Responsible for the rural education portion of OSU's College of Osteopathic Medicine, the Center for Rural Health oversees the rural rotations of our third and fourth year medical students.  The Rural Medical Education link will give you the details on these programs.  

Once trained and in practice, doctors need support.  The Center funds programs aimed at providing Oklahoma’s rural practitioners, hospitals, and clinics the support necessary to ensure access to quality healthcare for our state’s rural residents.  Many of these services are free and provide important information not readily available to most rural communities. Details about these programs can be found by following the Programs & Services links.

We also serve as a statewide clearinghouse for rural health information. You can access this information through the Research & Data link and Publications & Presentations link.

What's New!

ACCESS TO CARE
LINK (PDF)	NEW! Effective Communication in Hospitals for Individuals Who Are Limited English Proficient (LEP) and Individuals Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing Presentation given by Roger C. Greer, Assistant Regional Counsel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, at the 2009 Rural Health Association of Oklahoma Annual Conference.
LINK	More Choices, Better Coverage: Health Insurance Reform and Rural America Report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that outlines the need for health insurance reform in rural America.
LINK	Rural health providers improve health of economy, not just patients Article from the Iowa Independent addresses the economic contributions of rural physicians. The article draws on research published by the National Center for Rural Health Works and mentions the family medicine residency training program in Durant, Oklahoma.
LINK	Results from a State Scorecard on Health System Performance, 2009 The performance of Oklahoma's health system ranks 50th in the nation (1st Vermont; 51st Mississippi) according to a new report issued by The Commonwealth Fund. The ranking measures the combined performance of access, prevention & treatment, potentially avoidable use of hospitals and costs of care, equity, and healthy lives. The report was last issued in 2007 and Oklahoma ranked 50th (1st Hawai'i; 51st Mississippi).
LINK	Economic Information Bulletin from the USDA ERS The USDA ERS released "Health Status and Health Care Access of Farm and Rural Populations" on August 17, 2009. The report outlines the barrier to healthcare access for farm & rural populations.
LINK (PDF)	Private Health Insurance Coverage in Rural Areas Rural residents are less likely than their urban counterparts to have private health insurance coverage. This difference is driven by the unique characteristics of rural places that make it challenging to create and sustain viable private insurance pools, including the predominance of small businesses and self-employed, part-time, and low-wage workers. This brief from the Maine Rural Health Research Center discusses the challenges of expanding private coverage in rural areas, and describes policy options to address them.
LINK, LINK (YouTube)	Drumright Regional Hospital Featured on OETA's Oklahoma Horizon Air date: January 26, 2008. First link goes to a 5-minute video segment about the re-establishment of the Drumright Regional Hospital. Second link goes to a 4-minute video segment featuring an interview with Val Schott, Director of the Oklahoma Office of Rural Health.
LINK	Oklahoma State Coverage Initiative New link to the Oklahoma State Coverage Initiative (SCI) website. The Oklahoma SCI is part of the larger States Coverage Initiative program, which works with states to plan, execute, and maintain health insurance expansions, as well as improve the availability and affordability of health care coverage.
PRESENTATION (PDF)	The Importance of Osteopathic Physicians in Rural Oklahoma William J. Pettit, D.O., Associate Dean for Rural Health at the OSU Center for Health Sciences, presented at the 2009 OSU COM Osteopathic Spirit Week. Dr. Pettit addressed the importance of osteopathic physicians and their impact on rural Oklahoma. Dr. Pettit's presentation is available for download.
INTERVIEW Part I , Part II, & Part III	KRMG Radio Series Regarding Rural Health Care William J. Pettit, D.O., Associate Dean for Rural Health at OSU Center for Health Sciences, was interviewed by KRMG for a series of radio stories regarding access to health care in rural Oklahoma. The series also features Darrel Morris, CEO at Drumright Regional Hospital, and Jim Riemer, D.O., who practices family medicine in Pawnee.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
LINK (PDF)	USDA Announces Grant and Loan Funding Available for Rural Hospital Facilities Rural hospitals are eligible for grant and loan funding provided to the USDA by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act through the Community Facilities Program. Funds under this program can be used to construct, enlarge, or improve community facilities. Contact Oklahoma's Rural Development State Office for more information (provided on linked document).
LINK	Small Hospital Improvement Program (SHIP) Page Updated The OSU Center for Rural Health's SHIP webpage has been updated with the new guidelines for how SHIP grant funds can be spent in the coming year.
LINK	Rural Hospital Outreach Programs MultiPlan, Inc. offers funding for rural hospital outreach programs. The 2009 grant period has ended, but the 2010 grant period will open soon. See the Multiplan website for eligibility requirements.
HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
LINK (PDF)	NEW! Rural Health Brief - Rural Hospital Electronic Health Records Survey The OSU Center for Rural Health recently surveyed the sixty rural hospitals in the state with under 50 beds regarding their understanding of the costs and barriers of implementing an electronic health records system. The results of this survey are the topic of this Rural Health Brief.
LINK	NEW! Rural Health IT Adoption Toolbox Modules The Office of Rural Health Policy at HRSA has developed eight modules to assist rural health care providers with effectively implementing health information technology (health IT). The modules are designed in question-and-answer format to provide a "range of resources relevant to all stages of considering, planning, executing, and evaluating the implementation of health IT."
LINK	NRHA Webinar: Rural HIT Readiness Assessment: Part 1 The National Rural Health Association (NRHA)is offering a three part webinar series to help providers navigate the various eligibility requirements associated with obtaining HIT funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. A replay of the webinar and slides from the associated presentation are available for download.
LINK	Criteria to Qualify for an Incentive Payment for Adopting EHR A summary of the legislation that provides an incentive payment from CMS through Medicare and Medicaid payments for healthcare providers who become "Meaningful Users" of electronic health records. The webpage includes responses to Frequently Asked Questions.
LINK	HealthNEWS.Direct! HealthNEWS. Direct! provides the latest healthcare industry news and technology insights, including indepth analysis by research analysts. The website also has a panel of industry experts who offer their expertise on the impact of new regulations and the adoption of emerging technology.
LINK	Sequoyah Memorial Hospital in the News "Hospital’s Telemedicine Helps Save Woman’s Life," Sequoyah County Times. August 17, 2009. Sequoyah Memorial Hospital utilized telemedicine technologies, provided by the OSU Center for Health Sciences, to deliver care to a patient suffering a stroke.
LINK	Drumright Regional Hospital in the News "Medical Milestone," The Tulsa World. June 12, 2009. Drumright Regional Hospital moves to an all-electronic medical records system to improve care and cut costs.
POLICY & LEGISLATION
LINK (PDF)	AOA Responds to President Obama's Health Reform Address to Congress (09/09/09) Press release issued by the American Osteopathic Association.
PRESENTATION (PDF)	Rural Health & Health Care ReformWhere Are We Now? Presentation given by Val Schott, Director of Rural Health Policy & Advocacy and Director of Oklahoma State Office of Rural Health, to the Prague (Oklahoma) Chamber of Commerce on August 20, 2009.
LINK	Side-by-Side Comparison of Major Health Care Reform Proposals Website created by The Kaiser Family Foundation that allows users to compare the major health care reform proposals currently being debated in the U.S. Congress. THIS IS A MUST SEE!
LINK	"The Cost Conundrum" - The Rising Cost of Health Care "The Cost Conundrum," The New Yorker. June 1, 2009. The "Cost Conundrum" is frequently cited by Washington policy makers as a document that will help shape health care reform in the coming months. The article provides anecdotal examples of why the cost of health care has risen dramatically.
FACT SHEET (PDF)	FAQs for the FTC's "Red Flag" Rule for Identity Theft Frequently Asked Questions and Guide to the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) "Red Flag" rule concerning identity theft. Courtesy of the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). A must read for physician providers.
LINK	CMS RAC Process Overview The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will soon begin conducting its Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) reviews. For more information on the RAC process and provider outreach events, please visit the CMS website.
RESEARCH
LINK	Rehospitalizations Among Patients in the Medicare Fee-for-Service Program This article published in the New England Journal of Medicine indicates that one in five patients discharged from a hospital in 2003 and 2004 was readmitted within 30 days. The article includes the cost of readmissions to Medicare and suggested interventions to reduce the rate of readmissions.
LINK (PDF)	Potentially Preventable Readmissions in Rural Hospitals This Upper Midwest Rural Health Research Center policy brief examines the issues surrounding patient readmissions to rural hospitals and the implications of changes to policy designed to reduce readmission rates in rural hospitals.
LINK (PDF)	Oklahoma CAH Results for Hospital Compare "CAH Participation and Quality Measure Results for Hospital Compare 2007 Discharges and 2005-2007 Trends: National and Oklahoma Results," Flex Monitoring Team. January 2009. A summary of participation rates and quality measure results for Oklahoma CAHs compared to CAHs nationally.
LINK (PDF)	Financial Performance of Oklahoma CAHs "Statewide Financial Performance of CAHs: Oklahoma," Flex Monitoring Team. Summer 2008. A comparative analysis of financial performance among Oklahoma CAHs for twenty financial indicators.
LINK (PDF)	Survey Results Regarding Change in Rural America "Place Matters - Challenges and Opportunities in Four Rural Americas," Carsey Institute. 2008. Results from a survey of nearly 8,000 rural Americans regarding their opinions, experiences, and attitudes about the changes occurring in their lives, the lives of their families, and in their communities.
PUBLICATION (PDF)	Poster Presentation Evaluating OSU's Rural Medical Education Programs Vicky Pace, M.Ed., Director of Rural Medical Education at the OSU Center for Rural Health, and William J. Pettit, D.O., Associate Dean for Rural Health at the OSU Center for Health Sciences, presented a research poster at the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine's (AACOM) Annual Meeting (April 15-18) in Bethesda, Maryland. The poster highlighted a study that was conducted in collaboration with the OSU Department of Agricultural Economics to research the effectiveness of the Center for Rural Health's rural training programs at producing rural physicians. A copy of the poster is available for download.
LINK	AHRQ's Effective Health Care Website New link to the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality's (AHRQ) Effective Health Care website. The Effective Health Care Program aims to facilitate decision-making for health care providers by providing findings from high-quality research in formats for different audiences.
MAPS
MAP (PDF)	Oklahoma Rural Hospitals and Hospital Referral Regions, 2009 Map showing rural hospitals in Oklahoma and hospital referral regions as defined in The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care.
MAP (PDF)	Oklahoma State University Telemedicine and Distance Learning Network The linked map shows the distribution of the OSU Telemedicine and Distance Network, including the Mobile Telemedicine Clinic visit sites as of January 2009.
WORKFORCE
LINK	NEW! Reviving interest in primary care Article from The DO profiling OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine's predoctoral training grant as a means to produce more rural primary care physicians.
LINK	NEW! OKPhysicianJobs.com The Oklahoma Hospital Association has created this new website for hospitals to post their openings for physicians. Interested physicians can search the job listings by specialty and geographic region. There is no cost or obligation to participate.
LINK	NEW! Oklahoma Becomes a Member of 3RNet Oklahoma recently became a member of the National Rural Recruiting and Retention Network (3RNet). 3RNet helps connect health professionals with jobs in rural and underserved areas.
LINK	OSU Osteopathic Student Doctor Prepares for Rural Community Practice OSU CHS press release profiles Charity Holder, a 2nd year medical student at OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine (OSU COM), from her formative years growing up in Coalgate, Oklahoma through her career as medical student as she prepares to the become a rural physician in Oklahoma. In addition to the rigors of medical school, Ms. Holder also serves as the inaugural president of OSU COM's Student Osteopathic Rural Medicine (StORM) Club.
LINK	Health Workforce Information Center The Health Workforce Information Center is a comprehensive online library that will help you find health workforce programs, funding sources, data, research, and policy.
LINK (PDF)	"Turning Out Country Doctors" The Oklahoma Farm Bureau highlighted the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine's commitment to training and producing rural physicians in the Summer edition of its publication Oklahoma Country.
LINK	Rural Health Workforce Policy Briefs This series of policy briefs from the Rural Health Research Gateway looks at rural health workforce issues in primary care, general surgery, nursing, and dentistry. The briefs inform policymakers about potential solutions to health workforce crises in rural America.
OTHER
PRESENTATION (PDF)	NEW! 5th Annual Rural Health Stakeholders & Partners Presentation Presentation given at the 5th Annual OSU Center for Rural Health Stakeholders & Partners meeting on October 16, 2009 meeting is available for download.
LINK	Oklahoma Rural Hospital Conference Presentations Speaker presentations from the 7th Annual Oklahoma Rural Hospital Conference (held April 27-29, 2009 at the Reed Conference Center in Midwest City, OK) are available for download at the Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality's website.