Addressing Rural Health Disparities in Tennessee

(Archived) Session 3 – October 31^st: Addressing Rural Health Disparities in Tennessee

In 2017, in response to the wave of rural hospital closures that is sweeping through our state, THCC formed a Rural Health Equity Team made up of Board members and Volunteers. In partnership with community health researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, we began a series of community listening sessions in counties that had lost a hospital.

This interactive session shared an in-depth look at what these communities are experiencing in the wake of their hospitals’ closures, and what community leaders told us needs to be done to rebuild and sustain rural health care systems. We will also introduced our Community Tool Kit designed to assist rural communities in preventing further loss of needed health services.

Presenters and Panelists:

Resources for communities concerned about the loss of a rural hospital

The following is meant to serve as a resource base for communities who are facing uncertainty and scarcity of health-related resources. Many of these websites provide links to additional resources, and it is our hope that this will prompt further exploration as you seek to formulate community-tailored solutions.

Organizations concerned about Rural Health:

Rural Policy Research Institute: Comprehensive Primary Care Plus – A Rural Commentary

The Commonwealth Fund: Building Partnerships to Improve Health in the Rural South ~ CareSouth Carolina

Rural Health Association of Tennessee

National Rural Health Association

Health Resources & Services Administration: Rural Health Policy

National Organization of States Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH): Links to Multiple Resources

Rural Policy Research Institute: Physician Engagement – A Primer for Healthcare Leaders

National Center for Rural Health Works

The Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research (University of North Carolina): Links to pertinent infographics, Hospital Closures

Resources on rural hospitals:

Transforming the Rural Health Care Paradigm: Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)

Rethinking Rural Hospitals: JAMA

Rural Health Information Hub: Hospitals

Community Health Needs Assessment: Hospital Alliance of Tennessee

Tennessee Joint Annual Reports for Hospitals and Health Facilities Tennessee Department of Health

Tennessee’s Small and Rural Hospitals Tennessee Hospital Association

Interactive Maps Highlight Urban-Rural Differences in Hospital Bed Capacity: Kaiser Family Foundation

State Profiles 2015 – Rural Hospital Profiles Combined Impact: National Organization of States Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH)

Rural Hospital Transition Framework: National Organization of States Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH)

Assisting Small Rural Hospitals to Prepare for the Future: Rural Health Innovations

Engaging Your Board and Community in Value-Based Care Conversations:Rural Policy Research Institute

Rural Hospital Renaissance: Saving Rural Hospitals

Mobilizing the Community:

Community Vitality: Rural Health Information Hub

About the Economic Impact Analysis Tool: Rural Health Information Hub

Starting a Community Coalition: Community Toolbox

Developing a Plan for Assessing Local Needs and Resources: Community Toolbox

County Health Rankings & Roadmaps

Change-makers working to create healthy, equitable, sustainable communities:Community Commons

Media Toolkit: National Organization of States Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH)

Emergency Care:

What is the Potential of Community Paramedicine to Fill Rural Health Care Gaps?: National Organization of States Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH)

Estimated Costs of Rural Freestanding Emergency Departments 2015: Rural Health Research Gateway

Community Paramedicine: Rural Health Information Hub

Quality of Care:

Generating quality reports for health systems: Why Not the Best?

Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Hospital Inpatient and Outpatient Quality Reporting Outreach and Education Support Programs: Quality Reporting Center

Quality Improvement Organizations

MPQIP Quality Reporting Guides: National Rural Health Resource Center

Rural Hospital Performance Improvement (RHPI) Project: National Rural Health Resource Center

CAH Blueprint for Performance Excellence: National Rural Health Resource Center

Reimbursement & Insurance Coverage:

Evaluation of the Medicare Frontier Extended Stay Clinic Demonstration, Report to Congress: HHS

Innovation: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

State Profiles – Decrease in Uninsured Population Under 65: National Organization of States Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH)

Value-based Care Assessment Tool: Rural Policy Research Institute

Telemedicine:

South Central Telehealth Resource Center

What’s the difference between telemedicine and telehealth?: American Academy of Family Physicians

Legislation:

Links to Legislation: Federal, Federal, State

Learn more about our team:

Randall Rice is Board of Directors President of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign. He is in his fifth year serving on the Board and fourth year as an officer. Rice also serves as a volunteer enrollment assister helping consumers enroll in the ACA and TennCare since 2013. Rice has worked on several THCC projects including the Rural Health Equity Team and as an active advocate for expansion of Medicaid.

Rice’s background includes a 31 year career as a Grand Lodge Representative at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. There, he had primary responsibility for negotiating labor agreements with major employers. An important component of this work included design, negotiation and administration of healthcare insurance for employees.

Dr. Velma McBride Murry is President of Society for Research on Adolescence, a nationally recognized expert examining ways in which racism, discrimination, and prejudices affect family processes, behavior, and overall health outcomes of minoritized children and families.

At Vanderbilt University, she is a University Professor, with appointments in Department of Health Policy, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Department of Human and Organizational Development, Peabody College. Murry also holds the Endowed Lois Autrey Betts Chair, Education and Human Development, and is Co-Director of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s, NIH Clinical Translation Science Award, Community Engagement Research Core.

Barbara Clinton, MSW is a public health consultant who served as director of the Vanderbilt University Center for Community Health Solutions and a faculty member of the Vanderbilt Schools of Medicine and Nursing and Meharry Medical College for more than 20 years. Clinton directed Tennessee’s SBIRT Champions program, recruiting and training urban and rural physicians to incorporate substance abuse surveillance and management into their work with patients. She has served as an advisor to former Vice President Al Gore, the Tennessee Commission on Aging, the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University and several private foundations.

Clinton teaches yoga and assists Nashville Public Library in evaluating after school programs in low income neighborhoods. Clinton also serves on the board of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign, JFON (Justice For Our Neighbors), a non-profit law firm which offers free legal services to immigrants and refugees, and the Tennessee Collaborative for Community Health Workers.

Tracey T. Stansberry, MSN, APN, AOCN is an advanced practice nurse with over 18 years experience providing care in the rural sector. Stansberry earned her BSBA in 1989 and MSN in 2001, both from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. In 2003 she worked with the leaders in Scott County, Tennessee to open the community’s first cancer treatment center, now Tennessee Plateau Oncology’s Scott County Clinic. She served as its Director of Clinical Services until January 2019, when she began the PhD program in nursing at UTK.

Having personally experienced the 21st Century’s decline in rural health services, Stansberry is focusing her doctoral studies on Rural Health Policy and Health Services Research. Stansberry currently serves on the Community Advisory Board at Big South Fork Medical Center, the Scott County Department of Health’s Advisory Board, and the Tennessee Nurses Association District 2 Board. In the Fall of 2018, she joined Tennessee Health Care Campaign’s Committee for Rural Health Equity, examining the state’s rural hospital closure crisis.

Stansberry is a member of the American Nurses Association, the Oncology Nursing Society, and Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and Phi Beta Kappa.

Richard Henighan, APRN is a veteran THCC Board member and current volunteer. Rich worked as a Family Nurse Practitioner for over 40 years providing Primary Care services to both uninsured rural and urban East Tennesseans, mostly through Health Department safety-net clinics. He has a MA in Community Psychology from Peabody-Vanderbilt and lives in Sevier County.

Leah Scholma Branam is an Instructor in Clinical Nursing at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing where she teaches Community and Population Health and facilitates community-based health promotion programs. Leah has a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Tennessee, a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Calvin University, and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Community Research and Action from Vanderbilt University Peabody College.

Clare Sullivan RN, MSN, MSPH, APRN is a retired family nurse practitioner who practiced primarily in school-based and community health centers in Middle Tennessee. She has also worked in a variety of preventive health and public health settings, including the Tennessee Department of Health, local health departments, and as an occupational health specialist for an international labor union. She received her Masters of Public Health in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health and her Masters in Nursing from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. She has been a long-time volunteer for THCC and the League of Women Voters, and is currently serving as THCC’s Interim Executive Director.

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