The Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers (PACHC) is hosting several career events this spring. Click on the event name for more information and to register.

• Community Health Career Networking Evening in Hershey (April 26) – Physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, dentists, LCSWs, therapists, and other providers are invited to attend.
• Northeast PA Community Health Career Fair in Scranton (April 27) – Medical assistants, dental assistants, community health workers, LPNs, RNs, and other frontline staff are invited to attend.
• Northeast PA Community Health Career Networking Evening in Scranton (April 27) – Physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, dentists, LCSWs, therapists, and other providers are invited to attend.
• Central PA Community Health Career Fair in Harrisburg (May 2) – Medical assistants, dental assistants, community health workers, LPNs, RNs, and other frontline staff are invited to attend.

For more information, contact Judd Mellinger-Blouch at Judd@pachc.org.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health published the Pennsylvania State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP) that outlines goals, objectives, and strategies to improve the health of all Pennsylvanians over the next five years. This unveiling of the plan coincided with National Public Health Week, April 3 through April 9.

The 2023-2028 SHIP was developed in collaboration with the Healthy Pennsylvania Partnership (HPP), with support from Harrisburg University. The HPP is made up of nearly 300 health care professionals, associations, health systems, health and human services organizations, community collaborations, local public health agencies, government agencies, and others focused on improving health outcomes across the Commonwealth.

“The Department’s vision is to create a ‘Healthy Pennsylvania for All,’” said Dr. Debra Bogen, Acting Secretary of Health. “Achieving that vision will take all of us working with people and organizations across the Commonwealth to increase opportunities for people to access quality health care, impactful programs, and needed resources.”

Under the overarching goal of improving the health status and life expectancy of Pennsylvanians, and eliminating health inequities, there are nine goals in the 2023-2028 SHIP:

• Increase financial well-being, food security, and safe affordable housing;
• Increase community safety by reducing the number of violent incidences that occur due to racism, discrimination, or domestic disputes;
• Improve environmental health, focusing on environmental justice communities;
• Increase the population at a healthy weight through increasing availability and accessibility of physical activity and affordable nutritious food;
• Reduce the impact of tobacco and nicotine use;
• Increase access to medical and oral health care;
• Improve mental health and substance use outcomes through improved mental health services, trauma-informed trainings, and substance use interventions;
• Improve health outcomes through improved chronic diseases management; and
• Improve maternal and infant health outcomes by improving prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal care.

Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro’s 2023-2024 budget supports many of the SHIP’s goals by proposing investments in key areas like $2.3 million to expand maternal health programming and study ways to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity, $500 million over the next five years for mental health services for students, and $16 million to increase the minimum Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit by 50%, among other investments.

The SHIP acts as a road map for the HPP and others to improve health outcomes and eliminate health disparities by working across the continuum from the social determinants of health, preventative interventions, and accessing quality and culturally humble care.

More information on the SHIP can be found on the Department of Health’s website at State Health Improvement Plan (pa.gov) or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Philadelphia Inquirer, Jason Nark, April 5, 2023

Berwick, a town of about 10,000 in Columbia County, is without a hospital for the first time in more than a century.

The emergency room was dark, the doors locked for months now, and a young woman stood outside in the rain, clutching her stomach and sobbing. No one was coming out to help.

The frantic people who drove the ailing woman to the hospital stood, dumbfounded, in the mostly empty parking lot.

“This is insane,” the driver said. “I’m going to have to call 911.”

On Sept. 17, the Pennsylvania Department of Health shut down Berwick Hospital Center’s emergency room because of a lack of staffing, accelerating a closure its owners planned out earlier that summer. Signs on the doors still advise patients to head to hospitals in Hazleton, 20 miles to the south, or Bloomsburg, 14 miles west, for emergencies. The 90-bed facility is currently operating only as a 14-bed inpatient geriatric psychiatry facility — but not everyone in this town of 10,349 on the Susquehanna River in Columbia County, knows that.

On that dreary March morning, the ill woman was carried back to a car to wait for an ambulance. Bette Grey, a Berwick resident and private medical advocate who fought, unsuccessfully, to keep the hospital open, was there to talk to The Inquirer. First, she watched her fears unfold.

“Hey, stay awake. Open your eyes,” Grey yelled, to the woman in the car, clapping her hands.

Read more.

 Yesterday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that the makers of Narcan, an opioid overdose treatment, have the agency’s approval to make the drug widely available over the counter (OTC).  Narcan is the brand name of the drug naloxone, a fast-acting overdose reversal. Until now, availability varied by state – typically restricted to licensed health care providers, approved opioid overdose programs, and first responders. This is an important consideration for rural counties given that research shows that these areas are nearly three times more likely than metropolitan counties to be a low-dispensing county for naloxone.

 In 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention carved out $427 million in state funding to focus on combatting COVID-19 in rural communities as part of a multibillion-dollar national initiative to address COVID-19-related health disparities among at-risk and underserved populations. This case study by the FORHP-Supported Southwest Rural Health Research Center explores the circumstances around this emphasis on rural America by interviewing relevant decision-makers and key stakeholders.

A sweeping report from the Administration of Children and Families (ACF) delivers insight into the rural-specific barriers to the agency’s programs – e.g., for housing, early childhood, and family development, Healthy Marriage, and Responsible Fatherhood.  Some of these barriers are well known and understood, such as distance to services and negative perceptions of public assistance.  But through qualitative and quantitative data collection, ACF researchers find details of how factors such as race, digital access, and housing are realized in the rural context and hinder the effectiveness of human services.

 The Commonwealth Fund examines programs that send paramedics and other staff to peoples’ homes to stabilize their health and avoid the need for 911 calls down the line.  The report cites 129 programs in the U.S., with more than 40 of these in rural areas.