Primary Care Cooperative Agreement

The University of Kentucky Center for Rural Health was established pursuant to KRS 164.937 to address issues related to the health of all rural Kentuckians and the improvement of rural health care systems in Kentucky. The Department for Public Health (DPH) and the Center for Rural Health share a commonality of goals and mission. With regard to the availability, distribution, and sufficiency of the health professions workforce, DPH and the Center will provide mutual consultation and assistance in assessing the unmet need for primary care services, health disparity, and health workforce issues. Specific activities to be conducted through this contract include the following: . The Center for Rural Health (referred to as the Center) shall assist with maintenance of the Rural Health Association. This assistance would include .20 FTE per year staff support for the Kentucky Rural Health Association and .15 FTE for a staff person to do the production work on the quarterly newsletter. This is a direct result of the work of the Primary Care Coalition, which the Center helped developed. This is a benefit to rural health care for the entire state. . The Office of Rural Health, Center for Rural Health, is the grantee for the State Loan Repayment (SLRP) funded by the Bureau of Primary Health Care. There are no administrative funds to support the SLRP. The Cooperative Agreement Grant will provide some funds to help offset the administrative costs of administering the SLRP. It is estimated that .5 FTE is required. The SLRP was fully implemented in 2001 with extensive recruiting efforts that included a web page, development of a new brochure to announce the program and extensive mailings of recruitment and informational materials. The program has generated intense interest and hundreds of inquiries. . The Center for Rural Health will provide technical assistance to both existing Community Health Centers and to those organizations that plan to develop new Community Health Centers. This technical assistance will include services such as strategic planning, quality assessment, network development, business plans for expansion, needs assessments, developing initial operating policies and procedures as well as other technical assistance and training needs. The Center for Rural Health will utilize both in-house staff and subcontract for other staff resources to provide this technical assistance. All requests for technical assistance will be reviewed and authorized by representatives of DPH, the Kentucky Primary Care Association, and the UK Center for Rural Health. In addition to the above activities, counsel all clients and families on the importance of avoiding tobacco use. Refer youth and adults to appropriate cessation programs. Stress the importance of avoiding exposure to second hand smoke. Assist in removing the discrepancy in tobacco-related diseases in minority, economically and disadvantaged, rural populations.