The Rural Health Roundtable -- October 2008

Delegate Murphy and Senator Pipkin

Maryland Delegate Peter Murphy (left) and Maryland Senator E.J. Pipkin (right) attended the Rural Health Roundtable.

The Rural Maryland Council's Health Care Working Committee on January 15, 2009 approved an Action Plan that outlines the RMC's priorities and activities over the short term and the long term. It is based on the information and discussions that took place during the Roundtable (below). The RMC's Executive Board will vote on whether to adopt the plan at its next full Board meeting on January 28, 2009

The Rural Roundtable Summary Report is an overview of the event and the results of each of the break out sessions. This is provided for those agencies and organizations who are interested in working on priorities to increase recruitment and retention of health care workers in rural areas.

Roundtable Presentations

The Roundtable also offered an overview of Maryland's health care workforce shortages. Posted below are the Powerpoints which were presented during the event. Also, see the Roundtable agenda.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Setting the Stage: The morning sessions were dedicated to providing participants with a summary of the various task forces, studies and commissions that have been studying health care work force shortages, especially as they relate to rural areas.

Luncheon Keynote: Task Force to Review Physician Shortages in Rural Areas, presented by Senator Thomas "Mac" Middleton, who chairs the Task Force and introduced the bill that created it. Senator Middleton discussed some preliminary recommendations. Final recommendations will be completed in December 2008.

Grow Your Own: An Overview of How Other States Have Created a Pipeline of Health Care Professionals.

Telehealth as a Solution to Connect Rural Maryland. This session will highlighted pilot projects that connect urban medical specialists to other areas and what it takes to expand and sustain telehealth within Maryland. Presenters also discussed other pilot projects designed to ease rural workforce shortages via telehealth solutions

Friday, October 3: Developing An Action Plan

Opportunities for Implementing a Stronger Grow Your Own Model in Maryland. This session identified what components of a “Grow Your Own Models” are already working well in Maryland as well as some of the gaps in the current healthcare workforce pipeline, presented by Michelle Clark, State Office of Rural Health, and Susan Stewart, Western Maryland AHEC. VIEW PRESENTATION.

Developing an Action Plan. Participants break into three Action Groups to review and study a series of recommendations and determine which are the most important to pursue over the short- and long-term. Break out groups studied Grow Your Own models, Recruitment and Retention, and Telehealth Initiatives. The RMC's Final Report will be presented to the RMC Board on October 21. Once approved, it will be posted here.

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Roundtable Speaker Biographies

Eric Aldrich, M.D., Assistant Professor of Neurology and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Johns Hopkins Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery. Dr. Aldrich attended medical and graduate school at George Washington University Medical Center, followed by a residency in neurology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He received further fellowship training in neuro rehabilitation and stroke at UCLA Medical Center, and subsequently became a member of the UCLA Stroke Center. He returned to Johns Hopkins to help create and develop the stroke service, and currently serves as its medical director. His current research interests include acute stroke interventions, secondary stroke prevention and stroke health care policy and medical economics.

Robert A. Barish, M.D, Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs, University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Barish received his medical degree from New York Medical College and, after interning at Saint Vincent’s Hospital and Medical Center in New York, he traveled to the border of Cambodia and Somalia to provide medical care in refugee camps. He came to the Baltimore/Washington area to enter the emergency medicine residency program sponsored by Georgetown University Medical Center, George Washington University Medical Center and the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems. Dr. Barish later served as the University of Maryland’s Director of Emergency Medical Services and Chief of Emergency Medicine.

Michelle G. Clark, Project Director, State Office of Rural Health, Family Health Administration, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Michelle joined the State Office in 2007 after serving with the University of Maryland School of Medicine where she worked on the state’s System of Care Implementation within children’s mental health. She is a Licensed Graduate of Social Work and has her Masters in Public Health.

Catherine M. Crowley, R.N., M.B.A., Ed.D., Vice President, Maryland Hospital Association. Dr. Crowley works with hospitals, schools and government agencies to develop strategies to recruit and retain health care workers. She is a leader in several initiatives to expand the state’s capacity for nursing education. These include development of Clinical Assignments for Healthcare Students, a Web-based system for helping hospitals and schools communicate about student clinical placements; Who Will Care? The Case for Doubling the Number of RNs Educated in Maryland, and the Maryland team selected to participate in the national Nursing Capacity Summit.

Brian Grady M.D., Director, Telemental Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr Grady, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, received his medical degree from the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda. While in the Navy, he established circuit riding and telemental health technologies to provide psychiatric services to rural military clinics in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maine and New Hampshire. After he retired in 2005, he became Clinical Director for TeleBehavioral Health for the Sheppard Pratt Health System providing telepsychiatry services to Worcester County. He joined the University of Maryland in 2007 as Director of Telemental Health.

Annie Kronk, Ph.D. spent nearly two decades with the Johns Hopkins Institutions, where she managed Hopkins’ government affairs program and served as its registered lobbyist in Annapolis. Now retired, she occasionally teaches courses in politics and policy, and regularly consults with higher education organizations and others on educational and rural health policy issues. She served two terms on the Rural Maryland Council Board and is the former Chair of the RMC Health Care Working Committee. In 2005, she was awarded the Rural Volunteer of the Year Award for her leadership and dedication on behalf of rural Maryland.

Senator Thomas McLain “Mac” Middleton – Elected to the Maryland Senate in 1995 from Charles County, Senator Middleton chairs the Senate Finance Committee and the Task Force to Review Physician Shortages in Rural Areas, which was created by a bill he introduced in 2008. He is also a member of the Task Force on Health Care Access and Reimbursement. Prior to being elected to the Senate, he served as president of the Charles County Commission. Senator Middleton is the owner and operator of Cedar Hill Farm near Waldorf and sits on the Board of Trustees of Civista Medical Center. He was awarded the Outstanding Rural Legislator Award from the Rural Maryland Council in 2000.

Charlie Ross, Chairman, Rural Maryland Council; and CEO/President, Garrett County Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Ross worked for 25 years as a government and public affairs consultant for a variety of clients with his expertise in legal strategies, public affairs and advertising, and survey research. He returned to his native Garrett County in 2002 as President/CEO of the Garrett County Chamber which represents about 750 members in a County with a population of 30,000.

Susan Stewart, Executive Director, Western Maryland Area Health Education Center. Ms. Stewart oversees a variety of programs geared toward the recruitment, retention, and continuing education of health professionals in underserved and Health Professional Shortage Areas. She is a working committee member of the Maryland Rural Health Plan Steering Committee, the Home Care and Hospice Professional Advisory Committee of the Western Maryland Health System Joint Hospital Board of Directors, and the Allegany County Access to Care workgroup.

April L. Vestal, MPH, Associate Director, West Virginia Rural Health Education Partnerships Program. The WVRHEP is a statewide initiative that trains health profession students from West Virginia University, Marshall University and the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine. This program places health profession students in rural underserved communities for a portion of their training and serves 54 of 55 counties. Ms. Vestal served as Site Coordinator in the program for 8 years and for the last nine years has served as the Associate Director. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Management and Development from Bluefield College and a Masters of Public Health from West Virginia University.

John R. Wheat, M.D., M.P.H, Professor, College of Community and Health Sciences, Department of Community and Rural Medicine, University of Alabama School of Medicine. Dr. Wheat oversees the Rural Health Scholars Program, Minority Rural Health Pipeline Program and the Rural Medical Scholars Program and teaches Rural/Community Medicine in year 3 of medical school. Dr. Wheat’s academic interests revolve around vulnerable and underserved rural populations, e.g., prevention in agricultural medicine, insurance and health care systems for uninsured rural children, and educational and community developments needed for rural practice. He was named the 2007 Distinguished Educator of the Year by National Rural Health Association.

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