Advisory Panel Meeting March 20, 2000 Flatwoods, Days Inn Draft Minutes Attendees: Jacquelynn Copenhaver, Craig Robinson, Joan Hypes, Anna Reno Ralph Utzman, Bill Shires, April Vestal, Margaret Novacich, Georgianna Tillis, Sherri Payette, Malinda Turner, Elizabeth D. “Betsy” Degges, Walter E. McNutt, Gaye Mitchell, Jim Welshonce, Parr Thacker, Robert Blake, Penny Asbury, Carla Campbell, Elizabeth Richmond, Kathryn Greenlief, Kelly Blake, Jennifer Allen, Amy Thomas, Elaine Mason, Jodie Jackson, James W. Nemitz, Patti Crawford, Alicia Tyler, Randy Lowe, Chuck Conner Richard Meckstroth, Imogene Foster (for E. Jane Martin), William McCutcheon, Jim Stookey, Jessica Sharp, Annie McIntosh, Alison Witte, W. Donald Weston, Hilda R. Heady, Dennis McCutcheon and Sandra Baker Chairman, Dennis McCutcheon called the meeting to order at 2:35 PM. An introduction of all in attendance was made. A motion was made to approve the consent calendar. (Annie McIntosh/Jim Welshonce/Unanimous). Dr. Weston reported that WVRHEP did not receive the $500,000.00 appropriation as requested. He thanked all of the site coordinators in attendance at the capitol and those that worked hard on the recruitment and retention report. However, next session, we need to have this report out in order to answer questions when the money is on the table such as, “What are the outcomes?” The legislators need to meet with some of the graduates in different areas as the process goes on. Issues on higher education and restructuring as time goes on received a lot of attention. An area that received significant attention was that of graduate education. One million four hundred thousand dollars are linked to primary care in our existing budget with permission to put in a special line, with an oversight committee, can be transferred to the medicaid budget for a medicaid match for graduate medical education. No money will be transferred until we receive a waiver from the medicaid office. The money in the budget and budget digest is described if we can get the match to use for rural ambulatory care, primary care, residency training and health science education. What that means is the $1,400,000 we have can be turned into $6,000,000 which is the maximum, three to one match. If the regional office would approve us to get the $500,000, that could be turned into $2,000,000. It is not money we have but an opportunity we have and probability of which we will look at the system. The three schools will be at the table too because the graduate education comes out of that hopper but won’t be creating a whole other network. It is important to document what the outcomes are. Dr. Weston announced that today he is Vice Chancellor of Health Sciences, next week he will be Interim Chancellor and in three months he will be Vice Chancellor of Health Sciences for the new Higher Education Commission and Interim Governing Board. The million dollars that Marshall and WVU have received over the last two years did not get funded, as the budget was tight. He stressed the importance that people know what is happening at the local level and to build on what was done. The Preliminary Recruitment and Retention report was a big step in the right direction. Dr. Weston indicated that how privileged he is to be able to help make a better system. He summized that everyone working together can make a difference. He is proud of what we are doing and what we can do. April Vestal stated that recently the Faculty Development Committee has been discussing Policy 96-06. Some changes to this policy have been made and these changes were sent to the Site Coordinators for their comments on revisions being made to this policy. Margaret Novacich gave the Finance Committee report. Items discussed were as follows: 1)The site review process, which is stalled right now; 2)After the committee voted to accept bids from Doak, Cuppett & Poling , the RHEP administration began a process to establish a purchase order for this project, at that time it was learned that this purchase could not and should not be treated as a higher education purchase and would be initiated by the University System Office and treated as a state purchase. Rich Donovan has begun to process this and Margaret reported that as of this morning she did not get an update but would continue to work with Rich on this item; 3)The Sites are beginning their budget planning process for fiscal year 2001 was discussed and the budgets are due to the RHEP Administration Office no later than May 1, 2000. Chuck Conner will be distributing packets to the Site Coordinators at their meeting tomorrow. The RHEP administration will be reviewing line items within categories to collapse less used line items into larger line items; 4) Report from Craig Robinson of Rivers & Bridges Consortium on a conference he attended that was funded with special projects money from the Finance Committee. Dr. Weston suggested that we should take a look at our total budget and how our budgets are allocated for this coming year. The budgets were put together several years ago and stayed with that overall approach. He suggested the need to come up with a system with a fixed base, a minimum amount to run a consortia and some variable costs that can be applied across sites. Examine how this can be done with existing money and also how this can be done if new money is received down the road. Craig Robinson from Rivers & Bridges Consortium gave an overview of his trip to New Orleans to attend the Institute for Health Care Improvements Annual conference in December. Approximately 2000 people attended this conference from mainly large health care systems and networks. He stated that anything can be improved more; one cannot stop improving quality, efficiency, etc. as you never reach the ultimate goal . You can always create and implement change. Health care has a long way to go as far as quality and efficiency. He to reorganize the information to be able to understand overall what they were trying to get at. This was providing insights and tools for improving health organizations with their 3 most important goals, that are to learn, serve and survive. (See Attachment A). Focus of conference is in functional systems not people. Three ways to improve is 1) Putting the patients wants and need first, 2)know what’s happening and 3)open access to be seen at patients discretion. Re-engineering has already taken place at New River and Monroe County. The Finance Committee has unfinished business with Policy 93-01 Annual financial Reports and Budgets Annual Audit. The Policy change is to reflect the Annual Lead Agency Audit be changed to reflect from 60 days to 120 days. Margaret would like to present this policy to Panel for approval. Imogene Foster presented some suggested changes/additions to this policy (See attachment B). Finance Committee decided to take the policy back to the committee for advisement and changes and bring before the advisory panel in May. LRC Committee Parr reported that the LRC Committee worked on their Mission Statement and goals. Mission Statement of the Learning Resource and Community Technology Committee To investigate, support, promote and advocate learning resources with emphasis on communication technology enabling the highest quality of educational experience for students, field faculty and communities associated with West Virginia Rural Health Education Partnerships. The goals and objectives of this committee is the support of communication and technical needs of the WVRHEP vision and objectives. Under this is 1) the assessment of current technical and non-technical learning resources and communication technology available throughout the state; 2)Collaboration with other committees, assessment of the needs and availability of learning resources; 3) The design of support and advocacy of the minimum standards of learning resources and communications for each consortium throughout the state and 4)also, the development design for the ideal standard for learning resources using current and emerging technologies in the consortia. The committee is going to concentrate on setting certain standards of communications with each other. Parr also announced that the Petting Zoo will be a part of Faculty Development Day again this year. Faculty Development Committee April informed the panel that Faculty Development Day will be October 6th and 7th, 2000 at Snow Shoe Resort. We will continue with our half-day format on Friday and the program will end after lunch on Saturday. There will be a special training for on-site clinical directors/chairs on Friday, October 6. The focus of the training will be on “Cultural Diversity and Change”. She stated that 431 surveys were sent out to Field Faculty and the Faculty Development Committee was pleased with the response. Next meeting will be April 7th at the Braxton LRC from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Recruitment and Retention Committee Alicia Tyler reported that the committee had completed their review on the Health sciences scholarship program, which was started in November. This year’s awards have been given to 10 medical student and recommended awards to seven Nurse Practitioners and two PA students for a total of 19 awards this year. They have been looking at data since1995 and some students have returned their scholarships ($10,000) due to moving out-of-state to go into residency or they go into primary care. With Nurse Practitioners and PA students there seemed to be few opportunities. Since the program started there have been 17 students to pay their scholarships back. They have the flexibility in the law in the scholarship program to consider making awards to other shortage fields; a decision that is made by the Vice Chancellor based on recommendations. Other fields are Physical Therapy, Speech therapy, Occupational Therapy, Mental Health, etc. There is a sub-committee to work on this and they will make recommendations at the May meeting. Students understanding their obligations make the decision on awarding these scholarships somewhat easier. Interviewing students will help, also. It is possible to be interested in more than one incentive package. The schools need to get the word out on what is available. Evaluation Committee Kelly Blake stated that Trisha Petitte gave important data, broken down by site from 1997 to 1999, to the respective site coordinators for comparison. The school representatives that do scheduling have been given access to this data to compare what WVSOM students think of RHEP rotations as compared to all rotations as a whole. This information will be password protected on the web. The question, “What impact WVRHEP is having ?” The committee will look at pursuing Ken Shannon‘s proposal, which would look at students over time and do an analysis and follow the students as to what they do. Structured evaluations must be set up in order to clarify whether or not the RHEP program has an impact on students or not. In the evaluation for next year the report should reflect the community’s aspect as well as numbers. What are the variables that are important to multiple constituents such as legislators, people in communities, etc. Who needs to be looking at this and starting the process for next year? Dr. Weston suggested some site coordinators and a staff person to work with them, along with some community input. Dr. Weston asked Alicia Tyler if she would be able to work with the Evaluation Committee on these issues and she accepted. Hilda commended the Evaluation Committee for challenging their own thinking. This gives the Advisory Panel more to think about in terms of policy, etc. Student Advisory Committee Forum Chuck Conner informed the Panel that 15 students and another 15 to 20 people attended the forum, which took place during WVRHEP’s Annual Legislative Day, February 21. A number of issues were brought to the forum from the student population at large from all of the schools. These evolved around the RHEP program such as: Access to the knowledge of some of the grant programs, access to TRACKER system, working well with field faculty, not having students in the middle of situations, problems that have been identified all along and things to continue to work on. Students are pleased that they do have another voice in the system. The students feel that the WVRHEP program is committed to making changes and to making their education experience much better and much broader. The student panel will possibly meet in May. Executive Director’s Report Hilda reported that the Annual Rural Health Fair and Dinner Awards in Charleston went extremely well. What improvements can be made? A student poster presentation during the day is one possibility with exposure to more students and make awards the on the spot; this may attract more students to the event. Hilda passed out the Preliminary Recruitment and Retention Report. Dr Weston suggested that the dinner could be more of a celebration and possibly do away with a main speaker. Hilda gave a report on the Future Vision Group. As a result from last year’s retreat, the Panel was charged with forming a group of people that would take the information and start recommendations to the panel regarding the future of the WVRHEP program. The Visions Workgroup had their first meeting. Members of this group is as follows: Kelly Blake, Dan Brody, Rosie Cannarella, Mary Pearl Compton, Jacquelynn Copenhaver, Betsy Degges, Bill Duty, Norm Ferrari, Imogene Foster, Denzil Hawkinberry, Oscar Hines, David Hughes, Randy Lowe, Dennis McCutcheon, Rusty Morgan, Tommy Mullins, Mike Painter, JoAnn Raines, Clarke Ridgway, Brian Wood, Hilda Heady and W. Don Weston. These individuals worked on common language, vision, mission statement, values and principles. Questions to be addressed is “What really matters?”, and “How to operate basic structure of program?”. The vision is “What is possible”, mission is to put the goals within the site of reality, values are those core beliefs systems that inspire us to do the work that matters and guides the vision and mission of the program, and principals are the basic structure of the whole program. Other concern was Health Quality of life of all people of West Virginia. A discussion on the people of West Virginia; Does that mean “all the people of West Virginia, rural people of WV, underserved people of WV and the vulnerability of people of WV”. Looked at learning and teaching matters. Will refine discussion at their next meeting on May 15, 2000, 9:30 AM. Hilda explained that Judy Sedgeman has relocated to WVU and the foundation that she works with is presenting free seminars. The next seminar, “Foundations of Human Understanding” is to be held March 29th through March 31st in Charleston. A handout was made available on this seminar to those interested. Other Business Annie McIntosh voiced her wish of having a Community Member Committee meeting to discuss community concerns and issues. Randy Lowe reiterated that community focus and voice is lost and he hopes there will be enough common agenda or collaboration on positions of certain issues to support need for communities. A motion was made to have at least one Community Committee meeting (Annie/Betsy & Randy/unanimous). A decision to have a meeting with a working lunch in a separate area with Hilda facilitating. Local consortia board members will be invited to attend. Meeting was adjourned at 4:20 PM.