March 15 - 21, 2010
March 15 - 21, 2010 |
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In this Issue...
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Winter newsletter now available. |
| VRHA News |
| Virginia Article in Wymoing |
An article published in the winter edition of Virginia Rural Health News, VRHA's bi-annual print newsletter has been reprinted in the Rural & Frontier Health Division Update, published by the Wyoming Department of Health. The article, written by VRHA member Sarah Jane Stewart, highlights how Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital is creating a coordinated health care system for Franklin County. Click here to read the Rural & Frontier Health Division Update.
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| Members in the News |
By GoUpstate.com The Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine officially closed on the former Spartan Mills site Thursday morning before its ground-breaking ceremony. The school, which is based in Blacksburg, Va., is building a Carolinas campus in Spartanburg. Work on the site is scheduled to begin Monday. "It'd be fine with me if that equipment fired up right now," said John Rockovich, the school's founder and chairman of its board of directors. Rocovich estimates that the construction of the three-story, 65,000 sq. foot building and the purchase of the nearly 19 acres of land will total $15 million. Read the full article.
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| Virginia Rural Health News |
| Rural Medicine Provides Meaning and Purpose |
By Cynthia Sutton - OurHealth Cross Country skis, the Sahara Marathon and rural family medicine. What do they have in common with a Central Virginia physician? Well, seemingly nothing. That is, until you spend an afternoon with Dr. George Wortley, the medical director for Centra’s Big Island Medical Center. Born and raised in Fayetteville, NY, Dr. Wortley graduated from the State University of New York Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, and completed an internship and residency at Latrobe Area Hospital in Latrobe, PA, an affiliate of Thomas Jefferson University. Since then, Dr. Wortley, a family physician with added qualifications in Sports Medicine, has spent nearly his entire career serving in rural areas. Read the full article.
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By VCU News In July 2000, the Virginia Dental Health Foundation launched the Mission of Mercy (MOM) Project. The Mission of Mercy Projects are conducted in under-served areas of the state where there are not enough dental practitioners to adequately address the oral health needs of the community. Due to the tremendous success of the 2000 project, countless additional MOM projects have been hosted in areas such as the Eastern Shore, Wise County, Northern Virginia, Petersburg, Grundy, and Martinsville. The VCU School of Dentistry plays a vital role in not only giving care to this needy population but also provides staffing support, transportation and delivery of the School's mobile dental van and all volunteers including dental students, dental hygiene students, advanced education students, faculty and staff.
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| Rural Health Clinics to Close |
By Debra McCown - Bristol Herald Courier Two rural health clinics in Washington County, Va., will close, probably within 90 days, Stone Mountain Health Services CEO Malcolm Perdue confirmed Thursday. Perdue said the nonprofit company’s medical clinic in Mendota and dental clinic in Damascus simply lack enough patients to make them financially viable. “There’s not enough patients showing up at the clinics to justify keeping them open,” Perdue said. “Every community would like to have their own doctor and their own dentist, but that is not an economic reality.” He said Mendota’s proximity to Bristol and the proximity of Damascus to Abingdon could be part of the reason some people drive outside those communities for medical and dental care rather than use the community clinics. Read the full article.
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| National Rural Health News |
| The Widest Gap: Health |
The Daily Yonder Researchers at the university have compiled a long list of factors measuring health in every U.S. county. They count how long people live, what percentage of the population is obese, how many people use tobacco. Are there grocery stores nearby? Doctors? Hospitals? Is the air clean and are the roads safe? The measurements aren’t good for comparing counties across state lines. (Different states collect data in different ways.) But the data collected in the County Health Rankings project is great for comparing the overall health of counties within states. (Go here to find your county’s health ranking.) County Health Rankings finds that rural counties generally are less healthy than urban ones. “Healthier counties are urban/suburban, whereas least healthy counties are mostly rural,” the researchers found. “About half (48%) of the 50 healthiest counties are urban or suburban counties, whereas most (84%) of the 50 least healthy counties are rural.” Read the full article.
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| A Cure for Rural |
By Nina Slupphaug - MinnPost.com Minnesota, like so many other states, is struggling with outmigration in rural areas. Southwest Minnesota has been particularly hard hit with this as the region did not benefit from the "rural renaissance" of the 1980s and '90s experienced in other parts of the state — such as the Northeast region of Minnesota. As the overall population ages, it is expected that the 55-75-year-old population in non-metro areas will increase by 30 percent by 2020 and the 65+ age group will be the largest population group by 2030; it is increasingly important that we look at factors to counteract outmigration, especially of young people, in rural areas as well as health care solutions for the older population. Read the full article.
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| Impact of Recovery Act on Rural America |
By the Rural Assistance Center The U.S. Department of Agriculture has highlighted the successes of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). One year after the passage of ARRA, they say the evidence is clear - and growing by the day - that the Recovery Act is working to cushion the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression and lay a new foundation for economic growth. "President Obama's Recovery Act has helped create jobs and lay a new foundation for economic growth during the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "USDA has used Recovery Act funding create badly-needed jobs and stimulate local economies, help farmers and rural businesses make it through tough times, ensure that struggling families can put food on the table, and build and revitalize critical infrastructure in rural communities across America." Read the full article.
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Do you have exciting rural health news that needs to be shared? Do you know of an upcoming health-related event which should be on our calendar? E-mail Beth O'Connor at: boconnor@vcom.vt.edu |
Disclaimer: The VRHA circulates state and national news as an information service only. Inclusion of information is not intended as an endorsement. If you prefer to receive email in plain text or rtf format instead of html or if you receive this email more than once, email VRHA. |
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