I’m really excited about CRHC’s upcoming Colorado Rural Health Conference in Breckenridge at the Beaver Run Resort on July 1st and 2nd. It promises to be one of our best yet!

The conference is the only one in the State of Colorado that is focused exclusively on rural health care. I love that the conference’s attendees always provide such a great cross section of different CRHC member types. Of course the hospitals and clinics are well represented, but we also see county commissioners, city council men and women, nursing home and home health workers as well as officials from a myriad of different governmental agencies.

Our list of topics and speakers couldn’t be more relevant and timely. I can’t go into all the details here, but here are a few of the speakers I’ve highlighted in my conference agenda:

Joan Henneberry, Executive Director, Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, is going to give everyone a status update on healthcare reform. Our state is so lucky to have Joan, and we’re doubly blessed to get to learn her insights on the crazy quilt that is healthcare reform.

Donald Rohner, CEO, Foothills Behavioral Health Partners is going to focus on the delivery of mental health services. As everyone reading this likely knows, this is an area that cries out for solutions. Getting mental health care is tough in Colorado’s urban areas, and downright impossible in many of the state’s rural regions.

David Ginsberg, Founder and President, PrivaPlan Associates, will be bringing folks up to speed on what is happening on the Health Information Exchange (HIE) front. There’s excitement that the Colorado Regional Health Information Exchange (CORHIO) has chosen a vendor – Medicity – to handle the infrastructure work for Colorado’s largest HIE.

Robert Wallace, Service Line Director, Centura Health, will discuss Connected Care, the project launched by United Healthcare, Centura, the State of Colorado and CRHC. This innovative program utilizes audio and video technology to give rural residents access to physicians and medical specialists when in-person visits are not possible.

Finally, Mark Earnest, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, will be discussing interdisciplinary health professions education. Thanks in part to some key grants, I feel we are starting to make real progress on this thorny issue. I’m excited to hear what Dr. Earnest has to say!

I hope you can join me at this great meeting.

Lou Ann Wilroy, CEO
Colorado Rural Health Center