The Membership Organization of State Offices of Rural Health
Are you looking to build your knowledge of rural health data? Do you want to know how to communicate data in a way that is easy to use?
Registration is now open for the Fall 2018 cohort of the NOSORH Rural Health Data Institute (RHDI)! The RHDI is a set of eight 90-minute web-based sessions designed to establish a minimum data-use skill set for those working with rural health data. The sessions are designed for those with little or no knowledge of the data use process.
RHDI starts by throwing the term “research” out the window and defining terms in a way that everybody can understand. It moves through the process of collecting your data, cleaning it up, and analyzing it in a way that makes sense. Later sessions help participants work through the steps of crafting their messaging and displaying it in a visualized way so other people can understand it too. By doing very small “homework” assignments aligned to the data use process, participants will end the RHDI with a one-page infographic fact sheet to do whatever they want with it: hang on the fridge in the break room or, better yet, disseminate it to your partners!
The RHDI is open to anyone who has an interest in learning how to use data to improve their work in rural health. Please feel free to share this information with constituents in your state. NOSORH provides a discount for signing up multiple people! More information on the RHDI can be found in the program brochure.
Register yourself today for the RHDI by going to: https://regonline.com/RDI2018.
Key Dates:
Registration opens: NOW
Registration closes: October 19, 2018
Access to course materials: October 24, 2018
Required introductory session: October 29, 2018
Institute starts: October 31, 2018
Institute ends: February 20, 2019
For more information on the Rural Health Data Institute, please contact Chris Salyers at chris.salyers@nosorh.org or (734) 881-9551.
There’s still time to help NOSORH reach their goal of at least 51% of SORHs completing the new SORH Proficiencies! Thank you to all who have taken the self-assessment thus far and to those who are working to prepare their offices to participate in this project. If you haven’t yet had a chance to review the SORH Proficiencies, now is a perfect time to take a look and begin discussions within your office.
Need a little extra assistance? The NOSORH Educational Exchange committee will be hosting a webinar on Tuesday, September 18th at 3:00pm ET. More information is available in the flyer. Click here to register in advance.
SORHs are urged to complete the self-assessment by September 30th to allow time to discuss the benchmarking report prior to the NOSORH Annual Meeting in October.
NOSORH would like to thank the members of the working group, Educational Exchange Committee, NOSORH Board, and the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy for their help in developing this invaluable resource for SORH.
Each year NOSORH, all 50 State Offices of Rural Health, their partners, sponsors, and community stakeholders set aside the third Thursday of November (November 15, 2018) to celebrate National Rural Health Day (NRHD). Whether you’ve already made plans or are just starting to think about it, there are plenty of ways to get involved! Visit the PowerofRural.org website for the latest news and events happening throughout the country to celebrate the #PowerofRural!
Here are some ways to join the Power of Rural movement:
The success of NRHD depends on active engagement from all SORHs and partners! Visit www.powerofrural.org for more ideas! Contact Ashley Muninger for more information.
NOSORH’s Grant Writing Institute—Beyond the Basics is now on-demand! This course is designed for individuals looking for education beyond the introductory or beginning level. This is the only grant education of its kind focused on rural health grant writers. Topics will include learning communication strategies to connect with funders, using work plans to meet basic grant reporting, understanding how to create meaningful evaluation tools, and how to use data. Past participation in NOSORH’s Grant Writing Institute is not required.
To view the brochure, please click here.
To register, click here.
For more information, contact Tammy Norville at tammyn@nosorh.org.
Registration is now open for the NOSORH Rural Health Data Institute for fall 2018. The Rural Health Data Institute (RHDI) is a set of eight 90-minute web-based sessions designed to establish a minimum data-use skill set for those working with rural health data. The sessions are designed for those with little or no knowledge of the data use process.
RHDI starts by throwing the term “research” out the window and defining terms in a way that everybody can understand. It moves through the process of collecting data, cleaning it up, and analyzing it in a way that makes sense. Later sessions help participants work through the steps of crafting their messaging and displaying it in a visualized way so other people also can understand it. By doing very small “homework” assignments aligned to the data use process, participants will end the RHDI with a one-page infographic fact sheet to do whatever they want, whether hanging it proudly on the fridge in the break room or disseminating it to their partners!
More information on the RHDI can be found in the program brochure, here.
Register today for the RHDI by going to: https://regonline.com/RDI2018.
Key Dates:
Registration opens: NOW
Registration closes: October 19, 2018
Access to course materials: October 24, 2018
Required introductory session: October 29, 2018
Institute starts: October 31, 2018
Institute ends: February 20, 2019
For more information on the Rural Health Data Institute, please contact Chris Salyers at chris.salyers@nosorh.org or (734) 881-9551.
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Back to August Branch
If you haven’t yet had a chance to review the SORH Proficiencies, now is a perfect time to take a look at this new tool from NOSORH! The SORH Proficiencies offers a way to assess and build the capacity of your SORH. It is the culmination of more than two years of work, beginning with an idea from the NOSORH Board, and using input from the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, the Educational Exchange committee, a designated workgroup, and some of the best analytical minds that SORHs have to offer. NOSORH staff is greatly appreciative of all SORH offices and members that took part in the development, testing, and implementation of the SORH Proficiencies!
The SORH Proficiencies includes a questionnaire about major SORH activities, a scoring mechanism to rate a SORH’s current competency or proficiency level, and step-by-step instructions that include definitions. It can take as little as 60 minutes of preparation for completing the questionnaire and 15 minutes to complete the questionnaire itself, which will give participants their scores back immediately! Once NOSORH has a baseline for a majority of offices, a report with aggregate scores will be developed. Links to existing resources that can help build greater capacity will also be provided.
NOSORH’s initial goal is to have at least 51% of SORHs complete the assessment by August 24, 2018 so we can disseminate the benchmarking report and discuss it at the Annual Meeting in October in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
NOSORH highly recommends starting the process by taking a look at the SORH Proficiencies Guide, and following it up with the FAQ Fact Sheet before attempting to look at the questionnaire. After reading these two documents, if you still have questions please don’t hesitate to contact Chris Salyers at chris.salyers@nosorh.org! We are happy to answer questions or even come to your office to facilitate the completion of the SORH Proficiencies as a group exercise.
We hope that you find this tool to be a great resource for your office, and look forward to working with you all on this new chapter in NOSORH history!
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Back to August Branch
A chance encounter at a local store sparked a telehealth partnership between the Alabama Office of Rural Health (AL SORH) and Alabama Veterans Affairs (VA).
“A couple of years ago, I was out shopping on a Sunday night and ran into Dr. Randall Weaver, whom I hadn’t seen in awhile,” said Chuck Lail, AL SORH Director. Lail, a military veteran, already knew Weaver from the VA hospital where Lail has gone for his annual physicals. “I said to him, ‘We really need to get something going with the VA—I think there are good opportunities for telehealth.’ And he said, ‘Why don’t you call me and we’ll explore it.’ ”
“Our office has always been a strong advocate of telehealth,” Lail continued. “The state health department was starting to install telehealth carts in our county health departments, so I thought there might be an opportunity to marry the needs of the VA with the county telehealth program.”
The Alabama SORH has the advantage of being located within the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH), explained Rob Boyles, PCO Program Manager at the AL SORH. “We have access to other divisions and bureaus, including the Distance Learning and Telehealth Division.”
With the aim of creating a partnership between ADPH and the VA, the two groups began having regularly scheduled telephone conferences, Boyles said. “We worked together to assess which rural county would be the best site to pilot the project, in terms of rurality, the number of Veterans, and the distance they travel for healthcare services.”
Through those discussions, Lail said, they determined that mental health services would be a good place to start. “It seemed to be one of the greatest needs of the VA,” Lail explained. “And telemental health and delivery of telepsychiatry have been proven to be deliverable seamlessly over telehealth media.” The long-term objective of the program, he said, is to expand beyond mental health to many types of services for VA telehealth delivery.
Cullman County Health Department was the site of the first VA telehealth pilot, which began in spring 2017. The VA provided the services, Lail said, while ADPH facilitated the telehealth encounter. “Veterans there can visit their local county health department and have a virtual visit with their mental health care team from the Birmingham VA,” he said.
An initial evaluation by participants at the pilot site was done via an informal survey, Lail said. “The veterans stated that they were pleased with their telehealth consults, and that they liked being able to receive services from the VA at their local county health department,” he said.
Michael Smith, (ADPHTP) Director, said the county telehealth program has benefited from having funding from a variety of sources. “In Alabama, we’ve had telehealth with small networks,” Smith said. “You wrote a grant, the grant ended and the funding went away, and then the technology got pushed into a corner. But ADPHTP has been aggressive in terms of expanding our sites at county health departments and collaborating with health care providers.”
Smith said the expansion of the county telehealth program has been possible through several infrastructure grants from organizations including: the , the Centers for Disease Control (), and the USDA (); and from AL-ORH, using federal Health Resources Services Administration funding (SORH and Primary Care Office grants). Each grant award, Smith said, has funded a number of telehealth carts given to county health departments. “We’ll have a total of 60 county health departments with telehealth carts by this summer,” he said. Alabama has 67 counties.
“We’re looking at health departments to be single point of entry for a variety of services for all patients, such as counseling prior to a procedure, mental health services, genetic counseling, maternal fetal medicine, and pediatric neurology,” Smith said. “Patients shouldn’t have to travel a long distance for a routine appointment that can be just as successfully achieved via telehealth technology.
Lail reflected on the chance meeting that started it all. “It can be a small world,” he said. “Dr. Weaver and I had been acquaintances for some time. It was from that rapport that the rest of this story sprang.”
The device comes www.admission-writer.com/ with the award-winning mimiostudio software already installed
NOSORH has partnered with the Association for Rural Health Professional Coding (ARHPC) to offer a $200 discount on a NEW online self-study course for rural healthcare professionals to attain certification as a Rural Coding & Billing Specialist. This is the first online clinical documentation, coding and billing training specific to rural health and is a great opportunity for anyone working in rural health care, including providers! State Offices of Rural Health and other organizations can register multiple people for this opportunity.
Use the coupon code 200offNOSORH to receive this member benefit (registration is regularly priced at $899).
Feel free to share this informational flyer with your rural constituents.
To enroll, go to https://arhpc.absorbtraining.com
Contact Kassie Clarke at kassiec@nosorh.org for more information.
NOSORH recently worked with the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy to produce a video and factsheet to promote the important collaboration of State Offices of Rural Health (SORH) and Community-Based Division (CBD) Grantees. The CBD Factsheet can be forwarded to all CBD Grantees in every state to encourage greater collaboration and partnership with SORHs to help foster innovation and strengthen grant activities and outcomes.
The accompanying video highlights an example of successful collaboration between the Kentucky SORH and a community-based organization, demonstrating successful partnership opportunities and innovative approaches to improving health of rural communities. Many thanks to the Kentucky SORH for their efforts in pulling together this video and for the great work they do with CBD grantees.
NOSORH has additional resources available to help SORH when working with CBD grantees or potential grantees, including a letter of support template on the NOSORH website. NOSORH will continue to work with FORHP to ensure SORH have the resources and tools they need to expand on their work with CBD grantees.
The National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health has partnered with Lilypad, LLC to implement the Practice Operations National Database (POND™) program, a web-based data collection, reporting and benchmarking application for rural primary care providers. POND is a unique benchmarking program which focuses on rural-relevant financial, operational, productivity and compensation measures. POND provides a vehicle for rural practices to selectively share blinded operational and productivity data and to use peer benchmark information to guide improvements in performance and inform recruitment/retention and hospital-physician alignment activities.
POND will benefit SORHs wishing to:
POND provides an easy, consistent approach to engage RHCs and other primary care providers. It can also be used to promote community between rural primary care providers through data-based discussions and can establish the SORH as a source of relevant and unique resources.
Getting Started with POND is an easy, step-by-step implementation guide. A sample POND report is available to help you see what data will be available.
Annual fees for SORHs are $2500 for states with fewer than 90 RHCs and $3500 for states with more than 90 RHCs. This annual fee enables all rural primary care practices in your state to participate in POND.
If you have any additional questions, contact Kassie Clarke.