This newsletter is brought to you by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) and the Community Health Systems Development Team at the Georgia Health Policy Center. |
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Network Planning Grantee
The Georgia Health Policy Center recently spoke to Elizabeth Beverly, Ph.D., associate professor of primary care at Ohio University of Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, about the development of the Southeastern Ohio Diabetes Care Network.
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Network Development Grantee
The Georgia Health Policy Center recently spoke to Micheline White, executive director of the Mendonoma Health Alliance (Gualala, Calif.) about how the organization continues to evolve and grow its network to meet the needs of a frontier community, especially during COVID-19.
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Rural Health Network Development
Upcoming Deliverables:
Annual Noncompeting Continuation Progress Report
All grantees are required to submit a Noncompeting Continuation Progress report in the Electronic Handbook. The purpose of this report is to demonstrate adequate progress of grant projects to secure year 3 funding. The report template and sample work plan have been sent to grantees via email by the project officer. The report template will be available in the EHB on March 3, 2022.
Extended Deadlines:
Data Dashboard
Award recipients will be expected to submit a data dashboard of key project measures and resulting outcomes. Data dashboards identify key project data to support the ongoing data collection, documentation, and tracking across the three-year period of performance, as well as resulting project outcome data. Your data dashboard is due July 29, 2022.
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Rural Health Network Development Planning
Upcoming Deliverables:
Network Statement
All grantees are required to submit a Network Statement which is a short narrative that describes the underlying reasons for and aspirations of the network. The Network Statement is due via e-mail to your technical assistance (TA) provider and project officer on March 11, 2022. The webinar Make a Statement took place on January 20, 2022 and provided guidance on creating a powerful Network Statement. If you missed the webinar or just need a refresher, you can access the recording and slides under the webinar section of your grantee portal.
Network Organizational Assessment
Award recipients will be expected to submit a Network Organizational Assessment of your network’s capacity to address adaptive challenges and execute high-leverage, short-term strategies. The template for the Organizational Assessment was sent to all grantees via e-mail on December 14, 2021. The template and a brief video overview can be found under the resources section in your Grantee Portal. The assessment is due in the EHB on April 15, 2022.
Source Book
Grantees are required to submit a Source Book which is a compilation of accomplishments of award recipients. A Source Book template with instructions will be sent to all grantees on March 8, 2022. The Source Book is due via e-mail to your TA provider by May 13, 2022.
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QUARTERLY TA-RELATED ACTIVITIES |
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Rural Health Network Development (RHND)
Support for Your RHND Business Planning Effort
As a follow up to the Office Hours with Business Planner Heather Gowdy session on March 2, your TA provider will be sharing the links to the event recording and materials. In addition, past issues of this newsletter have offered several business planning resources and may be referenced here (scroll to bottom of webpage). Your TA provider is willing to work with you on calls to complete this related deliverable and/or schedule a virtual site visit to facilitate conversations to support the planning process. Remember, you may use the template provided on March 2 or select another format for the deliverable due on August 31, 2022.
Work Plan Quarterly Conversation on April 2022 TA Calls
On April TA calls, your TA provider and project officer will check in with you regarding your work plan – to celebrate accomplishments from past quarters and discuss any emerging needs for the next couple of quarters.
Another Installment in the RHND Landscape Analysis Series to Be Released March 2022
The next installment in the RHND Landscape Analysis Series has a working title of Rural Health Networks’ Potential to Navigate the Emerging Healthcare Landscape. Both the report and the companion webinar will be available in late March 2022. Stay tuned! Other reports in this series may be found here.
Save the Dates for these RHND Learning Opportunities:
Join us, May 4 at 2 p.m. ET for the webinar Working with Payers as Partners. We will discuss tips for engaging with health care payers to enhance your programs and funding potential. If you have a particular question in this area, or success you would like to share, please mention it to your TA provider on the March TA call.
Join us, June 1 at 2 p.m. ET for Intro to Sustainability – Sustainability Framework and Formative Assessment. In this webinar, we will review a framework for positioning for sustainability and share a set of tools designed to support you in completing a sustainability formative assessment. This assessment is not a requirement of your Federal Office of Rural Health Policy RHND grant.
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Rural Health Network Development Planning
The next webinar is on April 13 from 3:00-4:00 p.m. ET: Completing the Performance Improvement Measurement System (PIMS) and Final Programmatic Report
The goal of this webinar is to provide an overview of the annual report submissions for the Health Resources and Services Administration. Your program coordinator will review the PIMS reporting template and answer your questions about the required elements of reporting on your Network Planning grant.
Deliverables Review
During your April and May calls, your TA provider and project officer will review with you your External Environmental Scan and your Network Organizational Assessments with the goal of providing feedback before they are integrated into your Network Strategic Plan due in June.
Work Plan Review
During April monthly technical assistance calls, your project officer and TA provider will do a final review of your grant work plan to celebrate your progress, identify any barriers, and discuss any possible adjustments to the work plan as you enter the final quarter of your year-long planning grant.
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Community health workers (CHWs) provide a range of services within communities throughout the country, especially rural communities. However, many rural communities are faced with challenges around hiring CHWs. This article lists important considerations to include in your recruiting and hiring practices, including how to support CHW staff. Click here to access the article.
If you are using the collective impact approach for your community health improvement imitative, this article may be beneficial. It describes four ways funders of collective impact efforts can help foster trust to strengthen collaboration and achieve greater impact. The four tips are broken down into external actions for building trust and internal conditions for developing trust. Click here to access the article.
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RESOURCES, NEWS AND UPDATES |
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The Georgia Health Policy center recently published a report that presents actionable, emerging, insights shared by and learned from state coalitions and subject matter experts who participated in the Earned Income Tax Credit Policy Implementation Lab. The intended audience is public health practitioners and allies in other sectors working to address health disparities exacerbated by income insecurity. In addition to providing actionable insights, the report includes suggested resources and tools.
Click here to access the report.
If you are facing growing behavioral health needs in the communities you are serving, you may find this webinar informative. Viewers will learn about factors that are driving increased demand for behavioral health services and how one organization is meeting the need with behavioral health specialists. Click here to access the webcast.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently published an addendum to the original COVID-19 Vaccination Field Guide: 12 Strategies for Your Community. The addendum includes rural considerations and examples for 12 strategies based on successes of the field and input from health departments and rural health organizations. Click here to access the addendum.
The Office of the U.S. Surgeon General recently published a toolkit for addressing health misinformation, including common types of misinformation, how to talk about misinformation with the community you serve, common disinformation tactics, resources, and more. The new resources help individuals, teachers, school administrators, librarians, faith leaders, and health care professionals to understand, identify, and stop the spread of misinformation. The toolkit includes a checklist to help evaluate the accuracy of health-related content. Click here to access the toolkit.
The National Association of Rural Health Clinics has background information and guidelines in its collection of technical assistance webinars for all COVID-related programs designated for Rural Health Clinics. The webinars are offered free of charge and available to both members and non-members alike. Click here to access the webinars.
This is a set of frequently asked questions from grantees and stakeholders. Answers are provided regarding where grantees can find important information and how they can use funding to fight COVID-19 in rural communities. Click here to access the information.
Under the program, Medicare-certified Rural Health Clinics will receive direct COVID-19 vaccines in addition to their normal jurisdictions’ weekly allocation. Contact RHCVaxDistribution@hrsa.gov for more information.
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March 22-23, 2022 | Virtual
Please join mHealth Intelligence as they host a virtual summit on creating a hybrid healthcare strategy that integrates in-person care delivery with telehealth. The summit will discuss telehealth design, development and implementation and examine policies and reimbursement guidelines. Attendees will also hear from health systems who have already launched hybrid programs.
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April 26-28, 2022 | Virtual
Please join FSG and the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions as they host their annual collective impact summit. The summit gathers cross sector leaders, partners, and stakeholders from across the world to share ideas and examples of how to achieve collaborative, equitable system change. The summit will address themes of culture and narrative change, shifting power and connecting communities, policy change, data and learning, and sustaining funding and momentum.
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May 10, 2022 | Albuquerque, New Mexico
Please join the National Rural Health Association as they host their annual Health Equity Conference. The conference is designed for individuals dedicated to bringing quality health care and health care services to underserved and underrepresented populations. Attendees will have the opportunity to network and attend sessions on a variety of topics including public-private partnerships, stabilizing at-risk hospitals, and more.
May 10-13, 2022 | Albuquerque, New Mexico
Please join the National Rural Health Association as they host their 45th Annual Rural Health Conference. Attendees will have the opportunity to network and attend sessions on a variety of topics including opioid usage in rural communities, improving patient outcomes, recruiting and retaining employees, preparing rural health clinics and Federally Qualified Health Centers for value based care, and more.
May 10-13, 2022 | Albuquerque, New Mexico
Please join the National Rural Health Association as they host their 7th Rural Hospital Innovation Summit. Attendees will have the opportunity to network and attend sessions on a variety of topics including community engagement and planning for rural health systems, reducing hospital readmissions, and more.
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