by Eileen Ringnalda
Communication specialist
Iowa State University Extension to Communities
If you don't know where you're going any road will take you there. To avoid ending up on any road to an unknown future, several Iowa communities are participating in a program called Hometown Health, a community health care planning model.
"When it comes to health care planning, communities need to know where they're going. The future is going to happen. We feel that communities should participate in planning their own future, because if they don't somebody else will," said Wayne Kobberdahl, Iowa State University Extension community development specialist.
Hometown Health started about six years ago when ISU Extension conducted a needs assessment in every county in Iowa. One of the top issues that surfaced in every county was health, particularly the availability and cost of health care in small communities.
About the same time of the Extension survey, the state department of health was taking inventory of health needs in Iowa communities. The two organizations learned of each other's involvement in this issue and decided to work together on creating a model of community-based health care planning.
ISU Extension and the Iowa Department of Public Health invited the ISU Social and Behavioral Research Center for Rural Health to participate in the project, as well.
"It turned out to be a three way partnership put together to respond to needs identified by our clientele. One of the exciting things about Hometown Health is not only did we put together a model, but it is an example of agencies working together on a project," Kobberdahl said.
The joint effort of Hometown Health is receiving national attention. Several states are incorporating the health care assessment model and it is receiving strong support at the national level from the department of health.
"People in Washington, D.C., are excited about the inter-organizational cooperation of Hometown Health. The collaboration of several agencies working together makes this program unique and successful," Kobberdahl said.
Hometown Health has been a successful program in several Iowa communities. The Greene County Medical Center has developed a long-range plan for survival and growth using the Hometown Health model. The Northwest Iowa Mental Health Center in Spencer is now publishing a magazine in northwest Iowa to increase understanding of mental health. The Redfield Rural Health Clinic and Grundy County Memorial Hospital also have assessed community health care needs and how they can better provide services to the community.
"Needs shouldn't be compromised by geography or population," said Dr. Craig Thompson, a family practitioner and resident of Strawberry Point.
The Strawberry Point Medical Center used the Hometown Health program to identify the needs of their community. After following the assessment and planning model in Hometown Health, the medical center is focusing on ambulatory services, emergency medical services and health education.
Hometown Health emphasizes that community members evaluate health care needs and decide on a plan of action instead of relying solely on health care providers to make those choices. The program also recently added a section on the economic impact of health care in the community.
"If you add up all the people who have a job related to health including doctors, hospital and nursing home staffs and administrators, you'd find that health as an industry provides a sizable number of jobs and hundreds of thousands of dollars of income that turns around in the community," Kobberdahl said. "We are incorporating that information to tell people how important health is in terms of jobs and money in the community."
Kobberdahl said Hometown Health is designed to help communities develop a tailor-made plan for health needs and health awareness. "Hometown Health is the model, in a recipe book format so that local citizens can make decisions for themselves."
Contacts:
Terry L. Besser, ISU
Extension Sociology, (515) 294-6508
Del Marks, ISU Extension
Communication Systems, (515) 294-9807
