Office of Public Relations – Newsroom
News Release
CU Health Sciences Center Committed to Rural Health Outreach
DENVER (Oct. 15, 2004) — For Dr. Jack Westfall, director of rural health for University of Colorado Denver, rural health issues are more than just part of the job. For Westfall, who is also the new associate dean for rural health for the CU School of Medicine, rural health is an issue that hits close to home.
Westfall was born in Akron, Colo. and raised in Yuma, Colo., and knows firsthand the challenges of rural healthcare. He recognizes that rural communities need medical expertise and collaborative assistance with experts from UCDHSC. Westfall, who has served as a family physician at the Plains Medical Center in Limon, Colo. since 2001 and serves as chief of staff at Lincoln Community Hospital in Hugo, Colo., has strong ties to the rural healthcare community.
He spent much of the past summer traveling throughout rural Colorado and establishing relationships with rural healthcare providers, in an effort to build bridges for clinical care and interest the next generation of rural residents in healthcare careers.
"We are focusing our outreach efforts on education for grades K-12, continuing medical education and community education, clinical care and research," Westfall said. "We're working with high schools to get kids interested in careers in rural health."
Since 1992, senior administrators from the CU schools of medicine and nursing have visited 93 communities and more than 180 hospitals to gain a better understanding of Colorado's public health needs. An average of 2,500 physicians and faculty volunteer their time in donating more than 41,000 hours per year to community outreach and rural health programs.
The High Plains Research Network, operated under the UCD's Dept. of Family Medicine and directed by Westfall, is an example of how the university gives back to the rural community. The HPRN consists of 12 rural hospitals and clinics ranging in size from six to 40 acute care beds, and all hospitals are between 50 and 180 miles from the closest tertiary care center. HPRN conducts health care research and collaborates with other health care-based agencies and networks, provides approved continuing medical education, offers system-wide interventions aimed at quality improvement, and provides feedback reports on outcomes of interest to physicians, other providers, hospital administrators and patients.
Additionally, HPRN conducts many rural health studies, including one that focused on improving access to health care for Hispanic community members in western Yuma County. In this study, the goal was to better understand the barriers that are preventing the Hispanic community from accessing health care.
Another UCD program making a difference in rural health care is the Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center. The center is one of 28 in the nation funded by the Centers for Disease Control, with offices at the UCD campus in Denver and in Alamosa, Colo. in the San Luis Valley. The RMPRC works to help rural communities lead healthier, active lifestyles and prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes by serving as a resource for community-based prevention research and policy.
"The many programs we have are building bridges between UCD and the rural communities," Westfall said. "Collaboration is key, and we are really working together. We are establishing great partnerships with these vital communities."
The University of Colorado Denver is one of three campuses in the University of Colorado system. Located in Denver and Aurora, Colo., the center includes schools of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and dentistry, a graduate school and a teaching hospital. For more information, visit the Web site at www.uchsc.edu.