CEO Update: Health Equity

As you may recall CRHC is on a DEI journey and we are just starting to dig into how we can provide more support through education, training, and resources to address health equity in rural Colorado. With sustaining rural healthcare through data continuing to be one our organizational strategic goals, we are pressing further into the data substantiating inequities around social determinants of health and how they play a role in access to care, to health outcomes, and to affordability.

Recently Healthy People 2030 released a framework for Health Equity

https://health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/health-equity-healthy-people-2030

“Healthy People 2030 defines health equity as “the attainment of the highest level of health for all people. Achieving health equity requires valuing everyone equally with focused and ongoing societal efforts to address avoidable inequalities, historical and contemporary injustices, and the elimination of health and health care disparities.”

One of the ways CRHC is digging in is by looking at data and producing the Snapshot of Rural Health and Regional Snapshots for your use and ours.  This year, as we are producing the 2024 version of the Snapshot of Rural Health we’ve been asking ourselves what health equity information is missing.  How are you as rural providers going about evaluating your efforts to address health equity?  Do you have a strategy?  Are you evaluating and acting on HEDIS measures, chronic conditions, other quality efforts to close the gaps?

If you don’t have a strategy, I encourage you to reach out to CRHC and share what resources would be helpful to you.  I also encourage you to attend CRHC’s Annual Conference next week October 4 – 6, 2023.  During the conference you’ll have the opportunity to learn more about the Rural Connectivity Program and how to access data, free to our rural facilities to improve quality of care and health equity.  Additional sessions on equity include:  The Colorado Community Apgar Project, Advancing Health Equity: Impact of Social Factors on Healthcare use in Rural Colorado, A Recipe for Thriving in an Industry Teetering on Life-Support and Intersectionality and Inequities: What it Means for Patients with Behavioral Health Needs in Medical Settings and What You Can Do.

If you aren’t signed up for the annual conference – there’s still time https://coruralhealth.org/events/annual-conference

Additionally, CRHC is partnering with The Colorado Health Foundation (TCHF) and John Snow Inc. (JSI) to provide technical assistance to rural clinics to improve patient demographic and health outcomes data which aligns with TCHF’s mentality that “data is foundational in delivering high-quality integrated primary care. Moreover, if something is not measured it cannot be addressed, and collecting meaningful data may help to attain better and more equitable health outcomes.”

This initiative is designed to support clinics throughout Colorado in developing the systems and expertise to improve their capacity to collect meaningful patient demographic data. The program will provide approved clinics with training and technical assistance for up to two (2) years and potential funding of up to $75,000. Contact Sara Leahy at sl@coruralhealth.org for more information and fill out a form of interest directly on the TCHF website HERE.