The Rappahannock Rural Health Network (RRHN) is looking at how to expand the public schools’ health clinic to serve others in the community, provide check-ins of older residents by fire and rescue personnel, and even bring a pharmacy into the county.
These are among the goals identified at the first meeting last Tuesday of representatives of multiple health services in the region to address the health needs of an aging Rappahannock community.
Other goals include:
• Investigating the creation of more telemedicine sites in the community;
• Improving home clinical care to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and readmissions;
• Attracting more medical professionals to the region and improving pharmacy access.
Finding partners
The network’s members represent a wide range of organizations from nonprofits — such as Rapp at Home, Aging Together, Encompass Community Supports, the Fauquier Free Clinic and the PATH Foundation — to local businesses and large health systems, such as Mountainside Physical Therapy, UVA Health and Valley Health.
Rappahannock County Public Schools Superintendent Shannon Grimsley and Darren Stevens, the county’s emergency services coordinator, also participated in the group’s first planning session.
At this point, RRHN is focusing on how its different partners can work together to fill health care gaps here, according to Joyce Wenger, president of Rapp at Home, which has played a central role in forming the network.
Earlier this summer, the organization received a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to cover the cost of mapping out the health network’s strategy.
Several people at the launch meeting did mention programs or initiatives that could be expanded or used by other organizations. Valley Health, for instance, has plans to purchase a mobile mammography van that might provide other services as well. Also, both Valley Health and UVA Health have healthcare training programs that could lead to a collaboration with the school district.
“I think we realize that no organization can solve all of this on their own,” Wenger said. “While we each have our own organizational mission and budget, everyone engaged in this are caring people who really want to help the community.”
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Joyce Wenger is president of Rapp at Home, the nonprofit that has played a central role in forming the Rappahannock Rural Health Network.
But for all the good intentions, the RRHN partners will have to find ways to collaborate in taking on some challenging and complex issues.
“Setting things up and making them sustainable for the long term is one of the challenges,” said Sallie Morgan, a member of the Rapp at Home board. “And some of the things we’re talking about are really complicated.
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RAPP AT HOME BOARD MEMBER SALLIE MORGAN: “It sounds simple to say, ‘What would it take to have a pharmacy come to Rappahannock?’ But there are so many regulatory issues associated with pharmacies…”
“It sounds simple to say, ‘What would it take to have a pharmacy come to Rappahannock?’” she added. “But there are so many regulatory issues associated with pharmacies, so people in our work groups are going to have to go pretty deep in the weeds to develop these plans.
“But we heard from people sharing things they’re working on that could have value for Rappahannock down the road. That’s what makes this kind of collaboration exciting,” she said.
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