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Transforming health delivery systems in rural communities
Rural communities face unique health care delivery challenges. As a result, organizations are coming together to address these challenges as a consortium/network rather than tackling these issues as a single entity. The Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) has developed several grant programs that promote collaboration, either informally through a consortium, or more formally through a network, to enhance the rural health care delivery system in order to improve access and patient outcomes.
Methods
Through each of these grant programs, grantees are working to engage both traditional and unconventional partners in order to develop a health system that is more coordinated and structured to meet the community needs. Grantees have identified ways to build capacity across different organizations as well as ways to leverage additional resources to maximize the delivery of health services in an efficient and coordinated manner.
Results
In 2013, the Rural Health Care Services Outreach grantees had on average nine non-profit organizations in their consortiums. The Rural Health Network Development Planning grantees conducted on average six engagement activities related to capacity building and network development. And finally, 67% of the Rural Health Network Development grantees, composed of mature networks, reported successfully leveraging an average of $373,051 in additional funding.
Conclusion
FORHP discovered several common network/consortium characteristics. This presentation will highlight those characteristics and provide insightful examples of innovative approaches created by FORHP grantees in overcoming the challenges of enhancing access and quality of health care services in resource constrained areas.
Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programsAdministration, management, leadership
Program planning
Public health administration or related administration
Learning Objectives:
Identify characteristics that make a rural network/consortium sustainable
Identify ways to engage stakeholders during times of change and transition
Identify innovative approaches to overcoming challenges in enhancing access and quality of health care services
Keyword(s): Rural Health
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the program coordinator for one of the grant programs.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.