CEO Update: May the Force Be With You

Baby Yoda, have you seen him?? He’s so cute!  Just like Yoda was a driving force for good, CRHC is a driving force to enhanced healthcare services in the state by providing information, education, linkages, tools, and energy toward addressing rural health issues. We work with the vision to improve healthcare services available in rural communities and to ensure that all rural Coloradans have access to comprehensive, affordable, high quality healthcare.

Earlier this month, CRHC had the opportunity to represent all 47 rural and frontier counties in Colorado by attending the National Rural Health Association’s Policy Institute and to make visits on Capitol Hill with the Colorado policy makers.  The main topics of discussion were reduction in unnecessary rules and regulations, ‘Save the Rural Hospitals Act’, a funding line for our rural health clinics, workforce and an expansion of opioid grant funding to include substance abuse.

CRHC was joined this year by board member and chair of our policy committee, Tammy Dunker, Clinic Manager at Rangely District Hospital, who shared real life situations on the social determinants of health by showing and discussing food deserts in rural communities.  Additionally, we were joined by a Colorado rural hospital CEO who shared his community’s struggles and ideas on sustainability and a physician resident who shared her story on the need for an expansion of rural rotations and increasing loan repayment to five years as a retention tool.

Finally a big THANK YOU to our Policy and Advocacy Manager, Kelly Erb, for all her efforts to schedule these meetings and keep us on track!

If you’d like to get involved in CRHC’s policy and legislative efforts, please reach out Kelly Erb.  To review our 2020 Policy Priorities, visit the policy and advocacy page on CRHC’s website!

May the Force Be With You.