Larry Hogan,
Governor
Boyd K. Rutherford, Lieutenant Governor
Dennis R. Schrader, Health Secretary
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Elizabeth Chung
Maritha R. Gay
Scott T. Gibson
J. Wayne Howard
Surina Jordan, PhD
Barry Ronan
Erica I. Shelton, MD
Carol Ivy Simmons,
PhD
Julie Wagner
Anthony C. Wisniewski
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The American Medical Association Foundation announces funding through the Community Health Grants Program.
The American Medical Association Foundation (AMAF) announces the availability of funds through the Community Health Grants (CHG) program. AMAF seeks to financially support innovative programs targeting the prevention and reduction of type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Grant funding will support community-based organizations that provide services to vulnerable and underserved populations.
The deadline for all applications is Wednesday, December 20, 2017 at 11:59pm CST.
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High-need patients account for a disproportionate share of the nation's disease and health care spending. The American Hospital Association's affiliate, The Health Research and Educational Trust has released a new guide to improve care and reduce the medical costs for this vulnerable population. The guide describes a number of promising strategies that benefit the high-need, high-cost patient group. For more information, click here.
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NIH launches PregSource, a crowdsourcing project to better understand pregnancy
The National Institutes of Health has launched
PregSource
, a research project that aims to improve knowledge of pregnancy by collecting information directly from pregnant women. The project will explore physical and emotional aspects of pregnancy, labor and delivery and will identify distinct challenges faced by subgroups of women, such as those with physical disabilities. By offering a more comprehensive picture of the pregnancy experience - from normal pregnancies to those complicated by disease or other factors - PregSource promises to inform strategies for improving maternal care in the United States. For more information, click here.
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CHRC 2018 Call for Proposals generates 61 Letters of Intent requesting $25.5 million
The Call for Proposals issued by the CHRC earlier this fall generated 61 Letters of Intent (LOIs) requesting $25.5 million in funding. Of this total, more than a third were submitted by applicants who have not received a grant from the CHRC in the past, and 10 LOIs were submitted by first-time applicants. Full grant proposals are due to the CHRC on December 18. Grant awards are expected to be made by the CHRC in February 2018. The CHRC is in a position to award $2.3 million in new grant funding this fiscal year.
More information about this year's Call for Proposals and application instructions can be found on the
CHRC website
.
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Maryland Celebrates Rural Health Day on November 17
Lt. Governor Rutherford, officials from the Maryland Department of Health, Maryland Health Care Commission and CHRC, the Maryland Rural Health Association, and other invited guests toured southern Maryland on November 17 as part of the State's celebration of Rural Health Day. This visit included the Calvert County Health Department in Prince Frederick and Greater Baden Medical Services in Brandywine, two CHRC grantees in southern Maryland. The tour included a discussion of critical health issues facing Maryland's rural communities and provided tangible examples of ways that these two safety net providers work with their patients to address social determinants that impact their health, such as lack of access to transportation or providing cooking classes for expectant mothers.
The CHRC has awarded 99 of its 190 grants to support projects in rural areas in the State. These 99 projects ($26.3 million) have collectively served more than 72,000 residents in rural areas. For more information about CHRC grants in rural communities, click here.
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Mark Luckner, Executive Director of the CHRC, speaks at the event in Calvert County.
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Lt. Governor Boyd K. Rutherford discusses rural health needs at Greater Baden Medical Services.
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Access Health program achieves demonstrable reductions in avoidable hospital utilization by addressing social determinants of health and linking residents with community resources
HealthCare Access Maryland (HCAM) and their hospital partner, Lifebridge Health/Sinai Hospital, completed the Access Health program earlier this fall, which was supported with a three-year grant from the CHRC. The program targeted super-utilizers of the Sinai emergency department (individuals who visit the ED ten or more times during a four-month period) and embedded three care coordinators in the ED to work with clients who are impacted by complex health and social service needs.
Over the three years of the grant, Access Health served 802 individuals; one third of these individuals (285 clients) comprised the at-risk target population
(3-9 visits/4 month period
) and generated more than 1,100 visits four months before entering the program. Twenty-three individuals in the program comprised the super-utilizers and generated more than 230 visits over a four-month period.
Sinai calculated a four-month pre vs four-month post comparison for the at-risk clients and compared this to a cohort of similar patients not enrolled in Access Health. This comparison showed a 26% visit reduction for the at-risk clients enrolled in the program, which Sinai estimated translates into $895,580 in cost avoidance. Total program savings achieved (all 802 clients) translated into $1.2 million in savings. Taking into account the $800,000 investment from the grant, the program's return on investment (ROI) was 147%. For more information on this ROI, click here.
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The Institute for Public Health Innovation holds training for Local School Wellness Councils
Earlier this year, the Institute for Public Health Innovation (IPHI) and Montgomery County Public Schools hosted the first training for school wellness champions in Montgomery County. The full day of training included presenters from Maryland State Department of Education, Montgomery County Public Schools, University of Maryland Extension Center, and IPHI. Teachers and school personnel learned about advocacy approaches, assessment tools, best practices, and implementation planning related to local school wellness councils (LSWCs). The training was also an opportunity to introduce wellness champions to Transforming Communities Initiative partners and technical assistance resources that LSWCs can use for their wellness strategies. The training provided information about how to create successful LSWCs and to enhance and improve the health and wellness environment of their schools.
IPHI received a two-year grant from the CHRC last year to support this pilot project, which now includes 17 public elementary schools in Montgomery County (in Long Branch, Takoma Park, Gaithersburg, and Germantown). IPHI aims to incorporate lessons learned during the pilot project into a wellness toolkit that will be rolled out to all Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). The project is a part of the Healthy Montgomery Transforming Community Initiative (TCI), which is one of six TCI sites selected to participate in a national initiative funded by Trinity Health.
The grant to IPHI is one 12 grants awarded by the CHRC in recent years to help address obesity and promote food security. Click here for more information about these grants.
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