We are now accepting applications for a Recruitment Specialist! The Recruitment Specialist supports the daily recruitment and retention activities of the Colorado Provider Recruitment (CPR) Program by providing direct assistance to the recruitment coordinators and program staff. This position reports to the Director of Workforce Programs. Applications are due by June 14, 2011. Learn how to apply and read the full position description here.
In preparing for my departure from CRHC at the end of the month, I was struck by a comment from Greg Chaille’ who is retiring as President of the Oregon Community Foundation after 30 years: “You want to leave an organization when it is the strongest it has ever been.” In that case, this is a great time for a leadership transition at CRHC!
One of CRHC’s strongest, most impactful programs is our health information technology (HIT) work. Through our Technology for Healthcare Excellence (THE) Consortium, health facilities and providers have access to group purchasing, shared services, and technical assistance in implementing Health Information Technology (HIT). One component of this work is our role as a key partner in CO-REC, the Colorado Regional Extension Center. CO-REC is an initiative of CORHIO and is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. As a CO-REC partner with six other partner organizations, CRHC provides no-cost assistance to primary care providers with adopting, implementing, and becoming meaningful users of Electronic Health Records (EHR).
CRHC’s Consortium team, led by David Ginsberg, HIT Senior Advisor, and Cari Fouts, Director of Communication & Development, is providing services to 270 healthcare providers in 41 Colorado counties, including 24 hospitals and 65 clinics. We are proud to have REC participants in every corner of the state from Craig to Durango, Cortez to Springfield, and Walsh to Julesburg. In addition to providing HIT services to rural providers, through our relationship with ClinicNET, we have the pleasure of working directly with urban and rural Community-Funded Safety Net Clinics.
Colorado ranks second in the nation for the number of hospitals participating with the REC, and CRHC is the only REC partner in Colorado currently working with hospitals. Once providers meet federal criteria as meaningful users of EHR most of them will be eligible for Medicare and/or Medicaid incentive payments. Of the rural and urban safety net facilities CRHC is working with, 65 percent of the clinics and 33 percent of the hospitals have already implemented an EHR and anticipate upgrading to a certified version to meet federal requirements later this year. We are projecting that at least 25 percent of our REC facilities will complete the federal attestation process and receive incentive funding from Medicare in 2011!
When I checked in recently with CORHIO Executive Director Phyllis Albritton about CRHC’s work as a REC partner, she said “the Colorado Rural Health Center has provided services to Colorado’s rural communities that are unsurpassed. Through its partnership with CO-REC, CRHC is helping rural providers implement and ‘meaningfully use’ electronic health records. This will enable medical professionals in rural and underserved urban areas of our state to provide higher quality healthcare to many thousands of residents. CRHC’s commitment to helping rural providers achieve ‘Meaningful Use’ of their EHRs, while simultaneously addressing the unique challenges facing these providers, is greatly appreciated.”
Sharon Adams, Executive Director of ClinicNET, David Ginsberg and I recently met with Phyllis Albritton and other members of the CORHIO staff to discuss the facilitation of health information exchange (HIE) across Colorado’s healthcare safety net. From small rural hospitals to free clinics in downtown Denver, safety net providers have unique challenges and barriers such as budget constraints and lack of technological expertise. CORHIO has agreed to meet on an ongoing basis with CRHC and ClinicNET to address concerns and develop flexible solutions for safety net providers so that these important facilities will be able to successfully share patient information across systems through CORHIO’s HIE program.
For more information about how to participate in CO-REC services, HIT, or HIE, visit our website or contact Tracy McDonald, HIT Program Coordinator, at 303-832-7449 or tm@coruralhealth.org.
Colorado Rural Health Center welcomes David Lack, our new Chief Operating Officer! As COO, David is responsible for oversight of the organization’s internal day-to-day operations, fiscal management, and all other activities that support the organization’s efficient operations. David has been active in the healthcare and nonprofit sector for over 20 years in the areas of advocacy, compliance, clinic management, and governance.
David was most recently the Chief Executive Officer at Clinica Tepeyac in Denver for five years, an organization which provides culturally competent health care and preventive health services for the medically underserved. He worked with the Council for Affordable Health Insurance in Washington D.C. for three and a half years doing policy and advocacy work. David also sits on the ClinicNET Board of Directors. We are very excited to have someone with his expertise on board and look forward to the guidance he will bring to CRHC! To learn more about our other staff members, click here.
Colorado Rural Outreach Program (CROP) grant money can be used to recruit new healthcare professionals or retain the ones already on your staff by repaying portions of the healthcare professional’s educational loans, or by giving a retention bonus if all educational loans are paid off. CROP currently offers two grant cycles per year as funds are available, in the spring and the fall.
Comprecare Foundation, in conjunction with its Elderly Health Promotion Initiative, requests proposals for projects to address the needs of Colorado’s elderly population. Replicable demonstration projects that incorporate evidence-based approaches to health promotion among seniors are encouraged. Priority will be given to projects that seek to serve hard-to-reach seniors, i.e., those seniors who are older, poorer, isolated and/or more chronically ill. These persons face barriers to accessing the components of healthy living -- physical activity, good nutrition and management of chronic health problems.
Governmental agencies, including counties and municipalities, or organizations that are currently designated as tax exempt under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code are eligible to apply. Rural as well as urban communities are eligible to apply. Successful proposals will be funded for one year up to a maximum of $16,000 with the possibility of two additional years of funding being available. A 20% in-kind or 10% cash match is required during each year of funding. Applications are due August 1, 2011. View the Request for Proposal for more information.
Since 1987, Comprecare Foundation has funded eighty-one community-based projects that focus on helping older adults maintain their health through self-help and lifestyle changes.
By Cassidy Smith, Public Policy Officer, Colorado Health FoundationIntegrated care health services engage individuals and their caregivers in the full range of physical, psychological, social, preventive and therapeutic factors needed for a healthy life. Integrated care has become "all the rage" in Colorado health circles. To illustrate the proliferation of the concept, the Colorado Behavioral Healthcare Council mapped some of the numerous efforts underway to integrate physical health and behavioral health care services.
Supporting the delivery of integrated care is a funding priority for the Colorado Health Foundation. Yet, while grantees rave about the positive impact integrated care has had on Coloradans' health, they consistently report it is difficult to maintain these kinds of services.
Read more about how the Colorado Health Foundation, Collaborative Family Healthcare Association, Colorado Psychological Association and the Colorado Association of Family Physicians are working together to make integrated care health services a sustainable option for Colorado providers.
The National Organization for State Offices of Rural Health’s Annual Meeting entitled "Celebrating the Power of Rural" will be held September 7-8, 2011! Colorado Rural Health Center is proud to be hosting the annual meeting in Denver, CO and is excited to be coordinating with NOSORH to the event. A tentative agenda has been released - topics to be covered include community leadership development, capacity building, collaboration and partnership building, policy updates.
Sponsorships are still available for this event - if you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please contact Cari Fouts, Director of Communication and Development, CRHC to find out more. Registration will be available online soon.
Primary Care Funding is now available for primary care clinics. The 2011-12 application is now online, and is due Monday, June 13, 2011. The Primary Care Fund provides an allocation of moneys to health care providers that make basic health care services available in an outpatient setting to residents of Colorado who are considered medically indigent. Commonly asked and specific questions pertaining to the Primary Care Fund grant and/or completion of the application will be addressed during the Pre-Bid Conference on Wednesday, June 1, 2011.
If you would like assistance with applying for this funding, CRHC’s Grants Research Opportunities and Writing (GROW) program can help! Please contact Erica Petramala, Grants Coordinator, for more information.
Stanford University has put together a report through their Rural West Initiative at the Bill Lane Center for the American West on the changes over the last century in access to physician care in rural areas of the western United States.
Fearing a loss of agricultural productivity and rural community, Teddy Roosevelt formed the Country Life Commission in 1908 to investigate why the social and intellectual, as well as economic, aspects of country life were not keeping pace with city life. Of the six “deficiencies of country life” highlighted by the commission, “health in the open country” featured prominently. The report emphasized issues such as differential access to doctors, numbers of physicians per capita, and costs of rural health care, and all remain contemporary concerns. The Commission’s call for “increasing the powers of the Federal Government in respect to the supervision and control of the public health" could be pulled straight from today's health care debates.
In spite of a broad increase in the number of doctors per capita in the United States and in the American West over the past century, many rural areas in the West have seen little or no increase. The fact that much of the rural West has seen little improvement in this basic measure of health care access is surprising, and it underscores the persistent remoteness of vast stretches of the rural West. But it also underscores the importance of improving physician access in the rural West.
Read the full report here.