Arkansas Rural Health Partnership Gets $4.8M to Increase Access to Care

Mellie Bridewell of Arkansas Rural Health Partnership

The Arkansas Rural Health Partnership, a nonprofit comprising 14 rural hospitals spanning south Arkansas, received three grants totaling $4.8 million to increase access to care throughout the region.

The grants were awarded by the Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Rural Health.

The largest of the grants was a $3.1 million HRSA Delta States grant. It will fund a three-year project, providing health care provider education and training, both distance learning and on-site simulation, to hospitals, rural health clinics and community health centers in Ashley, Arkansas, Bradley, Calhoun, Chicot, Dallas, Desha, Drew, Grant, Jefferson, Lee, Lincoln, Monroe, Ouachita, Phillips, St. Francis and Union counties.

ARHP has partnered with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and UAMS Centers for Simulation Education on this. 

The project also includes expanding ARHP’s prescription assistance, Medicare and Medicaid enrollment services; Mental Health First Aid; and navigation services for patients and residents throughout the service area.

The second largest grant is a $1 million HRSA Rural Communities Opioid Response Implementation grant that will fund a three-year project to increase the following:

• Medication-assisted treatment services;

• Community utilization of drug takeback sites;

• Peer recovery specialists;

• Substance use disorder/opioid use disorder telehealth counseling services;

• OUD prevention programs in schools;

• Workforce training; and 

• Access to training and a supply of Naloxone for 400 first responders, law enforcement and health care workers.  

Partners in this initiative include the partnership’s 14 hospital members and Arkansas Drug Director Kirk Lane. 

The third grant was a $750,000 HRSA Care Coordination grant that will fund a three-year project aimed at building a regional transitional care program designed by the Mayo Clinic. The program will work with ARHP critical access hospitals, UAMS, Jefferson Regional, and Allevant Solutions to strengthen and promote ARHP Critical Access hospital swing bed programs.  

The idea is to provide resources so that patients can come home to recuperate, bringing revenue to small rural hospitals.

All three projects are set to begin on Sept. 1.

“These projects are focused on meeting the health care needs of our residents and providing resources to our hospitals and clinics so that they can continue to provide the best quality of care right here at home,” said Mellie Bridewell, ARHP CEO and regional director for the UAMS Office of Strategic Management, in a news release. “We are working together with our partners to improve and increase health care resources in our region. These grants provide us with the resources to continue to address and fund valuable initiatives that will help our patients and our hospitals.”