Fall 2010 CROP Awardees Announced!

Congratulations to these providers, who were awarded Colorado Rural Outreach Program (CROP) retention grants!

Awardee	Provider Type	Type of Award	Award Amount
Grand River Hospital District, Rifle	Registered Nurse	Loan Repayment	$10,000
Delta Memorial Hospital	Emergency Medicine Physician	Loan Repayment	$10,000
Plains Medical Center, Limon	Family Practice Physician	Loan Repayment	$10,000
Valley-Wide Health Systems, Alamosa	Physical Therapist	Loan Repayment	$5,000
Valley-Wide Health Systems, Alamosa	Pharmacist	Loan Repayment	$5,000
Fort Morgan medical Group, Fort Morgan	Physician Assistant	Loan Repayment	$5,000
Lincoln Community Hospital, Hugo	Physician Assistant	Loan Repayment	$5,000
Rocky Mountain Family Practice, Leadville	Two Physician Assistants	Bonuses	$3,250 each
Telluride Medical Center, Telluride	Registered Nurse	Loan Repayment	$3,000
Gentle Dental, Gunnison	Dental Hygienist	Loan Repayment	$2,000
TOTAL AWARDS		Fall 2010	$63,250

Revitalizing Julesburg

This is an excerpt from an article in the Julesburg Advocate.  To access the full article, click here.

A team of six professionals who deal with the inner-workings and the infrastructure of municipalities converged on Julesburg last Tuesday. They had one focus on their mind...Julesburg.

The assessment was paid for through a grant provided by DOLA, the Town of Julesburg, and the Sedgwick County Commissioners.

The team met with representatives from the business community, local foundations, elected officials , healthcare providers, historical society, housing authority, library board, school system, welcome center, service organizations, financial institutions along with farmers and ranchers from the area over the course of six “group” meetings. They also toured the town, businesses, and surrounding area to get a feel for the community.

Julesburg can expect a full report in 6 weeks. The matrix will outline specific steps to be taken as well as the best suited organization to perform it and timeline to follow. Focus areas will include organization, promotions, economic restructuring, design, healthcare and funding. The team will do a follow up in six months then and will interject suggestions as needed.
 
To access the full article, click here.

Community Paramedics Widen Medical Services in Rural Areas

Photo courtesy of
the Rural Monitor Newsletter.

This is an excerpt of an article from the Rural Monitor Newsletter. Click here to access the full article.

Chris Berdouly is excited about the new challenges he will encounter this fall when he begins going into homes in western Colorado as a community paramedic, providing primary care for patients with chronic illnesses and medical needs.

“We’ll still be EMS providers doing what we normally do but adding this service in our counties will be great, saving money and ultimately giving people better care,” said Berdouly, who works for the Western Eagle County Ambulance District (WECAD) in Colorado’s Eagle and Garfield counties. “We’re in this job because we’re all people persons and we think it will be satisfying to help people in a different capacity.”

Paramedics Kevin Creek, Kate Hawthorne, and Eric Gundlach are participating in the community paramedic program in Colorado state.WECAD and a Minnesota EMS program have been selected for a five-year pilot program by the Community Paramedic Program, a program run by the Community Healthcare and Emergency Cooperative that focuses on expanding the EMS role by training emergency personnel to provide primary care and public health in underserved areas.

To access the complete article, click here.

2011 Public Policy Agenda from the Colorado Health Professions Workforce Policy Collaborative

The Colorado Health Professions Workforce Policy Collaborative has released their 2011 Public Policy Agenda, which is an update to the 2010 document--the first of its kind.  This year's version includes policy changes from last year, newly available data and plicy analysis, and the ongoing inter-professional dialogue among members and participants of the Collaborative.

• Download the 2011 Public Policy Agenda

Letter from the CEO: Creating patient-centered medical homes in rural Colorado

Photo from Spanish Peaks
www.sprhc.org/clinic.html

Spanish Peaks Regional Health Center in Walsenburg has something to crow about. On November 1st the facility learned it is the first Critical Access Hospital in Colorado to obtain National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) patient-centered medical home certification for its outpatient primary care clinic.

Bill Bolt, CIO/Practice Administrator, Spanish Peaks Regional Health Center, said the process of gaining the certification is allowing the facility to deliver better care. “Perhaps the most important new processes we have now are the ones that focus on patients being full partners in working to improve their own health,” Bolt said. He said NCQA-required data measurement processes will also be critical to their continued success.

A look at the websites below will demonstrate how much energy is being funneled toward the medical home concept in Colorado. The sites also give you a sense of the importance healthcare leaders put on the successful implementation of medical home systems. But first, what is a medical home? And what does it look like in rural Colorado?

It’s you (or could be you). Here’s why: you know your patients and their families; you don’t deliver duplicative care because you know what care you’ve delivered. Your patients know to come to you for care coordination (okay, often in your rural community there is nowhere else for them to go); you keep track of their tests and immunizations so you can alert them when one or both are recommended; you are their one-stop medical shop.

NCQA certification provides an opportunity to adopt evidence-based practices and track and measure clinical outcomes. Hopefully, as the adoption of this model becomes more widespread, it will lead to payment reform that is focused on reimbursement based on patient outcomes instead of fee for service.

While none of this sounds especially over-the-top in terms of innovation, it is different in urban areas. In larger communities it is not unusual for patients to receive care from a myriad of facilities, none of which communicate especially well (or at all) with each other. Diagnoses are missed. Expensive tests are performed multiple times. Patients are left confused at what to do or who to see and miserable due to the many hours spent waiting for appointments and for the drain the appointments put on their bank account. Payers aren’t happy; the whole merry-go-round costs a fortune. Employers, watching their productivity tank, are wondering why all their workers seem to need endless amounts of care for what are often very treatable maladies.

Medical homes first appeared on the scene as a concept back in the late 1960s, with a pediatric focus. The idea emphasized the importance of centralized medical records for children with special healthcare needs. Since that time the concept has migrated to influence the delivery of care to patients of all ages, and includes incorporation of evidence-based guidelines, referral coordination, cross-cultural sensitivity, and a sophisticated health information technology platform. Medical homes provide accessible, family-centered, continuous care that recognizes the patient as a whole person.

CRHC is honored to be working with rural health facilities across Colorado in pursuing medical home status through our Rural Health Clinic technical assistance programs. We are currently in the second year of a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the Colorado Health Foundation. In close partnership with Health TeamWorks, the work involves 22 clinics in southeastern Colorado. CRHC’s Matt Guy, based in Pueblo, is our point person for this effort. The ultimate goal is for these clinics to become NCQA certified as patient-centered medical homes.

We are working in partnership with the Colorado Community Health Network and ClinicNET on an initiative funded by the Commonwealth Fund, focusing on 13 Colorado safety net clinics pursuing medical home status.

For more information about other Colorado medical home initiatives you can visit the following websites, or contact Matt Guy at mg@coruralhealth.org so he can help you understand more about what is happening with medical homes in Colorado and nationally.

• Health TeamWorks
• The Colorado Medical Home Initiative, created by Senate Bill 07-130
• Colorado Academy of Family Physicians
• Colorado Beacon Consortium

Renew your CRHC membership for 2011

CRHC is pleased to introduce a revised structure for the 2011 membership campaign. We crafted the changes to balance the cost of membership investment with the financial strength of each member organization. We have done this by basing membership rates on a Full Time Employee (FTE) model. For organizations with multiple sites, only one membership is necessary under the parent organization for total number of FTEs across all sites.

We thank the members who contributed their best thinking to help ensure the revised membership program is balanced, equitable and capable of cultivating healthy and vibrant communities throughout rural Colorado.

As an Investing Member, you will enjoy numerous benefits--click here to read more about these benefits.

To renew your investment as a CRHC member, please click here.

Thank you again for your continued support!

BIG NEWS! Spanish Peaks Family Clinic achieves Level 1 Patient Centered Medical Home status!

Photo from Spanish Peaks
www.sprhc.org/clinic.html

Spanish Peaks Family Clinic in Walsenburg is the first primary care clinic in Colorado owned by a Critical Access Hospital to receive the prestigious recognition as a Level 1 Patient Centered Medical Home by the National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA).  Spanish Peaks Family Clinic is one of only three non-urban clinics in Colorado to receive this designation, and will be the only federally designated Rural Health Clinic (RHC)  in Colorado with this recognition upon completion of RHC designation process.  The providers and staff at Spanish Peaks Family Clinic have been working with staff at the Colorado Rural Health Center for the past year and a half to change the way they approach patient care.  The designation at a Level 1 Patient Centered Medical Home is a reflection of Spanish Peaks Family Clinic’s efforts in transforming the care provided to the people of Walsenburg, Huerfano County, and the surrounding area.  Spanish Peaks is planning to continue to improve their patient focus over the next few months, and is looking forward to apply for the highest NCQA recognition, Level 3 Patient Centered Medical Home recognition, in 2011.

Colorado Health Service Corps loan repayment award applications due November 30

Primary care physicians, physician assistants, advanced practice nurses, licensed mental health professionals and oral health professionals may be eligible for significant educational loan debt forgiveness of up to $105,000 through the Colorado Health Service Corps. To participate in this program, health professionals must be employed or seeking full-time employment, in an outpatient primary care practice in an area of Colorado with a health professional shortage. Successful applicants will demonstrate a commitment to caring for underserved people and agree to a term of service of two or three years. Primary health providers who practice in rural and urban underserved communities may qualify. The new applications period runs from November 1 to November 30.

For more information on specific eligibility requirements and to complete the online application, visit http://www.coloradohealthservicecorps.org/ or call 303.692.2466.

$9.6 Million Grant to Increase Understanding, Support for Health Care Improvements in Colorado

The Colorado Trust announced today that it has made grants to 14 organizations to increase Coloradans' understanding of health care issues, and their support for improved health coverage and a more effective, cost-efficient health care system. Research conducted by The Colorado Trust shows that Coloradans want to count on the health coverage and care they need to stay healthy, but that they are distrustful of both profit-driven health care and government involvement.

With $7.6 million in support from The Colorado Trust, and an additional $2 million from the Colorado Health Foundation, these grants will support communications, advocacy and leadership activities over three years to help Coloradans gain a better understanding for how health care can be strengthened.

The Colorado Rural Health Center, in partnership with ClinicNET and the Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underservered will be collecting and sharing stories of Coloradans' experiences in the health care system about what works, challenges encountered and possible improvements

For additional information, contact Christie McElhinney, Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs for The Colorado Trust.