Other grants and loans

Applications for the Cherokee Uniforms 2009 A Nurse I Am Scholarship are due February 28.

The Telehealth Network Grant Program has $3.4 million available. Nonprofits or public entities that can provide services through a telehealth network to rural or underserved urban communities or through a telehome care network to patients in their homes in urban underserved or rural communities are eligible to apply by March 6.

The USDA Distance Learning Telemedicine Grant deadline is March 24. The grant is primarily for connecting medical professionals and patients or students and teachers. It funds equipment that operates over telecommunications systems, the acquisition of instructional programming and technical assistance and instruction for using eligible equipment.

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ORHPC STAFF NEWS

In January, reimbursement analyst Craig Baarson worked with Longville Lakes Clinic on becoming a Rural Health Clinic, and visited the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Health Division.

Flex coordinator Judy Bergh observed a Comprehensive Advanced Life Support (CALS) class at First Care Medical Services in Fosston, along with doctors, midlevel practitioners, nurses and EMS personnel from Wisconsin, Ontario and several Minnesota Critical Access Hospitals. The course provides team training that enhances emergency medicine skills. CALS certification of hospital employees and EMS staff is one step hospitals take toward meeting the requirements for Minnesota Trauma System designation.

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opportunities

Proposals for The Clock is Ticking for Rural America: A Behavioral Health and Safety Conference are due February 28.

The Board of Medical Practices is looking for one public member, the Environmental Health Tracking and Biomonitoring Advisory Panel is seeking one nongovernmental scientist organization representative, and the State Rehabilitation Council for the Blind is recruiting one representative of a client assistance program. Complete information is on the Secretary of State Web site.

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TOOLS

The National Diabetes Education Program developed Más que comida, es vida, which means “It′s more than food. It′s life.” The Help for Hispanics with Diabetes campaign includes recipes and control portion sizes.

The Telephone Equipment Distribution (TED) program provides assistive telephone equipment to Minnesotans who are deaf, hard of hearing, speech impaired, or have a physical disability and need adaptive equipment to use the phone and have a household income at or below the state median.

Mayo launched Sharing Mayo Clinic for patients to talk with the people they see every day, share their experiences with people all over the world and get a glimpse into the lives and motivations of Mayo employees.

The Surgeon General’s Internet-based family health history tool makes it easier for consumers to assemble and share family health history information. It can also help practitioners make better use of health history information so they can provide more informed and personalized care for their patients.

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News OF our partners

Jack Geller, president of Minnesota Rural Health Association and Mary Ellen Wells, president and chief executive officer of Hutchinson Area Health Care, are members of Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force.

A shortage of doctors is forcing rural hospitals to "be creative," as one expert put it, to keep their emergency rooms alive. At Waseca Medical Center, the answer was to hire nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

Now ReAD THIS

A new study underscores the impact of Community Health Centers in cutting costly and unnecessary visits to hospital emergency rooms in rural areas.

The Nurse-Family Partnerships is a community health program for first-time, at-risk mothers to prevent future problems such as abuse, health risk and developmental problems.

Veterans with chronic conditions can manage their health and avoid hospitalization by using special technology provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs in their homes.

With 20 states reporting scarcities of physicians and nurses, the Health Resources and Services Administration is convening a summit of 300 leading experts in June.

The John A. Hartford Foundation awarded the American Academy of Nursing a $9.3 million grant as part of an expanding effort to reshape America’s health care workforce. The award will help prepare geriatric nursing faculty to teach the next generation of nurses about the unique needs of older patients.

Writing in the January issue of The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers report that there is a higher rate of hospitalization for most accidental injuries in rural areas. But the rate of injuries from assaults is significantly higher in urban areas.

A new study examining the impact of rural lifestyles says rural people are not as healthy as they once were (PDF:150KB/6pgs).

Farm Rescue and EMS: A State by State Directory lists contacts who specialize in farm rescue and response training (PDF: 381KB/45pgs).

If every operating room in the United States adopted the surgical checklist, the nation could save between $15 billion and $25 billion a year on the costs of treating avoidable complications, according to calculations by the authors of a year-long, eight-nation project. In the World Health Organization and Harvard School of Public Health study involving 7,600 patients, the hospitals saw the rate of serious complications fall from 11 percent to 7 percent. Inpatient deaths declined by more than 40 percent overall, with the most drastic reductions occurring in hospitals with fewer resources.

What Does the Allied Health Clinical Doctorate Mean for Rural Areas? (PDF: 68KB/4pgs) examines how the transition to the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree has affected the supply and quality of rural physical therapy care.

A Rural-Urban Comparison of Allied Health Average Hourly Wages is online (PDF: 188KB/15pgs).

Agriculture is consistently among the most hazardous occupations in the United States. The Agricultural Safety and Health Council of America is pursuing a national strategy to reduce disease, injuries and fatalities in American agriculture.

Medicare Beneficiaries Access to Pharmacy Services in Small Rural Towns: Implications of Contracting Patterns of Sole Community Pharmacies with Part D Plans (PDF: 171KB/16pgs).

Telemedicine can improve child sexual assault examinations in rural areas.

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SAVE THE DATE

Nonprofits Assistance Fund is offering 10 financial management workshops February through July.

The annual American Indian Health Research Conference is March 27 in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Minnesota Health Care Roundtable Medical Home: Anathema or Panacea is April 23.

The Minnesota Critical Access Hospital and Rural Health Conference Rethinking Rural Health Care: A Community Effort, is June 15-16 in Duluth.

The Minnesota e-Health Summit 2009 is June 25-26 in Brooklyn Park.

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View online all previous issues of the Office of Rural Health and Primary Care publications.

Minnesota Office of Rural Health and Primary Care
P. O. Box 64882
St. Paul, Minnesota 55164-0882
Phone (651) 201-3838
Toll free in Minnesota (800) 366-5424
Fax: (651) 201-3830
TDD: (651) 201-5797
http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/orhpc/index.html

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