Four Clinton School students are partnering with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ Center for Rural Health to determine health care priorities in communities across Arkansas.
The Center for Rural Health is investigating disparities and deficiencies in the system to create a report highlighting both the resources available and the obstacles hindering access to quality health care. Through 12 community conversations across the state, students have discovered and recorded the health care disparities in Arkansas communities.
Clinton School students Maggie Carroll of Little Rock, Jake Coffey of Nashville, Tenn., Katie Milligan of Searcy, and Eakpot Nimkulrat of Bangkok, Thailand, facilitated the conversations with citizens across Arkansas. The results from these groups will be presented to the Rural Health Partnership on Tuesday, April 3.
A group of various health care providers, government agencies and private companies, the Rural Health Partnership is working to gather information from a myriad of perspectives and encompass the wide range of factors that affect health.
The finalized Status of Rural Health Report will be published by the end of May and be made available across the state. Stories and trends from health care across Arkansas will be used to influence policy in the upcoming state legislative session. The data will act as a supplement for the Arkansas Department of Health Report.
“I hope that [the report] will accomplish a current view of the state of rural health in Arkansas,” said Kathryn Searcy, senior policy analyst at the Center for Rural Health. “We hear the media view but I’d like to get a clearer view from the people of what they want, what they need and what they hope for.”
The Center of Rural Health, the Rural Health Partnership and the Clinton School students have been working on the report since August of 2011. The report will be available and distributed to anyone that is interested in early June.
Responses