Study looks at rural health care
What happens in Davenport won’t necessarily stay in Davenport anymore – at least in the medical community.
Lincoln Hospital in rural Davenport, Wash., is participating in a study that could help shape the principles that guide how people in small towns nationwide are treated by their local hospitals and clinics.
There’s a national movement to improve the quality of health care, and this study puts Lincoln Hospital at the forefront, said Tom Martin, the hospital administrator.
“This is the future,” Martin said Friday. “We believe we are on the cutting edge of rural hospitals.”
Davenport’s medical center was one of 100 national institutions picked for various research projects. Lincoln Hospital received a three-year $1.5 million research grant from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to help define the best ways to treat chest pains and pneumonia.
Another element of the study is figuring out the best ways new technology can help health-care workers do their jobs.
The rules are a little different at smaller medical facilities where emergency rooms are not staffed with doctors around the clock, Martin said. Some of the national standards coming out of Washington, D.C., and major think tanks don’t even consider that it takes a Davenport doctor 15 minutes to reach the emergency room when paged in the middle of the night.
Through the study, the voice of rural health care will be represented with Lincoln Hospital and several other rural facilities in Washington.
Margarita Hurtado, a researcher from the nonprofit American Institute of Research based in Washington, D.C., who’s helping conduct the study, said rural health-care workers are already presenting a common theme – they already know how to give health care.
Hurtado said workers say their health-care work doesn’t end when they leave their hospitals. While going about their day, like shopping for groceries, they’ll mingle with the people they care for and keep dispensing medical advice.
They’ve also found that some workers don’t use computers on the job, unlike Spokane hospitals that use a lot of electronic medical records.
One of the study’s goals is to support research projects that will increase knowledge and understanding of health information technology.
The study includes an examination of six Eastern Washington hospitals, including Newport Community Hospital, Coulee Community Hospital, Garfield County Memorial Hospital, Odessa Memorial Healthcare Center and Columbia Basin Hospital.
The study will expand in a year to include eight more hospitals, which are mostly in Western Washington.
Eventually, the study is expected to reveal the most efficient ways for professionals to deliver the best care to people in small towns.