Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #107912

M. Kate Stewart, MD, MPH¹, Elaine Wootten, MA¹, Holly Felix, MPA¹, Joy B. Shepherd, MPH, CHES², Debbie Veach³, Jaqueline Gorton⁴, Lawrence Braden, MD⁵, Loretta Duncan⁶, Scott Howard⁷, Yvonne Lewis, EdD⁸, Paul Shuffield⁹, and Nancy Dockter¹⁰. (1) College of Public Health, Health Policy and Management, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 4301 West Markham Street, Slot 820, Little Rock, AR 72205, (2) Delta Area Health Education Center, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, PO Box 729, Helena, AR 72342, 870-388-9100, shepherdjoyb@uams.edu, (3) Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 5800 West 10th Street, Suite 410, Little Rock, AR 72205, (4) Arkansas Department of Health, 4815 W Markham, slot 22, Little Rock, AR 72205, (5) College of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 4301 West Markham, Little Rock, AR 72205, (6) Arkansas Medical Society, P.O. Box 55088, Little Rock, AR 72215, (7) Community Health Centers of Arkansas, 420 W. 4th Street, North Little Rock, AR 72114, (8) Regional Programs, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 4301 West Markham, Little Rock, AR 72205, (9) Southern Financial Partners, 605 Main Street, Suite 203, Arkadelphia, CA 71923, (10) Collge of Public Health, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 4301 West Markham Street, Slot 820, Little Rock, AR 72205

Residents of rural areas suffer from poorer health status than residents of urban areas. A number of factors, including the distribution of providers in rural areas, contribute to this geographic disparity. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded the Southern Rural Access Program in 1997 to stimulate innovative strategies for increasing access to health care providers in targeted rural states. The Arkansas Southern Rural Access Program (ARSRAP) has emerged as one of the model programs from this multi-million dollar initiative. The presentation will provide an overview of the issues affecting health care provider recruitment and retention to rural areas. The presentation will center on describing the four components of the ARSRAP model developed to address these issues in the Mississippi Delta region of Arkansas. First the presentation will describe the three-pronged recruitment and retention component, comprised of a regional recruiter, community development resource development and technical assistance, and practice management support. Second, the rural health networks component will be highlighted. Third, the rural health care leaders component, which utilizes a rural physician mentor and a rural medical student association, will be described. Fourth, the presentation will describe the revolving loan fund component which has been successfully used to facilitate the development of capital to enhance the rural health care infrastructure. In addition, outcomes from the implementation of each of the four components will be described. Finally, implications for replication the model for use in other rural areas will be noted.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the health status and the health care provider disparity between rural and urban areas.
• Identify the four strategies employed to improve access in one rural state
• List opportunities for replication of these strategies to other rural states

Keywords: Rural Health Service Providers, Rural Health Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.