NBC NEWS | Duration: 07:15 | 4/10/2019
Video: Across the U.S., rural hospitals are shutting their doors at a staggering rate—and many more are on the brink of closing. As rural America shrinks and ages, healthcare for many Americans is falling out of reach.
SHOTS | Health News from NPR | Laurel Morales, May 29, 2019
Neda Billie has been waiting to turn on lights in her home for 15 years.
"We've been living off those propane lanterns," she says. "Now we don't have to have flashlights everywhere. All the kids have a flashlight so when they get up in the middle of the night like to use the restroom they have a flashlight to go to [the outhouse]."
Billie, her husband and their five kids live in a tiny, one-room hogan, a traditional Navajo home. Their three sheep graze on sagebrush that carpets the rolling hills of Dilkon, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation, the largest Native American reservation in the U.S.
They watch two men in a cherry picker hook up the last power line to their home. Billie says they've gone through too many generators to count.
"My two boys, they have really bad allergies and they have asthma, so sometimes they need the nebulizer," Billie says. "So we usually go to my mom's house, travel in the middle of the night over there back and forth."
The Billies are not alone. About 10% of Navajos on the reservation live without electricity. And as much as 40% of them have to haul their water and use outhouses. A poll of rural Americans conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that more than a quarter of Native Americans have experienced problems with electricity, the Internet and with the safety of their drinking water.
Northern Arizona University professor Manley Begay Jr., who is Navajo, says the numbers are probably even higher. Begay says electricity provides more than just light. With electricity, a family can pump water, charge their phone, store food, even get and maintain a job.
"Electricity itself provides a tremendous amount of convenience and having access to the world at large," Begay says. "You can just imagine if you were to fill out an application for a job, you do it online and you send it in. Or you're Googling for information — if you don't have electricity, you're in trouble."
Begay says he recently saw something strange when he pulled into a hotel parking lot in Window Rock, Ariz., the capital of the Navajo Nation. He noticed a bunch of teenagers in their cars.
"You could tell that they were high school students," Begay says. "They were doing their homework outside this hotel in the parking lot. They had the light on in their cars and doing their homework. It became quite clear that they didn't have Internet."
» Continued at link below:
TIME | BY FELICIA FONSECA / AP | MAY 15, 2019
(FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.) — In a remote, roadless Arizona canyon that is home to a small Native American tribe, there’s a natural skepticism toward the internet.
The telemedicine equipment that health care officials promised would work gathers dust. School children who have online homework struggle to get online. And streaming a web-based conference or taking classes remotely? Well, “that’s a lot of luck you’d have to get,” said Ophelia Watahomigie-Corliss, who sits on the Havasupai Tribal Council.
Things started to change after a small company approached the tribe with a plan to broaden coverage for educational use. It’s now using the experience to help push the federal government to give tribes priority for broadband spectrum largely unassigned across the western United States.
The Federal Communications Commission has not issued any new permanent licenses for the Educational Broadband Services spectrum in more than 20 years. It asked the public a year ago to weigh in on possible changes to the licensing system to better define geographic areas, build in flexibility, create priorities for tribes and educational institutions, and possibly auction off the 2.5 GHz-band spectrum. It’s not clear when the FCC will act.
» Read full article at link below:
The prestigious recognition is bestowed on University of Arizona alumni who have uniquely demonstrated a commitment to an academic college's success and mission through professional achievement, service or support.
Dan Derksen, MD, professor of public health and family and community medicine, has been named the College of Medicine – Tucson’s 2019 Alumni of the Year. The honor is bestowed annually by the University of Arizona Alumni Association.
Dr. Derksen completed his bachelor’s degree and medical degree and at the University of Arizona. He then went on to complete his residency in family medicine at the University of New Mexico (UNM).
After spending 25 years as a faculty member at UNM, Dr. Derksen returned to Tucson as a joint tenured professor in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and the College of Medicine – Tucson.
Today, he serves the UA Health Sciences Associate Vice President for Health Equity, Outreach and Interprofessional Activities. In this role, he collaborates across the UA campus, and with stakeholders and partners statewide, to build on activities that promote health equity – including social, economic, demographic and geographic factors that affect health outcomes.
Over his 30 years in academics, Dr. Derksen’s service, research and educational activities include collecting, translating, analyzing and reporting data to inform legislative, regulatory and program policies to improve health equity; increasing health insurance coverage; reducing the number of uninsured; narrowing health disparities; and ensuring a well-trained and distributed health workforce to meet the state’s and nation’s needs.
For his expertise on health care policy, Dr. Derksen has been interviewed dozens of times by national and international news outlets, including U.S. News and World Report, FOX News, the Associated Press and MedPage Today.
In a nomination letter to the UA Alumni Association, Interim Dean Irving Kron, MD, wrote, “Since our founding over fifty years ago, the UA College of Medicine —Tucson has focused on medical care in underserved populations, including border communities, Native American communities and less-developed countries. It is clear that Dr. Derksen truly believes in this mission and passes it on to our students every day.”
Dr. Derksen will be recognized on Thursday, Oct. 31 during the UA’s 2019 Alumni of the Year Awards Ceremony.
The prestigious recognition of Alumni of the Year is bestowed on UA alumni who have uniquely demonstrated a commitment to an academic college’s success and mission through professional achievement, service or support.
For more information about alumni affairs at the College of Medicine - Tucson, contact Jill Hall at ghall@email.arizona.edu.
Ken Alltucker, USA TODAY | May 9, 2019
The number of Americans without health insurance increased again in 2018, the second consecutive year that figure has risen after several years of declines under Obamacare, a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey shows.
An estimated 30.4 million Americans did not have health insurance in 2018, up from 29.3 million in 2017, according to the CDC's National Health Interview Survey. That means about 1.1 million more Americans lost insurance coverage last year.
“I don’t think it’s too shocking with efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” said Daniel Derksen, a University of Arizona professor and health policy expert.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 eliminated the health law’s individual mandate that required people get health insurance or pay a penalty.
Derksen said a strong economy means more low-income people likely moved from Medicaid coverage to health insurance through a job. That won’t necessarily make health care more affordable for those whose health plans shift costs to them through higher deductibles and co-payments.
The CDC survey said the number of Americans in a high-deductible plans reached an all-time high, covering 45.8% of people with private health insurance in 2018. In 2010, 25% of people with private coverage had high-deductible plans.
High-deductible plans are popular among companies seeking to defray the spiraling cost of health care, but a recent survey by Kaiser Family Foundation and the Los Angeles Times found that many employees in high-deductible plans have postponed care or cut spending on household expenses such as food and clothing.
» Read the full story at the link below:
Arizona is in dire need of physicians, and the need is greatest in rural areas. The Health Resources and Services Administration estimates that the state needs 563 primary care physicians to eliminate the current shortage and will need 1,941 physicians by 2030.
The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix is committed to inspiring and training medical students to one day practice in a rural setting to help underserved populations. Through the Rural Health Certification of Distinction (COD), third-year medical students can get first-hand exposure to rural health care, receive one-on-one instruction with physicians and have direct contact with patients.
“One in 10 physicians practice rural medicine, even though two in 10 Arizonans live in a rural setting,” Director of the Rural Health Professions Program Jonathan Cartsonis, MD, said. “Rural populations experience more chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer and heart disease. This is related to the fact that more elderly are living in rural communities than urban. Students need to know this. As a medical school, we have the obligation to train physicians all over the state and where they are most needed.”
The Rural Health Professions Program COD recognizes students who demonstrate a strong commitment to future rural medical practice. Students who are a part of the program have clinical exposure experiences that are outside the norms of general clinical surroundings.
In order to earn the certificate, students must model their course of study around rural health topics, including requirements like scholarly projects, on-going seminar series, recurring meetings with mentors to discuss issues surrounding rural health and a four-week summer rural pre-clinical experience. These experiences are bolstered by a minimum of 15 weeks of rural clerkship experiences from a variety of specialties.
The program had its first graduating class in 2017, and so far four students have earned the COD.
This year, five graduating students met the requirements: Lauren Dominick, Nathan Goff, Omar Hussain, Charles Smith and Michael Wasserman. They will graduate as part of the Class of 2019 during the Commencement ceremony on Monday, May 6 at 3:30 p.m. at the Orpheum Theatre, 203 W. Adams St., Phoenix.
» Read full article at the link below:
WHITE MOUNTAIN INDEPENDENT | By Vicky Solomon | Apr 23, 2019
Navajo County may be one of the more rural areas of Arizona — 42 percent of the county’s 9,953 square miles is Native American reservation land — but don’t think for a second that protects it from the state’s opioid crisis. In fact, Navajo County had 183 opioid overdoses between June 2017 and November 2018.
Limited public transportation, limited phone and internet service and lack of access to drug treatment centers only fuel the problem as do Navajo County’s high rates of poverty — 26.2 percent of adults and up to 40 percent of children live below the poverty level.
The 2018 Arizona Opioid Epidemic Act is a step in the right direction. It tackles the opioid crisis through a combination of physician education, dosage limits, required e-prescribing to reduce forged prescriptions, improved access to drug treatment and widespread availability of the overdose-reversal drug Naloxone. Unfortunately, there is still much to be done to protect our most vulnerable population: our youth.
Opioid use among Navajo County Youth
According to the 2018 Arizona Youth Survey, 12.5 percent of Navajo County 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders have misused prescription drugs. Nationally, a 2018 Monitoring the Future survey show that 32.5 percent of 12th-graders said that opioids were easily available.
The survey indicated that the average age of prescription drug initiation for Navajo County youth was just 13. And unsurprisingly, less than half of those young people are talking to their parents about substance use.
In an effort to prevent Navajo County children from becoming drug users, Nexus Coalition for Drug Prevention (NCDP) was formed in 2008. The coalition lives its mission — to strengthen a community alliance working toward a healthy, substance-free environment for youth — through prevention education and skill-building opportunities for children and adults.
Our three biggest programs:
Junior Leadership Academy: This summer program helps kids from all over the White Mountains learn about how to be an integral part of their community through service and fun activities that promote teamwork, and leadership.
Mpowrd: This teen support group helps high schoolers learn personal empowerment and accountability. Students struggling with destructive behaviors, aggression, negative thinking, and unhealthy relationships are given tools to help them change for the better.
2BMpowrd: This support group creates an opportunity for age-appropriate discussion of some of the most challenging topics facing adolescents today, and offers a chance to develop the confidence and communication skills to address issues that they face at each developmental level.
» Read full article at link below:
ARIZONA CAPITOL TIMES | GUEST OPINION | Heather Carter, Jim Rounds | May 2, 2019
Anyone who has been or will be a patient should be concerned about Arizona’s severe shortage of doctors and nurses. They should also be concerned that the shortage may be limiting the state’s economic potential.
In most discussions about building a stronger Arizona economy, policymakers and economists discuss tax rates, economic development programs and regulations. But the provision of a quality health-care system is just as fundamental to economic growth.
Our concern is the current shortage of doctors and nurses across the state will eventually translate into slower economic growth. This would mean fewer new jobs being created in every county, lower levels of income for many, and a declining quality of life for residents.
How bad is Arizona’s doctor shortage?
Arizona is one of the fastest-growing states for overall population growth and at the same time, a leader in elderly population growth. This demographic, which brings retirement money to communities and buys second homes and cars and other things, will require quality health care services.
The state is also a leader in attracting new businesses and encouraging new ones to be formed. Many will locate to the bigger cities, but others will prefer a more rural lifestyle. These businesses and entrepreneurs examine a long list of community attributes, heath care quality among them, before growing roots.
The people in the trenches are seeing the same things that we are seeing as policy professionals. According to the University of Arizona Center for Rural Health, every county is experiencing a severe shortage of doctors and nurses, and increases in costs and decreases in quality.
That same policy brief indicates that Arizona ranks 44th nationally in primary care physicians at 77.9 per 100,000 population and meets just 41 percent of its primary care physician need.
How SB1354 addresses the shortage
The Arizona Legislature is considering Senate Bill 1354 to alleviate the state’s health care workforce shortage. The bill provides support for five programs — Graduate Medical Education, the University of Arizona Medical School, primary care provider loan repayment, medical student loan repayments, and nurse training. All of these programs will move the needle on the shortage.
Graduate Medical Education, commonly known as physician residencies, has not been state-funded in a decade, thus leaving matching federal funds on the table. Senate Bill 1354 will contribute $20 million, matched by approximately $47 million in federal funds — a total of $67 million would become available to the GME account.
We know the vast majority of doctors practice where they do their residency. The problem is that Arizona simply doesn’t have enough medical residencies. Only 42 percent of Arizona’s medical students remain in the state after graduation, as reported by the Association of American Medical Colleges.
But when they train in Arizona, they stay in Arizona. According to Dr. Bharat Magu, chief medical officer at Yuma Regional Medical Center, nearly all medical students who finish the hospital’s post-graduate training stay in-state, and 67 percent stay in Yuma.
We often need to be reminded how the smallest changes in our overall rate of growth, both in income and jobs, can have a dramatic impact on state and local finances.
This issue matters.
If passed, this initiative will improve the well-being, both economic and physical, of all Arizonans.
Sen. Heather Carter is vice chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.
Jim Rounds is an economist and president of Rounds Consulting Group, Inc.
By Eric Wicklund | mHEALTH Intelligence
April 22, 2019 - Arizona legislators have enacted a new law that expands telehealth and telemedicine in the state and improves insurance coverage.
Governor Doug Ducey signed SB 1089 into law last Friday, following unanimous senate approval in March and near-unanimous House approval earlier this month. The new law, which goes into effect in 2021, adds asynchronous (store-and-forward) telehealth and remote patient monitoring to the state’s connected care guidelines and boosts payer coverage for those services.
The legislation aims to clear up a challenging telemedicine landscape in Arizona, where access to a primary care provider isn’t easy. A recent report from the University of Arizona Center for Rural Health indicates only about 42 percent of a resident’s primary care needs are met by a PCP, and while the state is experiencing the fourth highest growth rate in the nation, it ranks near the bottom in per capita PCP access, with about 80 per every 100,000 residents (the US average is about 92).
» Read full article at link below:
AZHHA NEWS | Greg Ensell | April 23, 2019
PHOENIX—April 23, 2019—The Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association (AzHHA) commissioned a study to ascertain how the passage of a legislative proposal to combat the state’s severe physician shortage would affect the economy and patient access to care. The result of the independent economic-impact study, released today, shows “significant positive economic impact” to the state and expanded patient access to care over the next ten years if Arizona Senate Bill (SB) 1354 is passed.
The bill would enable hospitals across the state to increase the number of post-graduate physician residents they train through state funding that was cut more than a decade ago. The study, prepared by Rounds Consulting Group, Inc., shows that increasing the number of physician residents at three rural hospitals alone would result in 845 new high-paying jobs and $911 million in economic output over ten years.
The benefits of educating additional physician residents aren’t exclusively economic. Arizona’s primary care physician (PCP) shortage is one of the worst in the nation, meeting only 42% of the state’s PCP needs, according to the University of Arizona Center for Rural Health. SB 1354 would also help eliminate the physician shortages that result in this limited access to care for patients statewide.
Additionally, the bill lessens the issue of physicians leaving Arizona after graduation because they are unable to secure the limited amount of in-state residency positions.
“Physicians stay where they train after graduation,” says Ann Marie Alameddin, President and CEO of AzHHA. “Almost 75% of medical students who finish post-graduate training in Arizona stay in Arizona. This means state funding for physician residencies will move the needle on the state’s physician shortage and be a game-changer for rural communities.”
In addition to restoring funding for physician residencies, SB 1354 also helps alleviate the physician shortage by appropriating state funds to four other programs: the University of Arizona Medical School, primary care provider loan repayment, medical student loan repayments and nurse training.
AzHHA Connection newsletter | Greg Ensell, Vice President of Government Relations | April 17, 2019
Last week in a vote of 60-0 the house passed SB 1089. Sponsored by Sens. Heather Carter and Kate Brophy McGee and Rep. Nancy Barto among others, SB 1089 will improve healthcare access and help lower costs. With this legislation, any healthcare service covered in-person by a commercial insurer will also be covered when provided through telemedicine. Currently, Arizona law limits telemedicine coverage to a handful of medical services. The bill will now go to Governor Ducey to sign into law.
TUCSON MEDICAL CENTER | 04/17/2019
Benson Hospital is pleased to announce significant investments in the healthcare technology available at the San Pedro valley hospital.
“The capital investment is critical for Benson Hospital to continue to provide life-saving care to our community,” said Teresa Vincifora, RN, chief operating officer, Benson Hospital. “We are fortunate that several groups recognized the critical needs and collectively allowed us to bring nearly $200,000 of new capital to Benson.”
Rural Cardiac and Stroke Program Funding
Benson Hospital was awarded $133,000 by the TMC Foundation to invest in technology and invest in programing to support its Cardiac and Stroke Program. As a critical access hospital and a sole community hospital for the extended Benson area, Benson Hospital is a critical link for patients experiencing the signs and symptoms of stroke or heart attack. The ability to rapidly respond and, when appropriate, triage to the next level of care is critical to saving brain and heart muscle. TMC Foundation funded the acquisition of a new portable X-Ray machine and a coagulation analyzer to enhance patient care and offer medical providers more detailed diagnostics. This could potentially reduce the need to transfer patients to Tucson, allowing them to receive emergent and aftercare in Benson. However, in the critical event when a patient requires more specialized care, the data captured by both enhance patient information on the receiving hospital's end. Additionally, the funding will support cardiac and stroke screenings and education in Cochise County.
Addition capital investments also include a new conference room with audio-visual equipment provided by TMC HealthCare. This new room will be used for internal meetings and community programming.
At its April meeting, the Benson Hospital Auxiliary approved the majority of funding for a power pressure injector used to provide contrast for our computed tomographic (CT scans) in the Benson Hospital Imaging Department. The contrast pressure injector is like a plunger that pushes the contrast media out of the syringes into tubing attached to a patient's vascular system. The power injector is a complex medical device that is a part of imaging procedures that can help improve diagnosis, treatment, and, ultimately, patient outcomes. Injecting contrast media into the bloodstream of patients enables visualization of various pathologies through X-ray, computed tomography, or other medical-imaging modalities. Contrast delivery is most effective and efficient using a medical device called a “power injector” that can be programmed to deliver specific amounts of contrast agent at specific flow rates.
This equipment measures the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in a patient’s blood. This test is critical in identifying certain medical conditions including kidney failure, heart failure, uncontrolled diabetes, hemorrhage, chemical poisoning and more. The San Pedro Valley Hospital Tax District provided the $13,000 to purchase this vital technology.
“It’s a little cliché to say that it takes a village, but in rural healthcare today, it truly does,” said Julia Strange, CEO, Benson Hospital. “The decision of the citizens in the San Pedro Valley to support the hospital district; the dedication and vision the Benson Auxiliary brings to their work every day; and the commitment of the TMC Foundation has provided funding to bring life-saving technology and programming to the Benson community – together have allowed us to make significant investment in our clinical programming that will serve the broader community for years to come.”
Benson Hospital is a community-focused hospital with inpatient and outpatient services. Along with inpatient and skilled nursing care, the hospital is proud of its Level IV Trauma Emergency Department that is staffed with physicians 24/7, its outpatient services that include infusion therapy and wound care treatment, as well as the primary care clinic on Fourth Street and the retail care clinic located in the Safeway store.
NPR SHOTS | April 7, 20197:33 AM ET | Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday
When a rural community loses its hospital, health care becomes harder to come by in an instant. But a hospital closure also shocks a small town's economy. It shuts down one of its largest employers. It scares off heavy industry that needs an emergency room nearby. And in one Tennessee town, a lost hospital means lost hope of attracting more retirees.
Seniors, and their retirement accounts, have been viewed as potential saviors for many rural economies trying to make up for lost jobs. But the epidemic of rural hospital closures is threatening those dreams in places like Celina, Tenn.. The town of 1,500, whose 25-bed hospital closed March 1, has been trying to position itself as a retiree destination.
"I'd say, look elsewhere," says Susan Scovel, a Seattle transplant who came with her husband in 2015.
Scovel's despondence is especially noteworthy given that she leads the local chamber of commerce effort to attract retirees like herself. She considers the wooded hills and secluded lake to hold comparable scenic beauty to the Washington coast — with dramatically lower costs of living; she and a small committee plan getaway weekends for prospects to visit.
When she first toured the region before moving in 2015, Scovel and her husband, who had Parkinson's, made sure to scope out the hospital, on a hill overlooking the sleepy town square. And she's rushed to the hospital four times since he died in 2017.
"I have very high blood pressure, and they're able to do the IVs to get it down," Scovel says. "This is an anxiety thing since my husband died. So now — I don't know."
She says she can't in good conscience advise a senior with health problems to come join her in Celina.
The closure adds delays when seconds count
Celina's Cumberland River Hospital had been on life support for years, operated by the city-owned medical center an hour away in Cookeville, which decided in late January to cut its losses after trying to find a buyer. Cookeville Regional Medical Center explains that the facility faced the grim reality for many rural providers.
"Unfortunately, many rural hospitals across the country are having a difficult time and facing the same challenges, like declining reimbursements and lower patient volumes, that Cumberland River Hospital has experienced," CEO Paul Korth said in a written statement.
» Read complete article at link below:
Indian Health Service | by Tina Tah, IHS Senior Nurse Consultant
The Indian Health Service launched the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative in 2011. Four of the 10 IHS hospitals that have been designated as Baby-Friendly have recently achieved re-designation, indicating their ongoing commitment to promoting a healthy start for babies.
Baby-Friendly hospitals focus on increasing breastfeeding initiation and duration using quality improvement processes to improve breastfeeding rates through new maternity care and infant feeding practices. Exclusive breastfeeding protects against obesity and type II diabetes , conditions to which American Indians and Alaska Natives are particularly prone.
At the IHS we are proud to be a part of this global effort to provide better support for breastfeeding mothers in maternity wards. The initiative was introduced in 1991 by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund at a time when worldwide breastfeeding rates had fallen to alarmingly low levels, and commercial interests had seeped into maternity care practices. The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative was created to reverse that trend by changing some standard practices in the maternity ward, the setting which is most influential in a mother’s decision to initiate breastfeeding and helping her establish lactation and achieve ongoing breastfeeding success.
IHS Baby-Friendly hospitals encourage the broad-scale implementation of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes. These guidelines were developed by a team of global experts and consist of evidence-based practices that have been shown to increase breastfeeding initiation and duration. U.S. facilities that achieve these high standards of care are designated as “Baby-Friendly” by Baby-Friendly USA, the authority for the BFHI in this country.
Achieving Baby-Friendly designation is an important part of the journey, but it is not the endpoint. Routine data collection, monitoring of practices and quality improvement activities are vital to ensuring that the Baby-Friendly standards are maintained. Facilities are responsible for ongoing adherence to the most currentGuidelines and Evaluation Criteria .
IHS facilities that are designated as Baby-Friendly are required to be surveyed and re-designated every five years. The process to become re-designated can take up to two years.
IHS congratulates the four facilities that have completed re-designation:
The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative has become the standard for obstetrical care in the Indian Health Service. The Indian Health Service credits patient satisfaction, promotion of mother-baby bonding, successful breastfeeding, and outstanding patient care as key factors in these successful results.
Related content:
Promoting Health through Breastfeeding
IHS Breastfeeding Toolkit
IHS Breastfeeding Promotion and Support
United States Breastfeeding Committee
Ms. Tina Tah is a public health nurse and the senior nurse consultant at IHS headquarters. She has been actively involved in efforts to promote and sustain the health promotion breastfeeding initiative since 2011 as a means to improve the services to American Indian and Alaska Native communities. She retired as a captain from the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service.
AzHHA Blog | April 5, 2019
Today’s blog comes to us from Robert Seamon, CEO of Copper Queen Community Hospital. Here he shares his thoughts on the success, challenges and the future of healthcare in Arizona. Once you’ve had a chance to read it, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Generating meaningful conversations around the health issues facing us here in Arizona is another way we are working to make our state the Healthiest State in the Nation!
AzHHA: What are the biggest hurdles to providing care?
Mr. Seamon: While I am always optimistic about the future, there are many challenges facing rural hospitals. I believe the greatest hurdle to providing patient care centers on a rural facility’s ability to remain financially viable and open for business. Financial margins in rural healthcare can be razor thin. Cuts from Federal and State funding programs such as Medicare and Medicaid are devastating.
Many rural communities also face significant economic challenges, including the loss of valuable industries. As a result, populations decline causing a significant decrease in volume and revenue for the hospital. Operating cash then becomes insufficient to cover the high fixed costs. As a result, many rural hospitals have been forced to close.
Another significant hurdle is the ability to attract qualified professionals to isolated areas, when the nation as a whole, is facing critical workforce shortages. In addition, hospitals large and small throughout the country are scrambling to develop effective strategies to address cyber threats, regulatory burden, escalating operating costs, social determinants of health affecting patient care outcomes and a national opioid epidemic that continues to kill thousands of Americans on an annual basis.
AzHHA: What are the greatest health needs in your community?
Mr. Seamon: Behavioral health services and addiction medicine programs are in desperate need. Moreover, many rural communities have a high prevalence of chronic conditions including hypertension, diabetes, heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The availability of specialty physicians is often severely limited in rural communities. Social determinants of health, including a lack of transportation to and from medical appointments, the inability to pay for prescription medications and lack of safe, affordable housing are all critical needs.
AzHHA: When you think about the future, what are you most hopeful for?
Mr. Seamon: My dream is to work with other healthcare facilities and community leaders to implement effective strategies that dramatically improve the overall health of our population. My goal is for every resident of the communities we serve to have access to the care they need, provided in the safest possible way, in alignment with the most recent evidence-based standards of care. When patients are discharged, I want them to have a safe place to live, hot food, access to needed medicine, a social support system and transportation to their medical appointments. We service three separate communities, and I want them all to be ranked the healthiest communities in Arizona. That’s my vision!
AzHHA: What is your facility’s greatest recent success?
Mr. Seamon: Copper Queen Community Hospital has been blessed with tremendous success. We are seeing solid growth in every service line. In large part, our success is due to the size of the communities we serve. Having a steady volume of patients is critical. Moreover, we have an incredible Board of Directors made up of volunteers who truly care about the communities we serve. We have the best medical staff. Our providers are exceptional and provide safe, quality care to our patients. We have over 300 employees who commit themselves to our success on a daily basis. We are fortunate to have several specialty physicians, including the recent addition of a gastroenterologist. We also have a robust telemedicine program that helps connect our patients to the care they need for good health.
AzHHA: What keeps you up at night?
Mr. Seamon: Interestingly, it’s not the challenges. I’ve spent my entire career in healthcare. There are always serious problems to face; it’s just part of the job. What keeps me up at night is quite positive. I think about my dream. I think about who I can partner with and how I can make it happen. At the end of my career, I don’t want my name on a building. I want to look back and know that my work was meaningful and impactful on the health of my community.
