It’s Meeting Season!
National Rural EMS & Care Conference – Cash prizes Poster Contest Winners, Grant Workshop and Group Discounts Available
The National Rural EMS & Care Conference will take place in Fargo, North Dakota on April 25-26, 2017. The conference will be held at the Holiday Inn Fargo. Call (877) 282-2700 and reference National Rural EMS & Care Conference. The deadline for hotel reservations is March 21. Read More
Registration for Rural Health Data Institute Now Available!
NOSORH is pleased to announce the next round of the Rural Health Data Institute (RHDI) that will begin on April 5, 2017! This opportunity is available to State Office of Rural Health employees who seek to gain a foundation of the data-use process from finding data, to cleaning and analyzing data, to messaging. This 8-part webinar series covers the spectrum of the data-use process and culminates in the development of a data-driven fact sheet that can be used by your office. Registration is open now and will close on March 24. Read More
Policy Update
The following update was provided by Hall Render, NOSORH Legislative Liaison:
White House Budget Guidance Calls for Significant Discretionary Spending Cuts
At noon on February 27, the White House sent its initial budget guidance to the various federal agencies. President Trump’s proposal calls for an increase of $54 billion in defense spending and corresponding reductions to most non-security agencies. The White House has not detailed how deep the cuts to particular programs will be, but the President has said defense spending will be offset and paid by “greater savings and efficiencies across the federal government.” Read More
Promising Practice: GA SORH Looks at the Feasibility of EMS Regionalization in the State
By Beth Blevins
A study commissioned by the Georgia State Office of Rural Health is looking at the feasibility of regionalizing 911 emergency services in rural counties in the state. Between 2010 and 2016, six rural hospitals closed in Georgia, and others reduced their service lines in an effort to save money. As a result, emergency services were left to fill the gap. This led to an increase in 911 calls and in the distance ambulances traveled to transport patients to an appropriate facility, sometimes leaving no coverage in the county. As rural county tax revenues decreased, the idea of “regionalization” seemed promising. Read More
Committee Clips
NOSORH committees are great focal points for engaging in many NOSORH initiatives. Descriptions of all committees and contact information can be found on the NOSORH website.
Educational Exchange- The EE Committee had a robust discussion about the activities of the upcoming year. Most notably, the work of the Travel Scholarship program is nearly complete and will be launching in the next few months. The Proficiencies Workgroup has begun their progress with further direction from the NOSORH Board. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be on March 20 at 4:00pm ET. Read More
RHIhub Spotlight
One of the newest RHIhub Models and Innovations is the Addiction Recovery Mobile Outreach Team (ARMOT), based in Pennsylvania. ARMOT is a collaboration between the Armstrong-Indiana-Clarion Drug and Alcohol Commission (AICDAC), Armstrong County Memorial Hospital, Clarion Hospital, and Indiana Regional Medical Center and was developed in response to an increase in opioid overdose deaths. ARMOT, a Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) Rural Health Care Services Outreach grantee, provides adults and adolescents with substance use disorders with case management and recovery support services. Read More
Steal Sheet
NOSORH offers Steal Sheet articles for SORHs to distribute in emails, in your (or your partners’) newsletter, on websites, Facebook pages, etc. The March 2017 Steal Sheet includes:
- National Governors Association-Rural Health Learning Collaborative
- Coordinating Efforts to Enhance Hospitals’ Role in Population Health- Proposal Deadline Extended
- New Value-Based Care Resources from Rural Health Value
- RTT Collaborative Annual Meeting- April 19-21
- Hillman Innovations in Care Program
- National Association of Community Health Centers’ Annual Community Health Institute