WV Rural Health Education Partnerships
State Advisory Panel
Meeting Minutes
June 13, 2005
Members in
Attendance: Judy Koehler, John M.
Callaway, Ann Reynolds, Patti Crawford (proxy for Dean Adelman), Tom Hefner,
Clint Hickman (alternate for Tom Hefner), Imogene Foster, Carla See, Richard
Meckstroth, Walter McNutt, Susan Raines (proxy for Allison Witte), Dennis
McCutcheon
Staff: Hilda Heady, April
Vestal, Rhonda Carpenter
Guests in Attendance: Lora
Adkins, Carla Campbell, Penny Asbury, Shannon Bell, Sandra Pope, Lew Holloway,
Sharon Giles, Debbie Curry, Georgianna Tillis, Susan Anderson Borror, Sonnie
Strader, Kathryn Greenlief, Jenny Ostien, Diane Casdorph, Alvita Starky,
Malinda Turner, Margaret Novacich, Parr Thacker, Dalena Riggs, Kim Robinson,
Christy Veihdeffer
Call To Order: Dennis McCutcheon, Chair
Move to Consent Agenda:
Motion to consent agenda (I. Foster/P. Crawford). Hilda noted that the
Evaluation Committee Minutes of 03.21.05 is a for-information item only and was
not previously included in the consent agenda that was sent out earlier. Motion
to accept the consent agenda as presented passed.
COMMITTEE
REVIEWS AND GROUP REPORTS
Finance Committee
Margaret Novacich reported
that the Finance Committee approved the 3rd quarter report, fiscal
year ’06 budget, and amended the frozen
fund-balance policy to include all future fund-balances to be expended as per
the guidelines issued 09.21.2004.
Update on Central AHEC
Shannon
Bell reported on the progress of the development of the Central AHEC. The first
Advisory Board meeting is scheduled for Monday, 06.27.2005. Shannon is working
with Chuck Conner to begin implementing the first IDT team in the late fall.
They are also planning to do a Healthy People 2010 assessment of Clay County
this summer utilizing students from both consortia.
Joint COCC/Schools Committee
Imogene
Foster reported that a sub-committee is developing a learning module that will
be required for all health professions students on service learning, what it
is, what it involves, etc. They hope to link it to the school curriculum so the
students will see how the service learning component fits into the rural
curriculum. The module would also focus
on the reflection component of service learning. The committee is also planning
to develop a learning module that will serve as a training module for
precepting.
Executive Directors Report
Hilda Heady recognized and
commended the Site Coordinators in their efforts to meet the challenges during
the tremendous changes that are taking place with the WVRHEP program. She
recognized Parr Thacker, Site Coordinator for Cabwaylingo Health Education
Consortium, who has just accepted a position as Director of Development for the
NWVRHEC. Shannon Bell, Site Coordinator for Kanawha Valley Health Consortium, was also recognized. Shannon is leaving the
WVRHEP program to return to school. She will work toward her PhD at the
University of Oregon. Hilda also recognized April Vestal and Sandra Pope for
taking on additional responsibilities during her term as President of the Board
of Trustees of the National Rural Health Association. Hilda thanked everyone
who attended the recent NRHA conference for their support.
The Site Coordinators and
AHEC Directors held their second professional development seminar in April.
Progress was made in looking at the future and addressing the coordination
issues. The Benedum Foundation has expressed an interest in funding an independent, year-long
study of WVRHEP and AHEC and other issues related to the future of rural health
in the state. Specifically, they want to look at the infrastructure that has
been built in RHEP as related to the health outcomes as well as meeting the
objectives of the legislation that created the RHEP program. They want to fund
some outside (not from WV) organization group to conduct the study. They also
want to fund long-range strategic planning for the future of rural health to
include all stakeholders including RHEP and AHEC’s. Beverly Walter of the
Benedum Foundation has asked Hilda to work with volunteers to generate ideas
and to possibly to sit on an advisory panel to oversee the year-long
process of studying the program and looking at the future. Hilda asked for
volunteers from all of the elements of the partnership (schools, community, and
staff). She also stated that we should
continue to plan our own strategic planning process for the fall of this year.
The National Rural Health
Association call for papers, posters, and
presentations for the 2006 conference, which will be held May 16-19,
2006 in Reno, NV, is currently out. Hilda encouraged everyone to submit ideas
for papers, posters, or projects. The
Community Campus Partnership for Health (CCPH) call is also out. She suggested
those interested check the website for deadlines.
We are in the process,
with the federal government, of working out the budget for the AHEC program for
next year. Health professions training funds under Title VII of the Public
Health Service Act have been
zeroed out of the budget by the House and the President. The programs under
this Act include not only the AHEC program but also the Health Education
Training Centers (HETC), the Geriatric Education Centers (GEC), funds for
pre-doctoral and residency programs in Family Medicine, and administrative unit
funds for Family Medicine Departments across the country. In addition, rural health funding to the
Office or Rural Health Policy for rural health services research centers, rural
health outreach grants, rural health networking grants, and other rural health
programs have been eliminated and others have been drastically reduced. Hilda
encouraged everyone to visit the NRHA website to use the Advocacy link to
express support for the AHEC program and other rural health programs to our
federal representatives.
Hilda discussed the state
level legislative strategy. She discussed creating a 3X3 campaign. The goal is for
every legislator to be contacted by 3 community members 3 times before the next
legislative session begins in January 2006, and these should be face to face
visits. We need to remind the Legislature about the value of the WVRHEP/AHEC
program. The Site Coordinators were
asked to keep a record of who has been contacted by whom and when so that she
will be able to reference it if any questions should arise.
The Legislative Auditor’s office will begin our
PERD report in July. They have the
information we supplied last year but a report was not completed. Hilda is
following up this year to find out what information they need in order to issue
our report. It is expected that the WVRHEP Annual Report and the PERD report will
be delivered to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education and the Arts
sometime in late December or in January.
Student Presentation
Kathryn Greenlief,
Mountain Health Consortium-Braxton Site Coordinator, introduced Christy
Viehdeffer, a dental hygiene student from West Virginia University. Christy
presented information on her service learning project in Braxton County. Her
project, entitled “Healthy Teeth for Sunny Smiles”, is geared toward pregnant
women, new mothers, and families with small children. Christy is working with
Cheryl Delp, DDS during her rural
rotation and with the WIC Program at the Braxton County Health Department for
her service learning project.
OTHER BUSINESS
Dennis
McCutcheon announced that Hilda has received an achievement award for expanding
community-based education as Executive Director of the WV Rural Health
Education Partnership and Vice-President of Rural Health at the Robert C. Byrd
Health Science Center of West Virginia University and as Executive Director of
the WV Area Health Education Centers Program. Hilda added that she had accepted this national award on behalf of
all of the partners in WV with whom AHEC and RHEP works in the state and local
communities. The award is from the
Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA), which funds all of the health
professions training programs that come down through the federal government to
AHEC, the GEC, the HCOP programs and others.
WVRHEP has been nationally recognized as a model partnership between
communities, higher education institutions and government agencies by the New
York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Journal of Rural
Health.
ADJOURNMENT Motion
for adjournment (R. Meckstroth/T. Hefner). The meeting was adjourned at 3:10pm.