 159,000 additional residents completed their vaccination regimen during the third week of November—that’s down about 4% from two weeks prior. The pace of newly completed vaccinations in metropolitan counties fell by 20%, from about 1.6 million two weeks ago to 1.2 million the previous week. Click here to access the article.
In November, the Biden Administration awarded the largest field strength in history for its health workforce loan repayment and scholarship programs thanks to a new $1.5 billion investment, including $1 billion in supplemental American Rescue Plan funding and other mandatory and annual appropriations. The Health Resources and Services Administration’s workforce programs directly improve the nation's health equity by connecting skilled, committed providers with communities in need of care. Click here to access the article.
Single seniors who experience social isolation were four percentage points more likely to need nursing home care after experiencing a health event. This article discusses how social isolation continues to prove a key variable in health, with the emerging social determinant of health affecting the likelihood an older adult will need institutionalized healthcare, according to researchers from the University of California San Francisco. Click here to access the article.
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RESOURCES, NEWS AND OTHER UPDATES |
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The National Rural Health Association (NRHA) has developed a grassroots initiative to help rural health stakeholders build vaccine confidence at the local level:
- Rural hospital CEOs will champion the initiative, inviting local business, nonprofit, and faith leaders to partner in a community effort to help ensure everyone has access to facts about the COVID-19 vaccine.
- While hospital CEOs will share this campaign with anyone involved in marketing, the key to success is C-suite involvement, including serving as community champions.
- To maximize the effectiveness of this effort, it is important to utilize the toolkit to provide ongoing communications now through 2022.
This roadmap, developed by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, provides local and state health departments with information, resources, and tools to implement effective strategies to support linking people who are at risk of opioid overdose to care. The resources is organized by seven strategies aligned with health department essential functions, each strategy offers actionable steps, real-world examples, checklists, tools and resources informed by the latest research, subject matter experts and experiences from diverse settings across the U.S. Click here to access the roadmap.
The American Lung Association provides information about Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) for providers in rural areas, including training opportunities, educational resources, and networking groups. Click here to access the resources.
To date, there is limited information available about the ability to age in place in rural communities and what barriers may prevent older adults from safely doing so. This policy brief presents findings from an online survey of State Offices of Rural Health (SORHs) describing barriers for older adults in successfully aging in place in rural communities, and recommendations for how to improve the ability to safely age in place in rural areas of their states. Click here to access the report.
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February 6 – 9, 2022
Phoenix, AZ
The American Hospital Association’s 2022 Rural Health Care Leadership Conference brings together top practitioners and thinkers to share strategies and resources for accelerating the shift to a more integrated and sustainable rural health system. We will examine the most significant operational, financial, and environmental challenges including the post-pandemic impact on rural hospitals and their communities, and present innovative approaches that will enable you to transform your organization’s care delivery model and business practices.
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February 8 - 10, 2022
Washington, D.C.
The National Rural Health Association (NRHA) will host its 33rd Annual Rural Health Policy Institute this February. This is an opportunity to guide the future of rural health policy with NRHA leadership and advocate for issues you care about with new and returning members of Congress and the administration.
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April 11 – 13, 2022
Washington, D.C.
Join the National Council for Mental Wellbeing to celebrate resilience, reflect on the past, and redefine the future of the field at NatCon22, the largest conference in mental health and substance use treatment. This event brings together thousands of professionals to discuss the hurdles health care professionals are faced with, strategies for overcoming obstacles, and tools for enduring by reimagining mental health and substance use treatment.
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