Announcing the New Virginia Rural Health Data Portal

The Virginia Rural Health Data Portal puts information, that was once scattered, in one place and in your hands. Create, print and download maps, charts and graphs. Now you have the tools to tell your rural health story.

The Virginia Rural Health Data Council, in conjunction with the Virginia Department of Health and the Virginia Rural Health Association, are pleased to introduce the Virginia Rural Health Data Portal, a web-based tool that has been developed to provide a unique source of information on topics of special interest to rural health providers, researchers, grant writers, and others interested in telling their story on health issues facing rural populations in Virginia. The data currently presented in the portal are related to the issues and strategies defined in the Virginia State Rural Health Plan. It is anticipated that as additional issues are studied, new data sets will be added to the site. In addition, there will be several improvements added in the next few weeks, so check back often!

This is how you use the mapping tool:


This is how you generate charts and graphs:


Let us know what you think!

Establishing a Vision for Health Workforce Development in Virginia

This blog site has been created to obtain input on the final draft set of recommendations regarding Code language for establishing an Authority structure to facilitate the development of the health workforce in Virginia.  This consolidated set of recommendations is the result of a series of meetings with stakeholders over the course of the past six months:

http://healthcareworkforceinva.blogspot.com/

The legislation to develop an Authority structure in Virginia stems partially from the processes and recommendations regarding the health workforce from Virginia's State Rural Health Plan.  Recommendations for Code language will be going to the General Assembly in a study report at the end of November, so this is the final opportunity for public comment before the completion of the study report.  Please take the time to read through the recommendations and provide your input on/before noon on Friday November 13, 2009. Your contributions are important in shaping this proposed legislation.

Rural EMS Summit: Sharing Solutions and Strategies

December 10-11, 2009
Central Virginia Community College
Lynchburg, Virginia

Who should attend? Local Government Officials, EMS Leaders and Providers and Community Healthcare Providers

Register Before November 30, 2009.

The Virginia Office of EMS is sponsoring The Rural EMS Summit to develop strategic initiatives and objectives for a state plan to address the needs of rural EMS agencies in Virginia. The summit is scheduled for December 10 and 11, 2009 in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Despite the improvement in EMS service to the rural areas of Virginia there are some looming problems. In March 2009, participants at a Rural EMS Roundtable function identified a number of deficiencies and prioritized the top three challenges facing EMS agencies in rural areas as

1. EMS Agency Leadership and Management
2. Local government involvement/accountability, and
3. Recruitment and Retention of EMS personnel.

Kevin McGinnis, MPS, EMT-P will be the key note speaker and meeting facilitator. Kevin is the Program Advisor to the National Association of State EMS Officials, a former state EMS director and the author of the Rural and Frontier Emergency Medical Services Agenda for the Future.

This meeting is a collaborative effort of the Virginia Department of Health, Office of Emergency Medical Services and the Office of Minority Health and Public Health Policy Division of Primary Care and Rural Health. Funding for this event is provided through a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Flex Grant.

Learn More...

Coming Soon - Virginia Rural Health Data Portal!

A portion of Virginia's State Rural Health Plan deals with defining “rural” and developing a database that could be used for such things as identifying disparities between urban and rural settings and studying rural health trends here in Virginia.

One of the goals of the Data and Rural Definitions Council was to develop a web-based data portal to allow the public access to this data. The rural health data portal is about to become a reality!

This data portal will be introduced to the public for the first time at the 2009 Virginia Association of Free Clinics and the Virginia Rural Health Association Joint Conference in November. Not registered yet? Act fast! The deadline for discounted registration and hotel rooms is October 21. Come see how to use the portal and the data and mapping capabilities available at a session in the afternoon on Monday November 16. See the conference agenda here!

Integrating Primary Care and Behavioral/Mental Health

The Virginia State Office of Rural Health began an effort to promote an integrative model of primary and behavioral/mental health care last year by making available small planning grants, funding research to explore existing models if integrated care in Virginia, and by providing training at the March 2009 Rural Health Summit (presentations from the trainings can be found here). Further exploration of this model of care was also one of the recommendations of the Virginia State Rural Health Plan.

The following announcement was issued last month by the American Academy of Physicians:

The AAFP's National Research Network, or NRN, is recruiting practices for its new subnetwork, the Collaborative Care Research Network, or CCRN. The new network is designed to investigate and evaluate the integration of mental health services in primary care settings.

A study published online in Health Affairs in April found that two-thirds of primary care physicians don't have access to mental health specialists because of numerous barriers, including lack of mental health professionals and insurance restrictions.

According to Rodger Kessler, Ph.D., a research assistant professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, mental health is the most difficult specialty for family physicians to access.

"When a physician refers a patient out to mental health providers, only 20 percent to 40 percent (of those visits) result in care being initiated," said Kessler, who also is the research director of the CCRN. "It just doesn't happen." The CCRN, however, is studying a new treatment model for mental health services.

The new model, said Kessler, would involve in-house medical teams who would work together to plan treatments and execute a patient's care. The expectation is that combining mental health, substance abuse and physical health services in this kind of team structure will produce better outcomes than the old referral system.

Benjamin Miller, Psy.D., assistant professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, said that although this type of collaborative care seems like a good concept, the CCRN needs practice-based evidence to support that theory.

The purpose of the CCRN, "isn't just to get another research paper out there," said Miller, who also is the administrative director of the CCRN. "It's to shape and change the landscape of health care."

Integrating mental health into primary care is a relatively new idea, said Kessler, but it is a vital part of the patient-centered medical home because primary care physicians provide the greatest portion of care for mental health and substance abuse.

In addition, Kessler noted that a number of other common medical issues dealt with by primary care physicians, including chronic pain, insomnia and gastrointestinal disorders, would benefit from a collaborative care approach.

Issues such as hypertension, smoking cessation and weight loss also are behavior-related and could benefit from collaborative care, said Miller.

"(The CCRN) is a response to the fragmentation we see in the health care system," Miller said. "If you're going to be sent across the street or down the hall, most people just don't go for that."

The CCRN has recruited about 30 practices to date and hopes to add 50 practices a year during the next two years, according to Kessler. The eventual goal is to have 150 to 200 practices nationwide working together to make collaborative care more effective.

In addition to having a mental health professional on staff, primary care practices participating in the CCRN need to have an interest in practice-based research, a willingness to share data and an interest in addressing important research questions, said Kessler.

The CCRN has received funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to convene an invitation-only meeting Oct. 8-9 in Denver to create a research agenda for behavioral health in primary care. Kessler said he expects to have representation from the primary care and mental health fields, as well as government agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Kessler and Miller also plan to take their message directly to health care professionals with sessions during the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association's conference Oct. 22-24 in San Diego and during the AAFP's Conference on Practice Improvement Nov. 5-8 in Kansas City, Mo.

Practices interested in obtaining an enrollment packet should contact Mindy Spano with the AAFP's National Research Network at (800) 267-2237, Ext. 3178.

Source: http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/publications/news/news-now/clinical-care-research/20090805ccrnlaunch.html

Right here in rural Virginia, the Southwest Virginia Community Health Systems Inc. has been testing this integrative care model and will soon have available outcomes research using two years of clinical data.

Health Status and Health Care Access of Farm and Rural Populations

Check out this new report by the Economic Research Service that was released last week! This report focuses on the health status and health care access of members of the Nation’s rural households and farm-operator households in comparison with those of urban and nonfarm households.

Rural residents have higher rates of age-adjusted mortality, disability, and chronic disease than their urban counterparts, though mortality and disability rates vary more by region than by metro status. Contributing negatively to the health status of rural residents are their lower socioeconomic status, higher incidence of both smoking and obesity, and lower levels of physical activity. Contributing negatively to the health status of farmers are the high risks from workplace hazards, which also affect other members of farm families who live on the premises and often share in the work; contributing positively are farmers’ higher socioeconomic status, lower incidence of smoking, and more active lifestyle. Both farm and rural populations experience lower access to health care along the dimensions of affordability, proximity, and quality, compared with their nonfarm and urban counterparts.

Click here to download the full report

Medicare Payment Policies for Telehealth Services

CMS has recently published a brochure on its Medicare payment policies for Telehealth services. The following link will take you to the brochure:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNProducts/downloads/TelehealthSrvcsfctsht.pdf