Podcasts: LIVE from AHA's Rural Health Care Leadership Conference

Welcome, guest of honor! Join the conversation with your fellow healthcare colleagues as we record live from the AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference!

If you were unable to attend or want to expand on what you learned, these off-the-cuff interviews are a valued add-on to your continued education.

Lisa Killawee, Vice President of Strategic Alliances for Caravan Health and former president of NRHA joined us in the podcast lounge at AHA Rural Health 2019 to share how her own personal experiences with rural health pushed her into a career fighting to improve it. She also shared her hope for future rural health care providers to stress wellness over illness.

Kimberly Dalrymple, CFO of Cascade Medical Center in Cascade, ID joined us in the podcast lounge at AHA Rural Health 2019 and shared some common pain points faced by many rural hospitals, from recruiting top talent staff to losing patients to further, but larger, facilities. She also offered some creative ways they're resolving those problems, and the proof is seeing the old patients come back home.

Gisele Castonguay of the Central Maine Medical Center joined us in the AHA Rural Health 2019 podcast lounge to discuss what she sees as the biggest challenges to rural health disparity - the underinsured or uninsured and the struggles they have to manage chronic diseases. She also shared why her facility actively engages with health home services to bridge the gap.

Debbi Lehner, Senior Health Services Educator at Wichita State University visited with us in the podcast lounge at AHA Rural Health 2019 to discuss the need for continuing education, particularly focused on rural health topics and the specific issues associated with them. As an educator, she is attending the conference in hopes of interviewing rural executives and staff at all levels to bring knowledge back to her own classes.

Director of Nursing at Cox Medical Center, Matt Farmer, sat down with us in the AHA Rural Health 2019 podcast lounge to share the results of several case studies he and his team are presenting this year and how they relate to the discussion on Fee-For-Service models versus Value-Based care in rural communities.

Executive Director of Quality and Risk Management of SGCMH, Hirshell Parker stopped by the AHA Rural Health 2019 podcast lounge to share the results of one of their recent case studies that shows by empowering employees of critical access hospitals with new auditing tools they were able to see a decrease in patient falls up to 60%. He believes the engagement of staff to participate and buy into these new protocols is the key to success.

Chief of Clinic and Surgical Services at Wickenburg Community Hospital Richard Wedig stopped into the podcast lounge at AHA Rural Health 2019 to share why he believes dispelling the misconception of the type of care rural hospitals can provide begins with attracting the top-tier talent. To do this, he also believes the rural hospitals have to invest in the highest quality of resources available to them, from staff to surgical equipment, to continue to get buy-in from the rural communities they serve.

Jeanne Dunk, Trustee of Mt. San Rafael Hospital, visited with us in the podcast lounge at AHA Rural Health 2019 to share her thoughts on how renovating the hospital itself can help attract new patients beyond the rural community. She also shares that attracting new health care providers and welcoming them into the rural community can foster a sense of pride in the hospital and its services.

Ashley Medical Center CEO Holly Wolff sat in our podcast lounge at AHA Rural Health 2019 to share her thoughts on some of the challenges faced by rural community hospitals looking to change the working culture from within. She offered her advice on how to get staff and community leaders involved in the process to put the right pieces together.

TrestleTree CEO Ted Borgstadt joined us in the podcast lounge at AHA Rural Health 2019 to share how proactive prevention can be a challenge, especially in rural hospital communities, but offers significant benefits in the long term. He also offered his insight into how companies like his are working to address the opioid crisis through a predictive approach by studying medial and pharmaceutical claims.

Nicole Mason, Board Member of the Community Medical Center in Falls City, Nebraska sat with us in the podcast lounge at AHA Rural Health 2019 to encourage millennial generations of health care professionals to become more involved in the rural communities around them. She believes that bringing in a new generation can change both the perspective and approach to treating and distributing healthcare information.

Campbell County Health Board Trustee Lisa Harry joined us in the podcast lounge at AHA Rural Health 2019 to explain how her rural mining community is leading the way by investing in their own healthcare systems, and learning to love their own hometown hospital along the way. She also stressed the importance of patient education, allowing those in need to make better, more informed decisions about their own care.

Chief Medical Officer of Medicus Healthcare Solutions, Dr. O'Neil Pyke visited with us in the podcast lounge at AHA Rural Health 2019 to discuss some of the misconceptions of rural healthcare, and how organizations like his help to attract experienced health care providers - and their families - to smaller towns across the country. He also shared his belief, especially working with veteran communities, that a lack of proper mental healthcare leads to an increase in general health issues.

Alomere Health Board Member Kevin Kopischke sat down with us in the podcast lounge at AHA Rural Health 2019 to share some of the unique challenges rural health organizations face while trying to drive a health care system that reduces costs but still provides quality care. He also gave us some insight into how the recent CMS Hospital Price Transparency rules have affected healthcare systems as a whole.

CEO and founding partner of DTA Associates Janiece Gray joined us in the podcast lounge at AHA Rural Health 2019 to discuss the importance of developing service culture training within an organization, and how small steps taken now can improve patient experience for long-term sustainability. She shared with us how her company makes data collection affordable and attainable to critical access and rural health organizations interested in tracking trends and areas for improvement.