Contents:

 

SEPTEMBER 2011

 

 

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  natl rural health day logo  

Click on logo above for information and watch for the October issue of the ORHPC Monthly Update to get ideas about celebrating National Rural Health Day in your community!

NEW report! Health Status of Rural Minnesotans is on the Rural Health Advisory Committee website.

NEW fact sheet! Minnesota's Dental Assistant Workforce 2008-2009 is on the ORHPC Health Care Workforce Analysis Program website.

Tom Major joined the Office of Rural Health and Primary Care Health Care Workforce Analysis Program in August. Tom replaces Ed Van Cleave who retired in June. He can be reached at tom.major@state.mn.us or 651-201-3846.

HEALTH CARE REFORM
Preparing for Health Care Home Certification (Learning Collaborative Phase 1) begins September 6.

Minnesota receives grant to help develop health insurance exchange.

Comments on the amendments to Health Care Quality Measures - Rule Development are due September 14.

Medicare payment for health care home services to begin in October. Through Minnesota's participation in the Medicare Multi-payer Advanced Primary Care Practice demonstration, certified health care homes will be reimbursed for care coordination services provided to fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries. Participation information is online.

HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Governor forms task force to expand broadband access statewide.

Minnesota consolidates business operations of health information exchanges.

Regional Extension Assistance Center for HIT (REACH) services are available to all Minnesota and North Dakota providers—whether you have:
  • No EHR
  • An installed EHR that is difficult or impossible to use
  • A working EHR that needs to be optimized to fully benefit you and meet federal meaningful use requirements.

SNAPSHOT
EHR adoption rates in MN

More Minnesota acute care hospitals (23 percent) have basic or comprehensive EHR systems than hospitals nationally (10 percent)1.

However, critical access hospitals lag behind other rural and urban hospitals in basic EHR adoption.

All rural hospitals lag behind urban hospitals in comprehensive EHR system adoption.

1Jha, A. K., et al. Use of Electronic Health Records in U.S. Hospitals. N Engl J Med. 2009; 360(16): 1628‐38.
Source: Minnesota Department of Health, Office of Health Information Technology, AHA Annual Survey (2010) Response Rate: 98 percent (129 of 131)

*Rural defined as Rural-Urban Commuting Areas (RUCA) classification categories of isolated, small rural and large rural.

Minnesota e‐Health Assessment Data, Statistics and Summaries describes the adoption and use of EHRs and other HIT, and the exchange of health information in Minnesota.

 

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ORHPC GRANTS AND LOANS

 

Rural Hospital Planning and Transition Grant applications are due September 19.

Indian Health Grant applications are due September 30.

Community Clinic Grant pre-applications are due October 7.

Minnesota's Loan Forgiveness applications are due December 1.

Be an ORHPC grant reviewer. Please contact Doug Benson at doug.benson@state.mn.us or 651-201-3842 or Cindy LaMere at cindy.lamere@state.mn.us or 651-201-3852 with your name, profession, place of employment and contact information.

 

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OTHER GRANTS AND LOANS

Health care delivery system demonstration proposals are due to the Minnesota Department of Human Services by September 21.

H-1B Technical Skills Training Grant applications are due November 17 to provide education, training and job placement in industries, such as health care, for which employers are using H-1B visas to hire foreign workers.

Community Based Care Transition Program applications are being accepted for test models to improve care transitions of high risk Medicare beneficiaries.

 

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NEWS OF OUR PARTNERS

 

Avera’s eEmergency services featured in the current issue of the Rural Monitor.

Minnesota health care providers Vicki Brady, N.P.; Kai Hjermstad, paramedic; Jane Hovland, R.N., L.P.; Heidi Korstad, M.D., Joyce Kramer, R.N.; Curtis Louwagie, M.D.; Clinton MacKinney, M.D.; Ruth Pallansch, N.P.; Mike Wilcox, M.D. weigh in on MPR about meeting challenges to rural patient care: Rural health, distance, money.

The Health IT Training Program at Normandale Community College was featured on Fox 9 and WCCO. The $500, online, six-month course has openings for the fall semester.

Augsburg College, College of St. Scholastica, Metropolitan State University, Minnesota State University-Mankato, University of Minnesota-Minneapolis, St. Mary's University of Minnesota and Winona State University received a total of $826,113 to expand nursing education, training and diversity.

Delta Dental of Minnesota Trust gave funding to Metropolitan State University, Rice Regional Dental Clinic and the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry.

The State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota is helping to implement health care reform.

Jim Boulger, Ph.D., professor and director of the Center for Rural Mental Health Studies at the University of Minnesota Medical School was interviewed for Med schools seek right fit for rural practice in the American Medical News.

Hennepin County Medical Center links meaningful use with mobile health care.

Stratis Health's contract to serve as Minnesota's Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) was renewed for the next three years. Stratis Health has implemented the QIO contract since the program began in the 1970s.
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NOW READ THIS

 

  • After health reform, safety net providers still play crucial health system role
  • Stratis Health released: Minnesota Rural Palliative Care Initiative: Learning Collaborative Project Brief (PDF: 135KB/4pgs)
  • The Future of Disability and Rehabilitation in Rural Communities (PDF: 734KB/22pgs)
  • Patterns of Food Insecurity, Food Availability and Health Outcomes Among Rural and Urban Counties
  • Health care organizations balk at rules proposed for ACOs.
  • Medicare cuts tax rural communities.
  • Initiative to boost health IT adoption, job creation and funding in rural areas.
  • Public health in rural communities

Primary Care
   • Access Endangered: Profiles of the Medically Disenfranchised (PDF: 478KB/16pgs)
  • New coverage will boost demand for rural providers
  • Rural veterans and the tyranny of distance
  • HHS awards funds to community health programs
  • The universal appeal of community health centers
  • Preparing for health care cuts

Hospitals
  • Medicare payment rule strengthens tie between payment and quality improvement
  • Improving Hospital Patient Safety Through Teamwork: The Use of TeamSTEPPS in Critical Access Hospitals (PDF:320KB/12pgs)
  • Almost one-sixth of all Americans depend on critical access hospitals
  • Evidence-Based Pneumonia Quality Improvement Programs and Strategies for Critical Access Hospitals (PDF: 778KB/19pgs)
  • Rural Hospital Charges Due to Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions in the United States, by Insurance Type, 2000 to 2004
  • Rural EDs trail urban EDs in adopting E-Prescribing systems

Health Information Technology
  • IEEE seeks common standards to connect doctors with telemedicine, particularly in rural areas
  • HIT's critical role in rural hospital of the future
  • Telemedicine to a moving ambulance improves outcomes in simulated patients
  • Broadband access equals health care access
  • HIEs deliver savings to rural hospitals
  • e-Emergency brings specialists to rural patients
  • Secrets of HIE Success Revealed (PDF: 2MB/86pgs)
  • The meaningful use attestation calculator
  • How a solo physician aced stage 1 meaningful use

Workforce
  • Cross-training FPs, general surgeons could enhance health care in rural America
  • Evidence shows advance practice nurse care comparable to physician care
  • Minnesota budget cuts out help for immigrant doctors to regain profession

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SAVE THE DATE

Community Paramedicine Insights Forum webinar is the third Monday of each month at 2 p.m.

Meaningful Use Boot Camp is September 7 for clinics and September 8 for hospitals. The Regional Extension Assistance Center for HIT (REACH) is offering the full-day sessions in St. Paul.

The Central Minnesota Regional Trauma Advisory Committee is meeting September 8 in St. Cloud.

Working with veterans and their families is the topic of the Third Annual Rural Behavioral Health Practice Conference September 9 at UM-Morris, with a simultaneous webcast.

Learn the Basics of Starting a Telemedicine Program is September 21 in Minneapolis. This Great Plains TRAC half-day workshop is limited to 30 people.

Minnesota Association of Community Mental Health Programs Annual conference is September 21-23 in Duluth.

The Rural Health Advisory Committee is meeting September 23 in St. Paul.

The State Trauma Advisory Council is meeting September 27 in St. Paul.

Rural Health Clinic and Critical Access Hospital Conferences are September 27-30 in Kansas City, Missouri.

The National Association of State EMS Officials is October 2-7 in Madison, Wisconsin.

The Southern Minnesota Regional Trauma Advisory Committee is meeting October 6 in Owatonna.

Rural Economic & Wellness Regional Symposium is October 13.

Accountable Care Organizations, Accountable to Whom? is a Minnesota Physician Publishing Health Care Roundtable October 13 in Minneapolis.

The Rural Hospital Flexibility Committee is meeting October 20 in St. Paul.

The Sixth Annual Many Faces of Community Health Conference is October 27-28 in Minneapolis.

Midwest Rural Agricultural Safety & Health Forum is November 16-17.

 

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

We invite you to forward this newsletter to your colleagues. Not already a subscriber? Subscribe to receive the Minnesota Office of Rural Health and Primary Care free Monthly and Quarterly e-newsletters.

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

Email Mary Ann Radigan at maryann.radigan@state.mn.us or call 651-201-3855 with comments.

Our mission
to promote access to quality health care for rural and underserved urban Minnesotans. From our unique position within state government, we work as partners with communities, providers, policymakers and other organizations. Together, we develop innovative approaches and tailor our tools and resources to the diverse populations we serve.