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 state-wide clearinghouse for rural health information. You can access this information through the Research & Data link and Publications & Presentations link.

What's New!

LINK	HHS Seeks Comments on Definition of "Meaningful Use" of EHR HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is seeking comments on the preliminary definition of "Meaningful Use" of Electronic Health Records. This definition will create standards for the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act HIT incentives that will begin in 2011. Comments must be submitted by Friday, June 26, 2009, 5:00 P.M. Eastern.
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.
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.
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.
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 (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 occuring in their lives, the lives of their families, and in their communities.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
FACT SHEET (PDF)	Rollback of CMS Pilot EHR Project in Oklahoma With the inclusion of electronic health record incentives for physicians and hospitals in the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced the rollback of Phase II of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) demonstration project.
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.
PRESENTATION (PDF)	4th Annual Rural Health Stakeholders & Partners Presentation Presentation given at the 4th Annual OSU Center for Rural Health Stakeholders & Partners meeting is available for download.