Chairman Dennis McCutcheon called the meeting to order.  Introductions were made for the benefit of new guests.

The consent agenda for the meeting was approved unanimously (Ferrari/Welshonce).

Committee Reviews and Reports:

Curriculum/Outreach Committee – April reported that the committee looked at IDS evaluation data and has been working on the VISION recommendations.  The committee will have a chair beginning in September.  Kathleen Bors has agreed to chair the committee.

Finance Committee – Hilda and Jim Schneider, Finance officer for Marshall University reported that RHEP was reauthorized for an additional 3 years, but that there has been a change in the budget in regards to the location of the money.   All of the separate line items are per university.  The RHI community support line item and primary care support line item are in all three of the school’s budgets.  This may make it difficult to remove special project funds before distributing.  Hilda is going to discuss this with Dr. Weston to see if it would be appropriate to write a letter to the Senate finance committee about re-allocating the dollars to an account.  The panel asked Hilda to research writing a letter to the Senate and House leadership asking for reinstatement of RHEP as a budget line item (Welshonce/Foster).

Finance Sub-Committee – Chuck reported that the proposal from Doak, Cuppett and Poling on the re-allocation of funds is based on student numbers.  The sub-committee has asked them to come back with a different formula.  The sub-committee did not have a quorum therefore, no business was conducted.

School Committee- Dr. Ferrari reported that the committee received a report from Evaluation on the response rate of the SERFE.  The two committees are working together with site coordinators to assure evaluations are completed.  Dr. Ferrari reported that WVU will be giving their students laminated wallet-size cards to carry with them on rotations that will include immunization and OSHA training information.  WVSOM also uses this.  The committee discussed a needlestick policy.   There have been changes in recommendations by the CDC, OSHA, hospitals and schools.  This is a very important issue and has been referred to the Office of the Vice Chancellor for recommendation.  Dr. Ferrari reported that the rapid test is no longer available and changes the way we must handle needle sticks.

Recruitment & Retention – Jim Nemitz reported on the Recruitment & Retention training:

"Advanced Strategies in Physician Recruitment and Retention"
1. Recruiting in an era of increasing physician shortages
2. Organizing the internal organization to get the work done
3. Preparing to recruit - avoiding the common problems
4. Identifying candidates through use of the internet and other sources
5. Screening and telephone interviewing to eliminate mismatches
6. Catching misfits and fraudulent credentials
7. Conducting an effective onsite visit
8. Retaining your medical resources
9. Q and A
Workshop was presented by Nelson A. Tilden, Ph.D., MHA on April 4 and 5 at the
Marshall University Graduate College in South Charleston, WV. The workshop was funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Benedum Foundation.

Challenge:  How to disseminate information throughout the state

Report on Area Health Education Consortium (AHEC) – Monty Nottingham reported that the AHEC grant from the federal government was approved for the state of West Virginia.  These are centralized educational centers for health professions training and West Virginia will use these funds to create centers for residency and graduate level training in existing WVRHEP areas.  Monty explained that the original project was located in the Charleston Division.  There will be a team of 7 health profession students working in an AHEC for an 8-week period.  They will work together on a community project lasting three years using 2010 objectives.  The goal of AHEC is recruitment and retention of providers into the community.  There will be 15 people on the board of directors; 9 from existing RHEP consortia boards.  The board can be a 501(c)3 non-profit or an existing board.  Monty requested that the WVRHEP advisory panel be the advisory committee for AHEC until it gets off the ground.  Each AHEC will be brought up at different times during the next three years.  The first will be the Eastern Panhandle.  Jane Horst, Malinda Turner and Stephen Thomas agreed to work with Monty on this.  Dr. Mike Lewis is the Program Director of AHEC.  The Advisory Panel asked Monty and Hilda to come up with options for developing the steering committee and present this to the panel in July.

Report on Service Learning Reflection Activities: Site Coordinator Retreat – Site Coordinators Shannon Bell, Chuck Conner, Jacquelynn Copenhaver and Steven Thomas reported on a service learning activity they participated in during the site coordinator retreat.  This activity put the site coordinators in the student’s shoes for a day and allowed the site coordinators to receive a different perspective on service learning.  The panel looked at pictures of the reflection activities held and stories of the experiences.  It was an enriching activity for the site coordinators and very valuable for learning how to develop community projects into service learning.  A suggestion was made that this might also be a great activity to do with field faculty during the Faculty Development Conference.

Executive Director’s Report

Hilda reported that she visited Annie and Pap and that they were doing well and missed everyone.  She reminded everyone that the pig pickin would be held on June 17, 2001.  She also reported that she gave testimony to the Senate Committee on Aging’s Special Hearing on Rural Aging at the request of the committee and the National Rural Health Association.

Legislative Day will be held on Monday, February 11, 2002 at the Capitol.  The dinner will be held the same evening at Embassy Suites in Charleston.

Hilda reminded panel members that they need to send a one-paragraph bio on themselves to Sandra Baker at sbaker2@wvu.edu.  Dr.’s Ferrari and Meckstroth requested that Hilda send them their old bio to look over.

The Evaluation Committee needs two community members to volunteer to be on this committee.  If you are interested, please email Hilda at hilda@wvu.edu.

Hilda informed the panel that wording changes had been made to existing WVRHEP policy 96-02 “Description of RHEP Committees”.  This policy is included for the panel’s information.

Hilda announced that Syd Banks will be in Charleston for a presentation on June 21 from 5-7 PM at the WVU Charleston Campus.  Mr. Banks is the founder of the Syd Banks Institute for Innate Health at West Virginia University.  Everyone is invited to attend.

Hilda gave a report on the Community Campus Partnerships for Health Conference in San Antonio Texas in May – 17 partners from West Virginia attended the conference and participated in 4 sessions.  Hilda received an award for her participation as a CCPH board member for the last 3 years.  WVRHEP was also given an award for their participation in the Wright State Service Learning Grant.  These awards were passed around for the panel to see.  April Vestal is the new CCPH board member.  The CCPH board will be visiting West Virginia and we will be hosting a reception and board retreat at the Embassy Suites in Charleston.  This is scheduled for Friday, September 28, 2001 from 6-9 PM.  All WVRHEP partners are invited to attend.  More information will follow.  The board will also be going on a ½ day Appalachian Adventure on the New River Gorge on Saturday, September 29 where they will experience an IDS session and talk with some RHEP community members.

With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:15 PM.