Nevada State Office of Rural Health

PROGRAM HISTORY/DEVELOPMENT

The Nevada Office of Rural Health was created by the state legislature in 1977 with a mission to assist rural communities. The Office provides a broad array of technical assistance activities across all counties in Nevada. Annually, the program has continuous contact with over fifty communities and provides services such as education and training, outreach, hospital and health professional technical assistance, EMS technical assistance, telehealth/telecommunications, policy development/analysis and health workforce activities.

 PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The office is dedicated to improving the health of rural Nevadans and serves as a focal point for a variety of programs. The Office of Rural Health provides state and national leadership in addressing recruitment and retention issues, technology resources, and promotion of graduate medical education. Key functions of the office are to provide coordination and technical assistance for rural Nevadans seeking health resources, conduct community development activities, and advocate for rural health issues.

 HISTORICAL MILESTONES

Development of specific programs that serve rural and urban Nevada include:

PROGRAM STATISTICS AND OUTCOME MEASURES

Technical assistance contacts annually average 400 – 600 per year for health professions recruitment and retention activities, community needs assessments, EMS outreach and community development activities. Telehealth and telecommunications support up to 250 administrative meetings each year, provide over 300 continuing education events, and support a clinical array of Telemedicine

consultations, provide up to 200 education and training courses to health professionals, and support the transmission of between 200,000 – 400,000 monthly rural radiology digital images. There have been 87 health and dental professional placements since 1989 through the Nevada Health Service Corps program, serving a minimum of two years in a medically underserved community. A rural prenatal outreach clinic was established and continues in Yerington through the Department of Family and Community Medicine and South Lyon Medical Center. The biennial publication (third edition) of the Nevada Rural and Frontier Health Data Book, 2007. The partnership with Cooperative Extension to analyze the impact of health care in all rural and frontier Nevada counties; improvements to 65 rural EMS services in over 35 rural communities.