News : How one university is bolstering rural health care

Monday, July 10, 2023

How one university is bolstering rural health care

Jul 10, 2023

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By Bianca Quilantan

Presented by Sallie Mae®

UK King's Daughters in Ashland, Kentucky.

UK King's Daughters in Ashland, Kentucky. | Courtesy Photo

‘USING THE BLUE’ — After nearly 67 years, Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital which served rural communities in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia shuttered at the height of the pandemic in April 2020. The closure left only one health care system to serve the Ashland, Kentucky area — one that had also once questioned its own viability to continue to serve the region years prior.

— “This was the beginning of the pandemic and then we found ourselves being faced with the fact that we are the only healthcare system that's in rural Kentucky on the eastern side of the state,” said Sara Marks, president of King’s Daughters, the provider that serves the region. “It was kind of a double blow to the region at that point when it was also a beloved health system here for many of our community members who received great health care there, but also for the team that worked there.”

— Across the country, there has been rising alarm over the potential for hundreds of closures of rural hospitalsthat have been facing economic strain, and the health care access thousands of people stand to lose if they close their doors for good. Some universities have been stepping up to support rural hospitals in their states, including West Virginia University and the University of Kentucky, which acquired King’s Daughters in December 2022.

— The University of Kentucky in 2020 stepped in to help King’s Daughters navigate telehealth technology, supply chain issues and capacity needs. Those early meetings also paved the way for a joint venture between the university and health care system that resulted in an acquisition of the hospital. Both kept their individual identities to recognize the history of the hospital in the community, said Eric Monday, executive vice president for finance and administration at the University of Kentucky, but “using the Blue” or the pull of the University of Kentucky brand has an added value.

— For the hospital, the acquisition has allowed them to serve more patients, modernize their facilities and make it easier for patients to access some types of specialized care that they would have had to drive hours to find. And for the university, the purchase is clearing the way to help with health care worker shortages and improve learning opportunities for their medical students throughout the state, not just in Lexington.

— “For the vast majority of college students, the place you go to college [is where you] end up staying,” Monday said. “It's the same thing here. We can move them into these rural communities and they become embedded, have a great clinical experience or resident experience, then that provides a higher opportunity to grow the physician base in that area.”

— Looking ahead, Monday and Marks say there are a lot of possibilities to consider, including: boosting workforce development, expanding access to clinical trials, pursuing research opportunities or grants, and expanding residency rotations and more.

— “A lot of smaller health systems throughout the nation — and especially in these rural markets — are really struggling,” Marks said.

“The economic conditions that we face — especially in a rural market — these patients just don't have the ability to travel to three hours for health care for themselves and for their families,” she said. “And so we're very fortunate to be able to continue to be viable and be in the region and to have UK as that partner.”

IT’S MONDAY, JULY 10. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. What’s going on in schools this summer? Share your thoughts with me. Reach me at bquilantan@politico.com. Send tips to my colleagues Mackenzie Wilkes at mwilkes@politico.com, Juan Perez Jr. at jperez@politico.com and Michael Stratford at mstratford@politico.com. And follow us on Twitter: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.

A message from Sallie Mae®:

Every year, Federal Pell Grants help nearly 7 million students access college. Pell Grants, however, only cover one-third of the average cost of attendance today, compared to more than 75% when it was introduced 50 years ago. Private student lender Sallie Mae believes modernizing the Pell Grant can more meaningfully support students with the most need. Learn more.

The MINI Q&A

K-12’s ROLE IN BUILDING DIVERSE COLLEGE CAMPUSES — Fordham Institute President Michael J. Petrilli is calling on the Biden administration to make sure its plan to promote education opportunity and diversity in college starts in K-12. His column, “Building Diverse College Campuses Starts in Kindergarten,” cites a report from Fordham Institute’s National Working Group on Advanced Education that includes recommendations on how to level the playing field for students during their K-12 education. Your host spoke to Petrilli about what changes need to be made to build a strong diverse pipeline of students who are prepared for college, especially in light of the Supreme Court’s decision that gutted affirmative action in admissions.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

MORNING EDUCATION: If someone who's interested in this report and your column had only two minutes to scan through it, what is something that you would want them to take away from it?

MICHAEL PETRILLI: We need to do a much better job building a wider, more diverse pipeline of students who can do advanced level work and that's got to start in kindergarten. We're having this debate now in the country about college admissions and what to do in the wake of this decision to make sure that those campuses remain diverse racially and socioeconomically. But so much of the discussion has been focused on what happens after kids leave high school or their senior year when they're applying to these schools, and we've got to start much earlier.

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ME: Your column talks about closing the “excellence gap.” What does that look like?

MP: We're really talking about a special achievement gap, the “excellence gap” — the achievement gap at the highest levels of achievement. There are a lot of talented kids out there from every race and background and yet many of them get overlooked. They don't get the support they need and so they don't show up in their gifted and talented programs or in honors and advanced placement classes in high school and they don't show up on those college campuses where they could do great, but they haven't been in that pipeline.

Schools and districts need to have a system to look for kids of all backgrounds who have great academic potential. Doing it the right way means this notion of universal screening.

ME: The Biden administration unveiled a new plan to boost diversity on college campuses, but it didn’t mention K-12. What are some actionable recommendations you would like to see them take on?

MP: At that summit that they're going to have, I do hope they call on every elementary school in the country to have a gifted and talented program, call on every district to do universal screening to identify kids who could benefit from it and call on people to continue the work that's been started to make sure that middle schools and high schools have advanced courses, and not just in the affluent neighborhoods, but in high poverty neighborhoods.

This is all stuff that the Biden administration could easily talk about. This is not something in a culture war. It's not something that pits the unions against reformers. … We have to talk and work through and listen to each other and try to find common ground. It's doable because this is an issue I think you can get a lot of agreement on, especially when it comes to closing the excellence gap for marginalized groups.

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Around California

TEMECULA SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS FACE RECALL EFFORTS — Three Temecula, California school board members backed by a far-right pastor are fighting for their political lives after just six months. In that time, the members who narrowly won election last fall have banned critical race theory and rejected social studies materials that included LGBTQ rights hero Harvey Milk. The officials are facing a recall effort on top of a civil rights investigation launched by the state’s education department.

— The political agenda embraced by school board trustees Joseph Komrosky, Danny Gonzalez and Jen Wiersma has set off public outrage, POLITICO’s Blake Jones reports. The booing and shouting at a recent public hearing grew so loud that the board president — who appeared to be wearing a bullet-proof vest under his sweater — cleared the room.

— “To the extent you keep it focused on parents and students first, not teachers, I think there's room where you can push back on quote-unquote ‘woke’ agenda issues, but if you go too far in the other direction and are trying to make that the only issue you care about, I think you're going to see predictable backlash,” California GOP consultant Rob Stutzman said in an interview. “I look at something like Temecula, and to me it’s an eye roll.”

— Local Democrats are already looking to capitalize on the tension in the part of the state that has become a battleground for control of the House. Joy Silver, chair of the Riverside County Democrats, said she’s intensely focused on winning down-ballot races like school board seats “because the battles are taking place there.”

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Syllabus

— Iowa schools are pleading for state guidance on a new book ban. Will it come too late?: Des Moines Register

— Republicans have staked their claim on education. Democrats can take it back: Vanity Fair

— After the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action, are college DEI offices in danger?: NPR

— Students behind bars regain access to college financial aid: The Marshall Project

A message from Sallie Mae®:

For too long, the federal student loan program has done too much for too many, and not enough for those who need the most support. Meaningfully increasing the Pell Grant, which provides need-based government funding that does not need to be repaid, would be a step in the right direction in supporting access for low-income students and helping protect against overborrowing. Learn more about why private lender and education solutions provider Sallie Mae supports expanding the Pell Grant, a critical tool in increasing college access and completion.