Vote on Rural Lens photo contest

Voting for this year's Rural Lens photo contest continues this week for NRHA Facebook fans by clicking “like” on your favorite photos from the contest’s landscape category.

 

The community category winner is: <http://NRHA.informz.net/z/cjUucD9taT0zNzU0Mjk1JnA9MSZ1PTEwMDk5OTk0MjUmbGk9MjA4NzU4MzU/index.html> “Little town of Blue Grass, Virginia” by Doug Puffenbarger. 

The photo will move on to the grand prize round and be published in Rural Roads magazine.

 

Voting for a new category will begin each week ending with the grand prize iPad winner decided after NRHA’s Rural Health Policy Institute.

Nominate Rural Health's Finest

Each year NRHA honors outstanding individuals and organizations in the field of rural health who have dedicated their time and talents to improving the health and well-being of others. Recipients will be recognized at NRHA's 37th Annual Rural Health Conference April 22-25, 2014, in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Consider nominating your favorite rural health professionals starting Dec. 2 so that they may be honored nationally for their contributions to rural health.

For more information go to: http://www.ruralhealthweb.org/go/left/about-rural-health/rural-health-awards/2009-rural-health-awards-nominations

Do Critical Access Hospitals need a Trim?

The critical access hospital program was intended to financially stabilize small, rural institutions by providing them with higher Medicare reimbursement rates. The hospitals in the program are supposed to have 25 or fewer beds and be at least 35 miles away from another facility (15 miles across mountainous terrain) in communities that would otherwise have limited access to health care services. The effort was a response to a spate of 360 rural hospital closures in the 1980s and 1990s.

To learn more about the HHS Watchdog Says Rural Hospital Program Needs A Trim click here  http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/index.php/2013/08/hhs-watchdog-says-rural-hospital-program-needs-a-trim/

National Prevention Strategy Toolkit

Explore each Strategic Direction and Priority Area in this graphic to find topic-specific resources for each action step

Submit your story and resources on how you are implementing the National Prevention Strategy in your state!

Briefly describe your work in an area related to the National Prevention Strategy and we'll follow up with you soon to finalize your submission to be shared on our website. Go to submission form

Obstetric Services and Quality among Critical Access, Rural, and Urban Hospitals in Nine States

Although approximately 25% of U.S. births occur in rural hospitals, many questions about the types and quality of obstetric care in different types of hospital settings have remained unexamined. This study takes a step toward filling this gap, assessing and comparing obstetric care among rural and urban hospitals in nine states.


Key Findings:

• Women who gave birth in CAHs and other rural hospitals in 2010 were younger on average and had lower rates of clinical complications than those who gave birth in urban hospitals.

• CAHs compared favorably with other rural and urban hospitals on a number of obstetric care quality measures.

• Medicaid covered 49 percent of births in CAHs and 56 percent of births in other rural hospitals, compared to 41 percent of births in urban hospitals.

• The percentage of CAHs, other rural hospitals, and urban hospitals providing obstetric services in 2010 varied significantly across states, with the greatest variation among CAHs.

• Half of the CAHs in this study’s sample provided obstetric services in 2010, likely a higher rate than all CAHs nationwide due to the selection criteria for the sample.

Read More...

Challenges and Opportunities for Improving Mental Health Services in Rural Long-Term Care

• Policy Brief

• Full Report

Despite high levels of need, individuals in long-term care often fail to receive appropriate mental health services, especially in rural areas. In this brief and accompanying working paper, we consider challenges and opportunities for improving mental health treatment delivered to long-term care recipients in rural settings. As background, we note the prevalence of mental health problems in long-term care populations, describe deficiencies in the mental health care afforded to long-term care recipients, and identify barriers that hinder the remediation of these deficiencies in rural settings. We also outline a rationale for enhancing mental health services in long-term care. We then discuss new approaches that have been implemented or could be used to effect positive transformations in the delivery of mental health services to rural long-term care populations. We underscore the potential for synergies between these innovations and provisions introduced under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010. Finally, we delineate policy considerations for promoting new mental health service models in rural long-term care settings.

Contact information:

Jean A. Talbot, PhD, MPH

Maine Rural Health Research Center

Phone: 207-671-5724

jatalbot@usm.maine.edu

Funding Opportunities

1. The Federal Office of Rural Health Policy has released a funding opportunity in support of the rural Access to External Devices Grant Program. The purpose of this program is to: (1) purchase automated external defibrillators; (2) provide defibrillator and basic life support training in automated defibrillator usage; and (3) place automated external defibrillators in rural communities.

All applications are due June 17, 2013. It is expected that 7 programs will be funded up to $200,000 per year for a three-year project period.

More on this funding opportunity can be found at: http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do;jsessionid=qSgKRVxNMv5yppTP1PTsDjnLP2421WpVSWS7VqqnLrtQ2SRPDBRp!222120898?oppId=234958&mode=VIEW

2. Grant funding will soon be available through the USDA for distance learning and telemedicine efforts aimed and serving rural America. The Notice of Funding Availability for the USDA’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) Grant Program will be released in the coming days. The DLT grant program is designed to assist community facilities serving rural areas acquire distance learning and telemedical technologies to link with other professionals to improve the services delivered to rural Americans.

• $17 million in grant funding is expected to be available and each award will be between $50,000 and $500,000.

• Applicants must be 1) a legally incorporated organization operating a rural community facility directly or serving an organization that operates a rural community facility and 2) must currently deliver or propose to deliver distance learning or telemedicine services through and beyond the three-year grant period.

For more information on the DLT Grant Program as well as an application toolkit, please go here. Prospective applicants are encouraged to begin preparing applications today and to reach out to their State USDA Rural Development Office for support. If you do plan to apply, please e-mail Sam Morgan at sam.morgan@wdc.usda.gov  so USDA staff can know how many applications to expect. You can e-mail dltinfo@wdc.usda.gov  with questions about the program.

2012 Virginia Rural Health Action Conference

"You might be rural if." It sounds like the set-up for a joke that's likely to elicit a few groans. But the public health issues facing rural Virginia are no joke. The 2012 Virginia Health Equity Report estimates that the total costs of health disparities/inequities associated with living in a rural area instead of an urban area in Virginia cost $692 million annually.

Rural Virginians tend to die at an earlier age than non-rural residents. Some areas have an average life span up to 19 years below the state average, 59.6 years compared to 78.5 years. Rural areas also tend to have higher poverty rates and lower educational levels than urban Virginia, correlating to having limited health opportunities.

With these facts in mind, the Virginia Public Health Association and the Virginia Rural Health Association are joining together to offer the 2012 Virginia Rural Health Action Conference on October 8 and 9 at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel. Public health practitioners, concerned citizens, planners, policy makers, advocates and anyone with an interest in the health of rural Virginia will come together to explore the wide-variety of issues having an impact on the public health of rural Virginians and work to develop creative cross-sector solutions that can be incorporated into an updated State Rural Health Plan.

We want participation from everyone with a stake in the health of rural Virginia. Your input in the Virginia Rural Health Action Conference is highly valued and will help identify the priority items for the new Rural Health Plan.

Advance registration is required.

Registration fees are $160 for VAPHA and VRHA members, $210 for

Nonmembers, and $90 for Students. Fees will increase after September

28th. Fees support program costs and administration.

Click below for more information:

http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/healthpolicy/Documents/SponsorshipandExhibit%20Opportunities.pdf  
http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/healthpolicy/Documents/brochure_distributed_0001.pdf  

For complete details, visit the VAPHA web site at www.vapha.org.

National Rural Health Day!

I know it’s still summertime – but believe it or not, National Rural Health Day is less than three months away! While National Rural Health Day will again fall on the third Thursday of November – November 15, to be exact – NOSORH is busy planning a series of events and activities leading up to National Rural Health Day in the hopes of making this year’s celebration more exciting.  We’re doing this for two reasons: first, we want to give those of you planning your own National Rural Health Day activities a greater opportunity to participate in one or more of NOSORH’s NRHD-related activities; and second, there’s just too much good stuff going on to try to cram into one day! Because we’re going to spread our celebration over several days and to help others planning their own National Rural Health Day celebrations, NOSORH has developed a series of National Rural Health Day Celebration Themes that individuals and organization can use to “focus” their events and activities around specific topics.  Primary themes/focus areas that NOSORH plans to address during this year’s celebration include:

• Welcome to Rural America:   an overview of rural America and some of the people, places and things that make it unique.

• Exploring the Issues:  an overview of some of the most pertinent/critical policy issues facing rural America today.

• Doing More with Less:  the economy is bad; budgets are being stretched to the limit; programs are at risk of being cut.  What to expect following the presidential/congressional elections, and what can be done to move ahead regardless of their outcomes.

• Provider Appreciation Day:  an opportunity to honor the individuals/organizations going to great lengths to meet the healthcare needs of rural residents. 

• Looking Toward the Future:  a glimpse at what is already being done – and what must be done– to help rural communities prepare to meet their future needs.

Please be sure to visit the General Resources section of the National Rural Health Day website to download a more detailed list ofNational Rural Health Day Celebration Themes that includes lists of possible topics to be addressed within those themes. We also know that many SORHs and rural partners are busy planning conferences, award ceremonies, and/or other assorted events and activities celebrating National Rural Health Day.  We’d love to know what everyone is doing and hear how everyone is promoting this year’s celebration – which is why we’ve once again posted the National Rural Health Day Celebration Checklist on the NRHD website.  This Google spreadsheet is a great resource for letting us know what you’re planning, and it’s a great way to boost your plans by seeing what everyone else is doing – so be sure to visit the link and update your state’s information as frequently as possible! Here are a few additional resources already available on the National Rural Health Day website to help with your planning:

• National Rural Health Day Logos  (available in PDF and JPG formats);

• a “Save the Date” Card to help you promote National Rural Health Day to others; and

• a list of National Rural Health Day Key Messages to emphasize when promoting your event and/or reaching out to media, potential partners and other stakeholders.

 We’ll be posting even more resources throughout August and September, so be sure to visit the National Rural Health Day website on a regular basis.

Federal and Non Federal Grants

Federal Grants

Minority Population Specific: $500k or less . . .  

• HHS/National Institutes of Health: HIV/AIDS, Drug Use, and Vulnerable Populations in the US (R21) Grant View Full Announcement

$500k or more . . .  

• USDOJ/Office of Justice Programs/Office of Violence Against Women: FY 2012 Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Demonstration Initiative Technical Assistance Program Grant View Full Announcement

$500k or less . . .  

• HHS/National Institutes of Health: AIDS-Science Track Award for Research Transition (R03) Grant View Full Announcement
• HHS/Office of Rural Health Policy: Rural Health Network Development Planning Grant Program. View Full Announcement
• HHS/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: DELTA FOCUS (Domestic Violence Prevention Enhancement and Leadership Through Alliances, Focusing on Outcomes for Communities United with States) Grant. View Full Announcement
• HHS/Health Resources & Services Administration: Healthy Tomorrows Partnership for Children Program (HTPCP). View Full Announcement

Non Federal Grants

Minority Population Specific: $500k or less . . . 

• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Forward Promise Innovation Grants: Promoting Opportunities for the Health and Success of Young Men of Color. View Full Announcement

Health Workforce Position

Working Title: Health Workforce Program Manager (MH)
Role Title: Prog Admin Specialist II - 19212
Job Open Date: 12-28-2011
Job Close Date: Jobs close at 5pm EST. 01-13-2012

Job Type Detail
Definition: Full-Time Salaried - Non-Faculty- FTS-1
Is this position funded in whole or in part by the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (Stimulus Package)? No
Hiring Range: negotiable up to $50,000

Agency: Dept of Health (601)
Agency Website: http://www.vdh.virginia.gov


Job Description:

Located in the Office of Minority Health and Health Equity (OMHHE), provides the day-to-day oversight and coordination of OMHHE health workforce pipeline development initiatives and programs, while promoting health equity and social justice. Plans, develops and implements activities that support the recruitment and retention of the health care workforce (including the administration of incentive programs) in rural and other medically underserved areas of Virginia. Assists to address challenges and advance goals identified through health workforce pipeline development strategic planning processes. Helps to assure a diverse and culturally and linguistically competent health care workforce. Provides technical assistance to communities and practice sites with information regarding best practices and resource development pertaining to the health workforce. Assesses the efficacy of health workforce pipeline development initiatives and programs in meeting their stated goals and objectives.

Minimum Qualifications:

Should have a strong knowledge-base of state and federal regulations, programs and research related to the healthcare workforce. Must have strategic planning and organizational skills and demonstrated ability with program, contract and grant management. Advanced skills with word processing, spreadsheet, email/Internet software and database management abilities is required. Strong oral and written communication skills, including demonstrated success with presentations for professionals/community leaders on a local, state and/or national level required. Should have strong interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to establish effective working relationships with culturally diverse individuals and groups. Must be able to interpret laws, regulations and policies and possess sound decision-making skills. Must be able to write policies and procedures. Must be able to multi-task and be responsive and able to adapt to changing priorities and needs. Must be able and willing to travel periodically. Prefer College degree in public health, health, hospital, public or business administration, marketing, mass communications, public relations or related field and/or equivalent training and experience.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with using and/or managing websites, blogs and social media. Experience with writing regulations. Experience working with healthcare professionals, Area Health Education Centers, faculty, students and hospital administrators. Masters degree or equivalent work history.

Special Instructions to Applicants

Interested candidates must submit an on-line application through the Virginia jobs web site, http://jobs.virginia.gov/ for Position #OC055. Fax, e-mail or mail applications will not be accepted. Your on-line application must be received by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, January 13, 2012. Equal Opportunity Employer.

Optional Applicant Documents

• Resume
• Cover Letter
• Required Applicant Documents

Contact Information:

Shakema Sanders, MSA, VSO

Business Manager

Office of the Commissioner &

Office of Minority Health & Health Equity

804-864-7430

Health Disparities Research LRP

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH IS HELPING TO IMPROVE THE HEALTH OF ALL PEOPLE

Program Purpose

The purpose of the Health Disparities Research LRP is to recruit and retain highly qualified health professionals to research careers that focus on minority health or other health disparity issues. Funding for this LRP is provided through the NIH's National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), which ensures that at least 50 percent of the awards are made to health professionals who are members of identified health disparity populations.

Learn more at http://www.lrp.nih.gov/about_the_programs/health_disparities.aspx

Why Place and Race Matter – New Report Released Today

Where you live impacts how you live. But, too often, policy makers don’t recognize that your race affects your health, too. From heart disease to cancer to child mortality to asthma, people of color are more likely to face significant health challenges – and more likely to die from those challenges. A new report we are releasing today, Why Place and Race Matter, makes the undeniable case that race must be central to the decisions made by policymakers, advocates, and community leaders if we ever hope to close the racial health gap. Download Why Place and Race Matter

Announcing the New Virginia Rural Health Data Portal

The Virginia Rural Health Data Portal puts information, that was once scattered, in one place and in your hands. Create, print and download maps, charts and graphs. Now you have the tools to tell your rural health story.

The Virginia Rural Health Data Council, in conjunction with the Virginia Department of Health and the Virginia Rural Health Association, are pleased to introduce the Virginia Rural Health Data Portal, a web-based tool that has been developed to provide a unique source of information on topics of special interest to rural health providers, researchers, grant writers, and others interested in telling their story on health issues facing rural populations in Virginia. The data currently presented in the portal are related to the issues and strategies defined in the Virginia State Rural Health Plan. It is anticipated that as additional issues are studied, new data sets will be added to the site. In addition, there will be several improvements added in the next few weeks, so check back often!

$5 million in grant money will improve quality of care in Maryland

University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers will use nearly $5 million in federal stimulus dollars to boost minority participation in clinical trials and improve quality care in remote communities.

The announcement, made at a news conference Monday at the former Bel Alton High School, comes fresh off the narrow passage of landmark health care legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives late Saturday night. The bill to extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans now moves to the Senate, where it faces a rough road ahead.

Read more >

Rural EMS Summit: Sharing Solutions and Strategies

December 10-11, 2009
Central Virginia Community College
Lynchburg, Virginia

Who should attend? Local Government Officials, EMS Leaders and Providers and Community Healthcare Providers

Register Before November 30, 2009.

The Virginia Office of EMS is sponsoring The Rural EMS Summit to develop strategic initiatives and objectives for a state plan to address the needs of rural EMS agencies in Virginia. The summit is scheduled for December 10 and 11, 2009 in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Despite the improvement in EMS service to the rural areas of Virginia there are some looming problems. In March 2009, participants at a Rural EMS Roundtable function identified a number of deficiencies and prioritized the top three challenges facing EMS agencies in rural areas as

1. EMS Agency Leadership and Management,
2. Local government involvement/accountability, and
3. Recruitment and Retention of EMS personnel.

Kevin McGinnis, MPS, EMT-P will be the key note speaker and meeting facilitator. Kevin is the Program Advisor to the National Association of State EMS Officials, a former state EMS director and the author of the Rural and Frontier Emergency Medical Services Agenda for the Future.

This meeting is a collaborative effort of the Virginia Department of Health, Office of Emergency Medical Services and the Office of Minority Health and Public Health Policy Division of Primary Care and Rural Health. Funding for this event is provided through a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Flex Grant.

Learn More...

Adopt a Rural Health Plan Recommendation

Who?

Anyone, individual or organization/agency! If you are already working on some aspect of one or more of these recommendations, or are considering doing so in any capacity, we NEED you to sign up!

Why?

The VA-RHP is a 3–5 year strategic plan. One of the recommendations of the VA-RHP is to establish a formalized operational framework that will assist in bolstering partnerships, leveraging resources and providing an avenue for advisory expertise.

One way we are doing this is by tracking progress toward the implementation of these recommendations. We want to make sure that your efforts are included. We also want to be able to highlight local, regional and/or statewide success stories!

What am I Committing to Do?

By signing up to adopt a recommendation, you are committing to:

• Let us and others know what you are doing!
• Provide us with periodic updates about your efforts and give us permission to let others know.

That’s all! Simple, right?

Please sign up to adopt one or more of these recommendations.