Newman Regional Health had two different roles for a special announcement by Kansas Governor Laura Kelly on Thursday.
The hospital’s conference room was the site of the governor’s official unveiling of funding through the Rural Health Transformation Program — specifically, money for the Community Health Workers and Accountable Food is Medicine Program grant. Newman Regional Health is receiving over $110,000 and is among the first 7 recipients statewide to be announced. The CHW+AFIM program’s overall goal is to enhance health outcomes. Governor Kelly says there conversations already underway on how to bolster the program when the funding was made available.
The funding will help to develop, coordinate, implement and evaluate the program going forward. Kelly says the program has existed for some time, but “it hasn’t been developed nearly as much as it needs to.”
Understandably, Newman Regional Health Chief Executive Officer Cathy Pimple was pleased for the funding and what it means for both hospital operations and its patients. She says the conversation about health outcomes typically revolves around patients who see their doctors in a clinic or at a hospital. Details are developing, but this program is designed to go beyond that.
Pimple says this will help patients served by the hospital’s existing program.
This will also help Newman Regional Health spread the word.
As you can imagine, food is a critical component. Pimple says this tracks with a recent study.
Kansas got over $220 million through the Rural Health Transformation Program several months ago, the 6th-highest dollar amount handed out to a state as the federal government pre-fills some funding gaps as it cuts funding to Medicaid. Kelly is grateful for the money, but she has significant concerns about the rest of the federal plan.
For Newman Regional Health, conversations are underway for other aspects of Rural Health Transformation, notably the Anchor Hospital program designation announced this past spring. The Anchor Hospital designation is important because of what it add for patients: more use of wearable technology for remote patient monitoring, increased use of artificial intelligence for electronic health records, enhancing rural residency programs in certain specialty areas and on-demand support.
