The Colorado Rural Health Center provides various resources that pertain to rural health issues. We continually strive to provide assistance through our staff, online resources, funding opportunities, and educational events. We produce a number of publications, as well as post publications produced by other groups and organizations that might be of interest to our constituents.
Latest Health Professional Shortage Area & Medically Underserved Area/ Population Released
Colorado’s Primary Care Office has released maps showing the latest Health Professional Shortage Area and Medically Underserved Area/Population designations. These designations can benefit your clinic in regards to workforce, RHC designation and provider reimbursement. Contact the Colorado Rural Health Center for more information on the effect of HPSA and MUA/MUP designations on your clinic or community.
Rural Community Collaboration and Veteran Outreach Broadcast
Dr. Brett Hicken and Dr. Bruce Goodrow discussed the potential benefits, challenges, and solutions surrounding becoming integrated into the healthcare support structures of your rural community and how that ultimately impacts the quality of care received by our rural Veterans.
CEU/CMEs were available for the live broadcast and will soon be available for this on demand version. This broadcast provides a number of good downloads and resources, and is sure to answer some of the questions you may have about being an effective VA professional in a small community.
Check it Out! Sign into MyVeHU Campus and select the purple On Demand button. Select the search box and enter 13010 or Outreach and select “GO.”
Questions or Support Issues? Please email our MyVeHU Campus support staff at support@myvehucampus.com or call 423-979-4368.
Opportunity to Participate in a National Telenursing Center
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) has been awarded funding by the National Institute of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime to fund the National Sexual Assault TeleNursing Project. The Project will provide real time, audio and video 24/7 access to expert guidance and support by Mass. Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) to clinicians caring for adolescent and adult sexual assault patients/survivors in four underserved pilot sites across the nation. The four sites will include: a tribal community, a corrections setting, a rural community, and a U.S Navy setting.
MDPH is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) for stakeholder input and commentary regarding a future Contract Award Opportunity (CAO) to recruit service delivery sites that will partner with the National Sexual Assault TeleNursing Project. The MDPH and Project Team are currently seeking information about the needs and resources of potential pilot sites, and ideas and opinions regarding site selection criteria that will inform that future CAO. It is anticipated that the CAO will be released in February and it is expected that contracts will be active in June 2013.
To view the RFI, click here. It is not required to respond to the RFI as a condition of future participation. If you have any questions about any of the content, please contact Joan Sham.
Institute Seeks Proposals for Rural Communities Facing Design Challenges
The Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD) is issuing a request for proposals to rural communities facing design challenges to host local workshops in 2013. Examples of challenges might include: how to add jobs and support local businesses, how to honor and protect local character and history, or how to use limited financial, human, and natural resources wisely. Successful applicants will receive a $7,000 grant and in-kind design expertise and technical assistance valued at $35,000. CIRD is a National Endowment for the Arts leadership initiative in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Project for Public Spaces, Inc., along with several foundations. More information on the Request for Proposals is on the new CIRD website: www.rural-design.org.
Health Insurance Marketplace Included in Relaunch of HealthCare.gov
The web site HealthCare.gov from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services has been relaunched to include new information about the Health Insurance Marketplace. The Marketplace allows families and small businesses to compare and purchase high-quality health insurance plans starting October 1, 2013, with coverage beginning January 1, 2014. When key parts of the Affordable Care Act take effect, individuals will be able to go to HealthCare.gov to buy insurance from qualified private health plans and check if they are eligible for financial assistance in one place, through a single application. (If a state is running its own Marketplace, HealthCare.gov will direct users to the right place.) In addition, many people will be eligible for a new kind of tax credit to help pay their premium costs.
Resource for Pregnant Women: Text4baby!
Text4baby is the first free mobile health service, developed in partnership by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nonprofit organizations, and corporate sponsors. The service offers free critical health and safety information about pregnancy and a baby’s first year of life (there are no messaging charges).
Women can enroll on the Text4baby web site (http://www.text4baby.org) or by texting ‘‘BABY” for the English service or ‘‘BEBE” for the Spanish service to 511411.
A user registers due dates or baby’s birth date along with her zip code and receives a message on her cell phone on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday every week timed to her due date or baby’s birthday. The primary target audience for text4baby is women who may be at higher risk for poor health outcomes and may have problems accessing health information.
Colorado Welcome Back!
Are you an internationally trained healthcare professional?
Do you want to get back into the healthcare field?
Colorado Welcome Back, a program of Spring Institute for InterculturalLearning, helps foreign trained health care professionals re-establish careers in health care in Colorado. Designed to increase the diversity and cultural competency of the state health care workforce, the program also addresses medically underserved communities experiencing health workforce shortages and health disparities.
Colorado Welcome Back is for people with health care training from other countries that have moved to Colorado and desire to work in a health care setting again. The program provides an array of case management, education and employment services to assist Colorado’s foreign trained health professionals who are otherwise unable to practice their professions.
Colorado Welcome Back is funded by the Colorado Refugee Services Program, the Kaiser Foundation, and the Colorado Health Foundation. For more information about Colorado Welcome Back’s services please see the program brochure.
