Ky. program a model for improving rural access
Filed under: Health care reform, Hot Health Headline, Public health
As part of his series on rural health, the Wisconsin State Journal’s David Wahlberg traveled down to Appalachian Kentucky to see how state-funded “navigators” had helped improve access to health care in the region with the lowest life expectancy in the nation. There, they help guide the rural poor through the byzantine system and toward free or low-cost care. They’re part of a program called Kentucky Homeplace.
…lay workers live in the communities they serve, which includes most of Appalachian Kentucky. The workers, who receive basic medical training and earn about $25,000 a year, make home visits and address a variety of needs, such as finding low-cost prescription drugs, arranging transportation to doctor’s offices and helping patients follow up on medical tests.
They also make sure homes have heat and running water — and people have food and clothing.
The lay workers get 40 hours of training, and specialize in navigating the local culture and translating medical terminology into words and concepts the locals find more familiar. Their primary role is helping residents find more affordable prescription drugs. According to one of Wahlberg’s sources, “The program, which operates on $2 million in state money a year, helped clients get $28 million worth of free or discounted medications last year.”
The program, started in 1994, “has linked tens of thousands of rural Kentuckians with medical, social and environmental services they otherwise might have done without,” according to the National Rural Health Association, which named Kentucky Homeplace its outstanding rural health program of the year in 2008.
Using public records to track elder abuse
Filed under: Health journalism, Health policy, Hot Health Headline, Public records
The Lexington Herald-Leader’s new series, Voiceless & Vulnerable, looks at nursing home abuse in the state. In the investigation (how they did it), the reporters focused on the eight serious nursing home complaints (about 7.5 percent of the total) from between 2006 and 2009 which the state attorney general has taken an unusually long time to resolve. They’ve been pending for an average of 19 months, and officials say each unresolved case can be blamed on unique factors and not on systemic issues.
In addition, investigators’ high case loads, staffing shortages and coordination with other law enforcement agencies have slowed some investigations, said (Shelley Johnson, spokeswoman for the state AG). Other factors include high turnover of nursing home staff and difficulty finding witnesses.
Overall, few such cases are prosecuted, and the ones that do go to court don’t often result in heavy sentences.
In addition to a discussion of how other states are fighting elder abuse (sidebar), the Herald-Leader package also includes graphics about the investigation process and how to report abuse, and a searchable database of serious nursing home complaints.
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