Success Stories by Topic: Networking and collaboration

• Outreach Advisory Committee for Planning and Implementing Middle School Chronic Disease Interventions
  October 2009
  The Upper Midlands Rural Health Network worked to improve health status, disease management and appropriate use of services for area residents with diabetes or at risk of developing diabetes.
• Lakelands Rural Health Network- South Carolina
  October 2009
  Clinical input and buy-in by primary care physicians was determined to be crucial for the success of the Lakelands Rural Health Network.
• Gundersen Lutheran Health System: Performance Improvement Through Partnership
  August 2009
  Gundersen Lutheran Health System is a physician-led, not-for-profit integrated delivery system serving more than 550,000 people in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota.
• La Red Health Center - 2001
  May 2009
  La Esperanza sought to establish a community-based health center to improve access to care for Latinos, African Americans, families living in poverty, and other rural residents with health care needs.
• Clinical Leadership Council
  June 2008
  Clinical input and buy-in by primary care physicians was determined to be crucial for the success of the Lakelands Rural Health Network in South Carolina.
• Board and Executive Team Facilitation: Medford, Oregon
  March 2008
  Describes a Board and Executive Team facilitation of strategic planning for hospitals.
• Kansas Trauma Program
  November 2007
  The Kansas Trauma Program is a partnership between public and private organizations to address the treatment and survival of critical injuries throughout the state.
• IPAC: Integrated Health Services for Appalachian Children
  September 2007
  Focused on the assessment and comprehensive treatment of behavioral and developmental needs of children ages six and under, IPAC blends 19 university and community health care organizations in Appalachian Ohio into a partnership that provides "one-stop shopping for families."
• EMS Co-op Helps Rural Providers
  September 2007
  Using the power of group purchasing within a cooperative structure, the North Central EMS Cooperative (NCEMSC) is an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) cooperative developed to serve Minnesota and surrounding states.
• Remanufactured Medical Devices and Infectious Waste Disposal in the Carolinas
  August 2007
  The Coastal Carolinas Health Alliance (CCHA) negotiated a regional agreement for remanufactured medical devices, as well as for the disposal of medical waste.
• Shared Information Technology (IT) Services
  August 2007
  The Community Health Network was formed to share information technology (IT) resources among varying sized community health organizations across Tennessee, from one doctor, one location, to much larger groups in multiple locations.
• Northeast Missouri Rural Health Network Prescription Drug Assistance Program
  August 2007
  This program assists individuals by gathering the needed data and completing the necessary enrollment forms for free medications available through pharmaceutical companies, generic prescriptions through RxOutreach and/or TogetherRx drug discount cards depending on their income level.
• Western Healthcare Alliance Preferred Provider Organization
  August 2007
  The Western Healthcare Alliance (WHA) Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) provides participating WHA Members with a discount on any employee health service received from another WHA Member provider.
• Regionalized Community Health Screenings for the Public
  August 2007
  West Central Ohio Regional Healthcare Alliance (WCORHA) provides equipment and occasional staff for members to use at health screenings such as cancer and osteoporosis screenings.
• Illinois 24/7 Suicide Prevention-Crisis Network
  August 2007
  The Regional Behavioral Health Network has established a 24-hour toll-free crisis line and mobile crisis program to improve access to care, service quality and staff moral.
• Infectious Waste Disposal
  August 2007
  Northland Healthcare Alliance is working to build a service line to process infectious waste. With the price of gasoline increasing, they are concerned about the costs of trucking the waste 300 - 400 miles.
• Nevada Rural Hospital Partners Property Insurance Program
  August 2007
  The Nevada Rural Hospital Partners (NRHP) have implemented a very simple hospital property insurance program intended to bring value to network members, and a revenue stream to networks.
• Lafayette County 4 Health Project
  January 2007
  The project will incorporate community education and outreach approaches to connect vulnerable, low-income populations to an integrated network of local health and social support services.
• Planning Equals Access for Louisiana (PEAL) Initiative
  January 2007
  PEAL is a network dedicated to increasing adult immunizations and adult vaccinations.
• Rural Health Network of Monroe Co., FL, Inc. Project
  January 2007
  This project has entered into local communities with an intent of not duplicating services, but to create service access where those services may be lacking, and more importantly, to work within and without a network framework to improve health care services where possible.
• Better Health for the Delta
  December 2006
  The Southeast Louisiana AHEC grantee for the Louisiana Mississippi Delta initiative combined our activities during Phase I and Phase II with the Robert Wood Johnson RWJ) Southern Rural Access Grant Program (SRAG) rural loan fund component and created "Better Health For the Delta".
• West Virginia Rural Health Education Partnerships/AHEC Program
  June 2006
  WVRHEP/AHEC is made up of 11 consortia and four Area Health Education Centers each with a local board of directors. Approximately 800 rural community leaders, local rural health providers, and higher education institutional representatives are involved in all aspects of the program.
• Dakota Network of Community Health Centers
  May 2006
  This program has an Electronic Health Information Management Network with fully interactive video conferencing in place and it is being utilized to the benefit of the Dakota Network Collaborating Organizations and the patients served.
• Callam County Hospital District #1
  July 2005
  This network consisted of 11 sites representing community mental health centers, health care providers, and other health, education, and social services agencies that supported the delivery of behavior health and other health care services.
• Parish Nurse Outreach Project
  July 2005
  Since the church is widely considered the most viable institution in Harper County, area churches were the crux of the project's outreach efforts to address the limited health care resources available in the community, to assess individual and community needs, and to assist members of the community in accessing local resources.
• Lincoln Primary Care Center Rural Outreach Grant Program
  July 2005
  The partners in this collaboration used grant funds to improve access to care and the coordination of services by creating a secure, online system for primary care providers to access hospitalization records, and by developing a secure, Internet-based system for health care providers to access medical literature.
• Merging Medical Education and Community
  July 2005
  The crux of this project was to support community-defined health projects across the State and to involve 21 medical students in the delivery of community-based primary health care services.
• Rural Health Initiative (Stevens Point, Wisconsin)
  July 2005
  This project produced several innovative solutions to the lack of affordable dental care in the area by providing dental health services to low-income residents including: outreach, transportation to dental appointments using Head Start buses, and preventative fluoride supplements.
• Integrated Primary and Behavioral Health Care
  July 2005
  This project provided case management, integrated behavioral health care, risk reduction services, provider retention initiatives, and transportation for targeted low-income and working-poor families.
• Northland Integrated Network Systematic Disease Management Model Project
  July 2005
  The 17 member network's primary objective was to provide improved care services to residents with chronic diseases (diabetes and asthma) in rural and frontier areas by implementing a disease management process and tracking patients' participation and care services received.
• Rural Health Outreach (Gold Beach, Oregon)
  July 2005
  The project's overriding mission was to stabilize the local clinic while providing health promotion and prevention opportunities in the core areas of heart, breathing, cancer, and diabetes.
• Community Care Clinic
  July 2005
  Four network members funded and established a clinic to link existing health care providers and social services agencies to address and provide for the medical, emotional, and health education needs of individuals and families in seven counties designated Health Professional Shortage Areas.
• Community Life for Seniors Project
  July 2005
  This project established a point of contact for the elderly population to access all needed health and social services available in the community with the specific goal of enabling elderly individuals to remain in as close to normal living circumstances for as long as appropriate and desirable.
• Greater Iron County Advanced Life Support Project
  July 2005
  The project's primary goal was to improve and upgrade the prehospital healthcare delivery system in Iron County, Michigan by creating a full-time hospital-based paramedic transportation system to address the dwindling personnel resources, outdated transportation equipment, high cost of paramedic equipment, and the lack of access to a community-based paramedic-training program.
• Healthy Kids Clinic
  July 2005
  Three local school districts, two local health departments, one nonprofit health agency, and all local area physicians and dental providers formed a consortium to provide health and dental services to students in the schools regardless of income or insurance status.
• Humphreys County Memorial Hospital Rural Health Outreach Program
  July 2005
  The project's main goals were to increase the numbers of K - 12 students who are covered by health insurance, who use the health care services provided, and who follow up on recommended health care; to increase transportation to primary and specialty health providers; and to decrease the number of families of K - 12 students who are noncompliant in regard to their children's health needs.
• Kokua Program
  July 2005
  The primary objectives of this consortium of six area health service providers, agencies, and universities were to reach and educate local women on breast and cervical cancer, and provide health screenings using culturally appropriate methods that reduce fear and anxiety.
• Maximizing Independence of Rural Elderly Through Use of Assistive Technology and Access to Health Care Services
  July 2005
  Five organizations joined together to address the health care needs of the aging rural Iowa population by providing assistive technologies and home modifications, increasing access to primary health care and rehabilitative therapies, and educating rural elderly and health care workers to help identify potential hazards in homes.
• Moving Beyond Enrollment
  July 2005
  This network was formed to support experienced community-based outreach workers in providing the follow-up necessary to educate Medicaid clients, help them solve problems, and utilize the health care system most effectively in order to receive health care.
• Richland Health Network
  July 2005
  Using a nurse and social worker team case management model to address community needs, this consortium was designed to provide a coordinated approach to health screening, assessment, and education, and provide case management for residents aged 55 and older who are at risk for preventable hospitalizations.
• Rural Health Outreach (Kansas)
  July 2005
  This project was designed to develop and operate a network of Health and Wellness Centers in order to provide comprehensive primary care, prevention, health education, and transportation services to locally owned clinic sites.
• Rural Health Outreach (Maine)
  July 2005
  The care management services provided by this project facilitated a cooperative effort among health care providers, patients, and community support services to create an outpatient care management program for rural consumers, especially the elderly, people with disabilities, minorities, and children who have chronic health problems including chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), diabetes, asthma, and heart disease.
• Rural Health Outreach Grant Program (West Wendover, Nevada)
  July 2005
  Four consortium members created this program to provide local access to mental health services and to provide a school-based program teaching resiliency and social skills to school-aged children and their parents.
• Something to Smile About: Preventive Dental Care Project for Garrett County
  July 2005
  This network was established to provide dental health care to underserved individuals by utilizing existing private providers and providing additional dental care service through a community dental health center, coordinate community efforts to negotiate with managed care organizations (MCOs) and recruit needed health providers to the area, and develop and conduct a comprehensive education campaign promoting preventive dental health care.
• St. George Clinic Rural Health Outreach Program
  July 2005
  In response to the recognized health care need and a survey of citizens indicating that 76 percent would use a health clinic if available, partners in the county built a small building to provide health and social services to one-third of county residents living in the southern region.
• Warrior Wellness Center
  July 2005
  To address the serious issue of teen pregnancy in Jefferson County, a network was formed to establish an effective mechanism for proactive pregnancy prevention and health promotion outreach for the county's rural adolescents.
• Wellness Partnership for a Healthy McKinley County
  July 2005
  This project involved an innovative education program that used high school students to mentor elementary students in diabetes prevention techniques with the goal to improve the wellness of the community by developing healthy living skills in the 10-to 12-year-old population, and specifically to incorporate diabetes awareness activities into this target group's school day.