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Rural Health Briefing, April 1, 2006
Page One
Arizona Rural Health Conference Requests Proposals
The 33rd Annual Arizona Rural Health Conference is seeking proposals for workshop presentations and poster sessions for the July 19-21, 2006 conference to be held in Bisbee, Arizona. This year's theme is "Beyond Borders: Collaborating for Health in Rural Arizona.”
Submissions are due April 14.
Three tracks have been identified.
* Barriers and Borders in Rural Health Systems
* Stressors and Sudden Impacts on Rural Health Systems
* Investing in Your Community's Rural Health Workforce
Within each track, workshops or poster sessions should be solution-oriented, address public health and health challenges in rural Arizona and adopt a broad community health focus.
Conference participants will share an in-depth look at how health systems in rural communities throughout Arizona and the border region are impacted and molded by the border. In addition, breaking down barriers and building bridges within and between health systems in rural Arizona through collaboration is of particular interest.
The conference is sponsored by the UA Zuckerman College of Public Health, Rural Health Office and the Arizona Rural Health Association.
Click here for the Call for Proposals. And here for the main conference website.
EHR Workshop for Arizona Rural Hospitals
Arizona rural hospitals are invited to a workshop, Electronic Health/Medical Records: Practical Strategies for Selection and Implementation on Monday, April 10 in Phoenix. Topics will include how electronic health and medical records differ, HIPAA security issues, working with vendors, impact of Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs), Medicare compliance, workflow, interfaces with pay for performance, working with physician providers plus related matters.
In addition, a representative of the Governor’s Health-e Initiative will give an update on Arizona’s EHR roadmap.
The workshop is offered at no cost. Pre-registration is required. Click here for details.
National News
1. SHIP Successes
2. Simple Rules for Connecting Clinics with HIT
3. Recruitment and Retention Efforts Sought for Awards
4. Quality Performance Compared
5. Telemedicine Research Needs
6. Telecom Funding for Rural Health
Across Arizona
1. New Home for RHO and Flex Program
2. Rosales Named to Border Health Commission
3. Hospital Quality Meeting
4. Tribes Prepare for Emergencies
5. Medication Reconciliation Best Practice
6. Hospital Quality Data Going Online
7. Clinical Courses Offered Online
EMS
1. Performance Indicators for EMS
Grants and Opportunities
1. Matching Support to Aid Critical Health Needs
2. Grants for Early Treatment of Mental Illness
Calendar
April 1, Interdisciplinary Women’s Health Conference, Tucson
April 3-9, National Public Health Week
April 6-7, Carrying the Torch for Patient Safety, Mesa, Arizona
April 10, Electronic Health/Medical Records: Practical Strategies for Selection and Implementation, Phoenix
April 9-11, Connecting Communities Conference on eHealth Initiatives, Washington, D.C.
April 17, Southern Arizona Women’s Health Forum, Nogales, Arizona
April 17-19, Culturally Based Substance Abuse Treatments for Native American, Alaska Natives and Latinos, Tucson
April 18, 19, Southwest Homeland Security Conference, Phoenix
May 15-19, NRHA Annual Conference Week, Reno, Nevada
May 15-17, National Summit on the Methamphetamine Epidemic, Memphis, Tennessee
May 15-19, 2006, 3rd Annual Rural Nurse Conference, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
May 31-June 3, 9th Annual Conference, Community-Campus Partnerships in Health, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Mark Your Calendar
June 4-7, Annual Patient Safety and Health IT Conference, Washington, D.C.
July 10-12, AHRQ’s Translating Research into Practice and Policy , Washington, D.C.
July 17-21, National Rural Health Leadership Institute, Duluth, Minnesota
July19-21, 33rd Annual Arizona Rural Health Conference , Bisbee
September 21-23, Health Information Technology: A Rural Provider’s Roadmap to Quality , Kansas City, Missouri
National News
1. SHIP Successes
The Small Rural Hospital Improvement (SHIP) grant program website is featuring case stories and innovative projects. Useful for SORHs and participating hospitals, the site features an overview of SHIP, links to ORHP information and case stories that highlight how several states have leveraged SHIP funds to assist small rural hospitals. Use their online form to submit your exemplary SHIP-supported project.
To date, ORHP has awarded approximately $15 million for SHIP annually. Grant funds can be used for projects in three areas: 1) compliance with the electronic reporting requirements of the prospective payment system, 2) compliance with HIPAA privacy and security and 3) reduction of medical error and quality improvement.
Click here for the SHIP website.
2. Simple Rules for Connecting Clinics with HIT
1. Give safety-net providers basic information technology and training.
That begins to get the clinics brought in because they need those resources and they can see the benefit of even that piece of it
2. Understand how the clinics work.
Start with their needs, see what data they’re collecting, look at their workflow and build up from there.
3. Be patient.
As an incremental process that takes time, no single pace will fit everyone.
(Adapted from “Funding the ties that bind,” Government Health IT, 2/13/2006)
Also see a related article, “How to start a community health network.”
3. Recruitment and Retention Efforts Sought for Awards
The Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice is seeking one-page abstracts by April 7 for their 2006 Linkage Awards. The annual awards recognize exemplary community-based collaborative activities between public health practice agencies and academic institutions. This year the award will highlight efforts to strengthen public health worker recruitment and retention efforts.
Click here for details.
4. Quality Performance Compared
The 2005 State Snapshots are dashboards of health care quality measures, showing detailed, customized tables for each state.
Five color performance meters, using a scale from very weak to very strong, show the state’s relative performance. These address the quality and settings of types of care. Also included are breakdowns of the measures that go into creating each of the performance meters.
State Ranking Tables compare states on 15 important measures of health care quality. Included is a focus on diabetes that provides information on quality, disparities and costs associated with diabetes, as well as potential savings that may result from a focused quality improvement program. By these measures, for example, Arizona’s quality of diabetes care moved from “weak” to “average” over the last year.
AHRQ’s National Health Quality Report provides this service.
Click here to go there.
5. Telemedicine Research Needs
Further well-designed and targeted research on the efficacy of telemedicine is the recommendation of an updated report by AHRQ. The initial report in 2001 noted the value of telemedicine for remote rural areas while cautioning that establishing efficacy was important in anticipating any clinical shortcomings. While effectiveness was supported by good evidence in specialties such as psychiatry and neurology involving verbal interaction, there is a lack of reliable studies of clinical outcomes for teledermatology. In the case of teleophthalmology, diabetic retinopathy appears to be particularly successful.
Click here for the full report.
6. Telecom Funding for Rural Health
Applications to USAC’s Rural Health Care Program can now be submitted for Funding Year 2006 (July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007).
Support is available for telecommunications services and monthly Internet access charges used for the provision of health care. Support is also available for limited long-distance charges for accessing the Internet. A health care provider can save on services it already has, upgrade current services, or install new services.
The program provides reduced rates to rural health care providers for telecommunications services and Internet access charges related to the use of telemedicine & tele-health.
Click here for the details.
Across Arizona
1. New Home for RHO and Flex Program
The Rural Health Office has moved into Drachman Hall, the new home of the UA Zuckerman College of Public Health. The mailing address is Rural Health Office, UA Zuckerman College of Public Health, PO Box 245210, Tucson AZ 85724-5210. Fax: 520-626-3101
For visits and deliveries, we’re located at 1295 N. Martin Avenue, Tucson AZ 85719.
New phone numbers of the Flex program staff:
Alison Hughes, 520-626-6253
Howard Eng, 520-626-5840
Joyce Hospodar, 520-626-2432
Juana Casillas, 520-626-5837
Julie Jacobs, 520-626-2402
Barbara Clarihew, 520-626-9549
Leila Barraza, 520-626-6467
Jim Laukes, 520-626-0721
New phone number of other people at the Rural Health office:
Lynda Bergsma, 520-626-2401
Jennifer Peters, 520-626-2254
Maia Ingram, 520-626-2267
Jean McClelland, 520-626-8228
Samantha Sabo, 520-626-5204
Tesa Mayorga, 520-626-3001
Rebecca Ruiz, 520-626-2243
And their fax is 520-626-8716.
2. Rosales Named to Border Health Commission
Dr. Cecilia Rosales has been appointed to the United States Section of the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission. Dr. Rosales is an associate professor in the Community, Environmental and Policy division at UA Zuckerman College of Public Health.
Rosales offers courses that probe public health policy issues on the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to joining the College, she was chief of the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) Office of Border Health.
She earned her medical degree in 1987 from the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juarez and a master's degree in epidemiology in 2000 from the UA Zuckerman College of Public Health.
The United States-Mexico Border Health Commission was created as a binational health commission in July 2000 to provide international leadership to optimize health and quality of life along the U.S.-Mexico border.
3. Hospital Quality Meetings
The next meeting of the Hospital Workgroup (HoW) will be a conference call at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, April 13. The purpose is to share information about quality improvement efforts that impact Arizona’s hospitals including revisions to the Annual Payment Update scheduled to take effect in July.
These regular meetings of HoW are sponsored by HSAG’s Arizona Acute Quality Care Initiative.
Click here for more details. Or contact Suzanne Anders at HSAG, 602-661-6171.
The Arizona Rural Quality Network Group (ARQNG) will convene their next conference call for Wednesday, April 26 at 11:00 a.m. Topics of discussion will include the Small Hospital Improvement Program [SHIP] grants, the new interactive Web-based tool [State Snapshot] launched by AHRQ for states to use to measure quality performance (see notice in this issue of RHB), the 8th Scope of Work and the Flex Program's Medication Reconciliation pilot project. The call in number is 1-866-218-6651, followed by the conference code, 559132. It is sponsored by the Arizona Rural Hospital Flexibility Program.
4. Tribes Prepare for Emergencies
Arizona tribes are working with other levels of government to coordinate disaster preparedness. The Fort Mojave Indian Tribe has partnered with Fort Mojave County in seeking preparedness funding and already has a FEMA-approved disaster plan.
Many examples of cooperation can be found. In November 2004, the state of Arizona and the Navajo Nation held the first multi-mass evacuation clinic in the nation. It prepared for a bioterrorist attack or a pandemic flu outbreak. The Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona and its HazMat Emergency Response Program received the EPA’s 2005 Pacific Southwest Region Emergency Preparedness Leadership Award. Ten Arizona tribes actively participate in their DOT-Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness grant program.
Arizona has adopted a regional approach to its preparedness training and exercise program. Each of the five regional Rapid Response Services has tribal representation.
(Adapted from American Indian Report, March 2006)
5. Medication Reconciliation Best Practice
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement, sponsor of the 100,000 Live Campaign, has recognized Arizona’s MedForm, a medication reconciliation form, as a patient safety best practice. MedForm was developed in collaboration with the Arizona Medical Association, the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association, the Arizona Partnership for Implementing Patient Safety and HSAG. It was released in October 2005. Details at: http://www.themedform.com/
6. Hospital Quality Data Going Online
Hospital Compare is CMS’s online system which allows participating hospitals to report on several clinical quality measures. In Arizona these Critical Access Hospitals are reporting their quality data: Benson, Copper Queen, Hopi Health Care, Northern Cochise, Page, Sage and Southeast Arizona. Results are tentative. For example, while Benson Hospital exceeds the national average of reporting hospitals for several pneumonia treatment quality indicators, the most common report indicates that the number of cases reported (<25) is too small for reliably predicting hospital performance.
A recent GAO study reviewed Hospital Compare and recommended more rigorous methods be employed to ensure reliability of publicly released data on clinical quality.
It stressed the importance of checking the data electronically, examining methods used to check accuracy and completeness of data and conducting independent, on-site audits.
Click here for the GAO report.
7. Clinical Courses Offered Online
Online courses in advanced clinical studies in family and emergency medicine are being offered for practicing physicians, physician assistants or nurse practitioners. Upon completion, CME’s and certificates are awarded.
The Arizona School of Health Sciences (ASHS), part of A.T. Still University in Mesa is the sponsor. ASHS also offers a residential Native American Physician Assistant track, a grant-funded project focusing on increasing the number of American Indian/Alaskan Native/ Native Hawaiian PA’s who plan careers to serve in their home communities.
Click here for details on both programs.
EMS
Performance Indicators for EMS
Alert to the need of being engaged with performance improvement in the transformation of healthcare, a June 2005 meeting set out to develop a set of EMS clinical performance indicators. While acknowledging the difficulties, several key recommendations were offered including: develop quality improvement projects (in cooperation with QIO’s where possible); keep the EMT’s and paramedics involved; and, collaborate with others in the healthcare community. Finally, think beyond the ambulance.
The meeting was hosted by the North Central EMS Institute, the National Rural Health Resource Center, the Rural EMS & Trauma Technical Assistance Center, the National EMS Management Association and the American Ambulance Association.
Click here for the seven page report.
Grants and Opportunities
Note: Technical assistance is available for the development of grant proposals and other funding applications from the professional staff of the Rural Health Office and the State Office of Rural Health Program. Please contact Jennifer Peters.
Matching Support to Aid Critical Health Needs
Application deadline: July 6, 2006
Local Initiative Funding Partners links the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and local grantmakers that seek to fund original projects to improve the health of vulnerable people in their communities.
Grantmakers propose a funding partnership by nominating community initiatives that offer creative solutions to critical health or healthcare problems.
These projects must be new, innovative, collaborative, and community based. Local funding partners must be willing to work with each grantee to obtain sufficient dollar-for-dollar matching funds throughout the grant period. Matching funds must represent new funding specifically designated to support the proposed project.
Up to 14 matching grants of $200,000 to $500,000 per project will be awarded in this cycle.
Click here for details.
Grants for Early Treatment of Mental Illness
Application deadline: September 1, 2006
The American Psychiatric Foundation is seeking applications for public education projects that promote the early recognition and treatment of mental illness. Grants may be for new initiatives or expansion of current programs. Requests must be for educational, informational or outreach efforts targeting the public. Efforts may focus on a specific mental disorder, mental illness in general or target a specific population.
Click here for application details.
Contact Your Representatives
a. Arizona Congressional Delegation: Links to Arizona members of the U.S. House of Representatives are available at: U.S. Representatives. Links to Arizona members of the U.S. Senate are available at: U.S. Senate
b. Arizona State Legislators: Available through the Arizona Legislative Information System (ALIS): Call 1-800-352-8404 or follow links at Arizona Legislature.
Important Links
Editor's Note: This online newsletter is a project of the Arizona Rural Hospital Flexibility Program, housed in the Rural Health Office at the UA Zuckerman College of Public Health, and supported through a grant from HRSA (Office of Rural Health Policy). The Rural Hospital Flexibility Program was created by Congress to improve the financial viability and stability of health care in rural areas, including creation of a new designation for rural hospitals as Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs). Designated CAHs are eligible for cost-based reimbursement for services provided to Medicare patients. In some states, including Arizona, additional reimbursement is also available for CAH services provided to Medicaid patients.
Your questions (and answers) are always welcome. Please send them as well as address changes to Jim Laukes, Editor, Rural Health Briefing.
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