2012 Georgia Rural Health Association 

Annual Conference

September 17 -19, 2012

Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain, GA

   CALL FOR SPEAKER SESSIONS 

 Deadline extended to July 1, 2012

 

CALL FOR STUDENT POSTER SESSION

 Deadline extended to September 7, 2012

 

 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE NOMINATION APPLICATION 

Deadline is August 1, 2012

 

 

Reservations: 1-888-312-8002

Ask for GRHA Rate

 

 

ATTENDEE 

SPONSOR

 

NEW THIS YEAR!

3 New Sponsorship Opportunities

Presenting

Diamond

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Time to Nominate Your Colleagues for 2012 GRHA Awards of Excellence

Shelley Spires, Awards Committee Chair for the 2012 Annual Conference wants to hear from you!

The nominations are now open for the 2012 GRHA Awards of Excellence. No messy paperwork! No postage required! Simply click here to make a nomination. 

You can nominate people or organizations for the following awards:

The Legislator of the Year award is presented to the member of the Georgia General Assembly who demonstrates wisdom and foresight in dealing with rural health issues, understanding of rural health, and exemplary leadership in addressing the needs of rural areas and resolution of their health problems.

The Outstanding Rural Health Practice or Practitioner award recognizes a community-oriented rural health care practice, whether a group or an individual physician, that has improved direct access to health care services and information for rural people through innovative, comprehensive approaches.

The Outstanding Rural Health Program award recognizes a program that meets a healthcare need in a community or a group of communities and has demonstrated outcomes. This effort can include a collaboration of clinics, doctors, hospitals, wellness programs (i.e. recreation department or wellness facility), civic groups, or faith-based organizations.

The Distinguished Educator/Researcher is awarded to the individual whose research or teaching has made the most significant contribution of the year or whose sustained history of teaching and educating over a period of time is deemed to be the major contribution of the year.

The James Alley Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement in Rural Health Care is awarded to the practitioner, educator, public health employee, volunteer, or other individual who has excelled over a lifetime in service to rural people, either directly or indirectly.

The Outstanding Volunteer is awarded to a volunteer who has made a significant contribution toward improving rural health.

The Future Professionals in Rural Health is awarded to a student currently studying at a higher education institution in Georgia whose work exemplifies a passion for rural health. Nominees' work can include the following: conducting their own research over the past year that significantly contributes to rural health; have studied under and been instrumental in research conducted by faculty over the past year that significantly contributes to rural health; and have been instrumental in the implementation of a program that significantly contributes to rural health.

Nominations will be accepted until August 1st. Awards will be presented at the GRHA Annual Conference in Pine Mountain, Georgia on October 17.

Thanks to 2012 GRHA Awards Committee volunteers Chair Shelley Spires, and members Sue Nieman, Sheila Freeman, Deidre Howell, and Paula Guy

 The Obama administration announced nearly 129 million dollars in grants to community health centers across the country. 

The money comes from a fund established through the Affordable Care Act, which is currently under review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Seven community health care centers in Georgia are splitting a total of $4.2 million. That will allow them to serve 40,000 additional patients.

The centers serve uninsured and under-insured people across the state.

Full Story

Any comparisons of urban and rural healthcare costs come freighted with caveats.

For starters, rural hospitals usually cannot provide the array of specialized and expensive care seen in larger urban hospitals, making per-patient cost comparisons difficult. There can also be stark differences in patient populations. And rural hospitals do not enjoy the economy of scale and leverage with vendors and insurance companies that are seen in larger urban hospitals.  Critical access hospitals get higher reimbursements from the federal government for care delivery, further muddying comparisons.

Still, there is a nagging perception out there that the 1,700 or so management teams at rural hospitals across the nation don't provide the same level of care delivery value as urban hospitals. 

Read full story

The caravan pulls out of a Moultrie hotel at 7 p.m., heading for a nearby farm.

Inside the chain of vehicles are dozens of university students who are learning to be nurse practitioners, nurses, physical therapists, dental hygienists and pharmacists. They are joined by volunteers and faculty members who are veteran health care professionals.

Sharon Quinn, RN, of Atlanta leads the procession onto rural roads outside the South Georgia town, and eventually down a dirt road, past a dirt basketball court, stopping in a lot between a barracks and a cantina. It's a camp for workers at a huge, privately owned vegetable farm.

Read Story

"Source: Georgia Health News, an independent, nonprofit news service".

Georgia is heading toward a new model for transporting the poor, elderly and disabled from home to health care in rural Georgia.

A new system is needed simply because the costs are forecast to rise dramatically - up by 64 percent by 2030, according to a recent report to a committee of the Governors Development Council.

The new system seems likely to rely on the use of one entity to coordinate the overall transport system, which will continue to use a variety of local transport providers to transport rural Georgians.

State planners call this a "bundled" approach, because services now paid for by three state departments would be consolidated in some way.

Read on 

2012 Annual National Forum on Education Policy