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Virginia Rural Health News
>>Best Practices Compendium Released
>>VT Launches MPH Program
>>Healthy Appalachia Institute

National Rural Health News
>>How Will Health Reform Affect You?
>>Rural Democrats Who Voted No
>>Videoconferencing As Psychiatry Aid

The Virginia Rural Health Association invites individuals and groups with an interest in rural health to submit plenary and concurrent session ideas for presentation during VRHA’s Annual Conference to be held December 8 & 9 in Staunton, VA. 

This Call for Presentations offers the opportunity for persons with rural health interests to present relevant and timely information at the Annual Conference on innovative rural health care programs, service delivery models, policy issues, educational programs, clinical concerns for rural practitioners, and leadership development and skills training.  These sessions may be didactic, hands-on/interactive workshops, or roundtable discussions.  Presentations should relate to issues that specifically affect rural populations, providers or programs.  Proposals will be accepted regardless of VRHA membership status.

Click here for proposal instructions and form.

By NBC29

Nelson County is awarded $1.8 million in federal stimulus funding to expand its broadband internet access. It's going to take about two years to bring broadband to unserved and underserved parts of the county. Once in place government agencies, schools, a library and a medical center will have a direct connection to broadband and it will undoubtedly change the way those institutions operate.

The Blue Ridge Medical Center (a VRHA member) sees 9,000 patients every year. They need good internet access to be able to deploy telemedicine capabilities and allow health care providers access to patient records from home. Next month, the medical center is transitioning to digital x-rays so the images can be sent to hospitals over the internet.

Peggy Whitehead, executive director of Blue Ridge Medical Center, says "It is wonderful for us but that requires sending the x-rays to UVA to be read or where ever we have a radiologist who reads the x-rays and that requires good internet access with high speed."

Read the full article.

The Access Council of the Virginia State Rural Health Plan has issued Best Practices and Models of Care in Rural Health. The compendium compiles best and promising practices and models of care for rural health in the following four specialized areas: oral health, maternal and newborn health, behavioral and mental health, and telemedicine and telehealth. The document will serve as a resource for implementing the recommendations of the Virginia State Rural Health Plan, including effective new programs and practices to address Virginia’s most challenging health issues.

Click the logo below to access the executive summary or full report (scroll to end of page).

VT Launches MPH Program

By UVa Today

The Healthy Appalachia Institute, a joint venture drawing upon the resources of the University of Virginia and U.Va.'s College at Wise, has received a grant from the National Network of Public Health Institutes, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to foster a healthier citizenry in Southwest Virginia.
 
The institute is one of six emerging public health institutes to receive the support to undertake a range of activities intended to cultivate partnerships, enhance executive leadership and build the capacity to inform health policy.

Housed at U.Va.'s College at Wise, the Healthy Appalachia Institute is a collaboration between critical thinkers, scholars, system planners and leaders at U.Va.-Wise, the University of Virginia, the Southwest Virginia Health Authority and key partners in government, education, business and health care, including the Virginia Department of Health's LENOWISCO and Cumberland Plateau districts. Principal supporters include the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Virginia Tobacco Commission.

Read the full article.

Discover how the new health reform law will impact you. Arrive in Savannah, Ga., the day before NRHA's Annual Rural Health Conference to hear expert analysis of the historic health reform legislation at the Health Reform Workshop on Tuesday, May 18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Gain insight from the nation's top rural health lobbyists, including Maggie Elehwany, NRHA's vice president of government affairs and policy, who attended the health care reform signing ceremony, on how providers, employers, physicians, hospitals, clinics, state agencies and health centers will be affected. NRHA's Annual Conference will also offer numerous educational sessions on providing care in the new climate May 19-21.

The workshop will also cover:

• Medicare/Medicaid provider bonus payments
• Grants available to improve workforce
• Primary care training options
• 340B
• Extenders
• Value-based purchasing
• Frontier regions
• Emergency care
• Mental health services
• General disparities

Workshop registration is $69 and includes lunch. Click here to register online (workshop registration is within the same link as Annual Conference registration), or if you've already registered for the Annual Conference, click here to download a form to mail or fax.

By Julie Ardery and Bill Bishop - Daily Yonder

The 34 Congressional Democrats who broke with party leadership and voted against President Obama’s massive health care reform bill represent, on average, far more rural constituencies than do Democrats who supported the legislation.

The rural population of the Democratic no-voters’ districts was nearly 39%; Congressional Democrats who supported the health care bill represented constituencies only 14% rural. All Republicans in Congress opposed the health care bill, which passed 219-212 on Sunday. (Figures on the urban/rural makeup of Congressional districts come from the U.S. Census.)

Among those Democrats voting against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R.3590) were Reps. Lincoln Davis (TN-4), Rick Boucher (VA-9), Collin Peterson (MN-7) and Dan Boren (OK-9). Their four Congressional districts are among the top ten most-rural in the nation.

Read the full article.

By Julie Weingarden Dubin - Time

Kanina Chavez lives an hour away from Children's Hospital in Seattle and used to have to take a whole day off from work whenever her daughter, Rachel, had an appointment with a psychiatrist. Rachel was a teenager when she started treatment for bipolar disorder roughly six years ago. Back then, she and her mother had never heard of telepsychiatry. But now they're using real-time videoconferencing in Olympia, Wash., to make it easier for Rachel to remain in the care of experts in Seattle.

During the videoconferencing sessions, her psychiatrist can monitor how Rachel is doing, and Kanina can sit beside her daughter and take notes on the recommended adjustments to her daughter's medications. "I was a little apprehensive about my daughter not being face to face with the doctor," says Chavez. "But the conversation was just as good as if we were in person."

Read the full article.

Mark your calendar

For more information about these and other events, visit http://www.vrha.org/events.html

April 7-10: Applied Gerontology as Community Engagement - Richmond
April 13 & 14: Virginia Small Rural Hospital Conference - Williamsburg
April 23: Health Impact Assessment - Health Equity webinar
April 30: STDs: Your Top 3 in Southwest Virginia - webinar
May 11 & 12: Southern Regional Rural Convening - Charlotte
May 12 & 13: Virginia Community Healthcare Association Annual Leadership and Education Conference - Richmond
May 17 & 18: Statewide Summit on Childhood Obesity - Richmond
May 19 - 21: NRHA's Annual Rural Health Conference - Savannah, GA
June 16-18: Medication Use in Rural America Conference - Kansas City, MO

Resources

The Medicare Learning Network Video is Now on You Tube!
Watch the Medicare Learning Network video–now playing on CMS’ You Tube channel.  This information video provides you with information on what the Medicare Learning Network has to offer you in your Medicare business practices as well as other helpful resources that CMS offers to Medicare fee-for-service providers.

Data Update
Statehealthfacts.org has recently added new and updated data on Demographics & the Economy, Health Status, Health Coverage & Uninsured, Medicaid & CHIP, Health Costs & Budgets, Providers & Service Use, and Minority Health. You can also view a list of all recent updates.

Funding Opportunities

Johnson and Johnson/UCLA Healthcare Executive Program
Application deadline: May 10, 2010
A management development program exclusively for executive directors and leaders of community-based health care organizations.

Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program Loans and Grants
Application deadline: May 18, 2010
Loans and grants designed to provide access to education, training and health care resources for people in rural America.

Brookdale Foundation National Group Respite Program
Application deadline: Jul 1, 2010
Awards consist of seed grants to service providers that offer new, dementia-specific adult day programming to participants, along with support to caregivers, in order to help individuals remain in their homes.