WI Rural Health Summit Update
Over 100 people attended the WI Rural Health Summit, hosted by the WI Office of Rural Health, on April 22. Representatives from critical access and other rural hospitals, clinics, public health, EMS and other organizations had an opportunity to network and share ideas. Joan Curran of Gunderson Lutheran presented on the federal stimulus and recovery program, focusing on health care. State Representative Jon Richards, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Health and Healthcare Reform, addressed the group and took questions. The Summit’s highlight was breakout sessions by sector (hospitals, EMS, etc.) where participants prioritized obstacles they are facing in providing care and services and identified possible solutions. Participants came back together in the afternoon and worked through some of these obstacles together, sharing the perspectives of the different sectors. The goal was to create an environment where sectors could work together on common problems. From the comments we received, this Summit was a great beginning in creating a forum for rural health care sectors to cooperate on resolving common challenges.
The final report will be available soon on the Summit website, where you can now view the stimulus presentation and John Eich’s presentation on the state of rural health in Wisconsin. You can also see pictures from the Summit.
Tomorrow I’m heading to Miami for the National Rural Health Association’s Rural Health Conference. I’ll post on that later. You can follow “the action” from home on Twitter; follow ruralhealth and tag your tweets #nrha.
May 4, 2009
Tags: Conferences, Office of Rural Health Posted in: Conferences and Webinars, Program Updates
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