Grant Helps UAMS Promote Rural Access to Health Care

Grant Helps UAMS Promote Rural Access to Health Care

AUG. 2, 2001 | Support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is enabling the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) to promote greater access to health care in rural areas of Arkansas.

The Arkansas Southern Rural Access Program (ARSRAP) is a project of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI), an independent, nonpartisan organization established in 1998 by UAMS and ADH.

ARSRAP is part of a three-year, $13.9 million effort by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that is aimed at improving access to health care in underserved rural areas of the South. Agencies in Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, East Texas and West Virginia are grant recipients for the Southern Rural Access Program (SRAP). To date, ARSRAP has received $1.3 million from RWJF for 33 months of programming.

ACHI's focus on improving health in Arkansas, its strong supportive relationships with UAMS and ADH, and its growing respect among the Arkansas General Assembly and special interest groups provide a strong background for support of ARSRAP initiatives and for channeling the resources and ideas of interested parties. ACHI was selected by a broad coalition of health service, education, and community groups to represent Arkansas as the lead agency for the SRAP in Arkansas, and ACHI works with and receives guidance from a 38-member Steering Committee that was formed to give ACHI hands-on guidance in planning and implementing ARSRAP.

Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee praised the program: “Through this Southern Rural Access Program, concrete, positive steps are being taken, especially in the most needy areas of Arkansas, to improve the rankings our state has received in the areas of health and health care. We are fortunate to receive this funding and be a part of the program.”

Since the first round of RWJF funding began in February 1999, ARSRAP has helped three rural Arkansas communities — West Memphis, Heber Springs, and North Logan County — receive planning grants for rural health network development, organized a special interest group for UAMS medical students who are interested in rural practice, and assessed health care in 12 Arkansas Delta counties.

Other highlights of the program's first round are the organization of a Delta Summit to discuss the region's health issues, and publication of a health-related Delta area newsletter. In addition, the program collaborated with the Arkasnas Enterprise Group to establish a $10 million revolving loan fund for rural primary health care services. ARSRAP's original award of $540,000 from RWJF was one of just three given primarily for implementation rather than planning.

For the SRAP's second round, which began in August 2000 and will run through March 2002, RWJF awarded ARSRAP $837,000 to continue all first round activities and to fund several new initiatives. RWJF's second-round funding is supplemented by more than $2.5 million in matching funds and in-kind effort from UAMS, ADH, and the three Arkansas community health networks. Of this total amount, $1.3 million is hard-match dollar contributions. This strong support has promoted Michael Beachler, the national SRAP Director, to describe the ARSRAP as “a stellar example of a strong public–private partnership” and "a highly leveraged creative effort with significant matching contributions."

In this second round, the three rural community health networks have begun implementing their programming and, in conjunction with the ADH Hometown Health Initiative, a community development technical specialist has been helping rural communities develop and write grant proposals. In addition, a recruitment and retention tool kit is being produced to help rural communities recruit primary care providers and community-level data are being analyzed, with health-related information and recommendations being generated to help guide state-level policies. This second round also supports development of a rural rotation program for family practice residents at the Delta Health Education Center (DHEC) in Helena, increasing the ARSRAP rural physician mentor's support of UAMS medical students to one day a week, and shifting oversight of the Delta Recruiter initiative to the DHEC.

RWJF, based in Princeton, NJ, is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates its grantmaking in three goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost; to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse—tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs.

Links on This Page

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: http://www.rwjf.org/index.jsp
Arkansas Center for Health Improvement: http://www.achi.net/

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08/06/01