Local group will collect, share Totals broken down county by county COVID-19 related patient data UNMC report: Rural areas of Nebraska
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he Great Plains Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Clinical & Translational Research (CTR) Network headquartered at the University of Nebraska Medical Center has received a $180,000 grant to participate in a national effort to collect and share data on COVID-19-related patient outcomes for use in research.
need additional healthcare professionals
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2020 healthcare workforce report by the University of Nebraska Medical Center reveals the number of physicians and nurse practitioners increased slightly in Nebraska since the last survey in 2018. Despite these positive developments, rural areas of the “The exciting thing is that we state still lag in the number of needed now have a robust framework healthcare professionals. The report examined 21 healthcare proto gain new knowledge to fessions ranging from physicians and physiface down future cian assistants to nursing, dental, and allied health professionals. health challenges It also looked at the sex, age, race, and beyond COVID.” ethnicity of each healthcare professional, as well as measured the number and rate of healthcare professionals per 100,000 people The funding from the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences will support data transfer to the National in Nebraska by county. “The delivery of comprehensive, highCOVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) Data Enclave; a regisquality, team-based care is getting more try of COVID-19-related information from patients across difficult in rural communities that have the country. The enclave will enable researchers with data to use agreements from UNMC and seven other IDeA-CTR limited or no access to the key healthcare specialists and nursing professionals needed networks – with support totaling more than $1.4 million – to case-manage and care for increasingly to track the disease in patients across the country. complex patients,” said Nicole Carritt, di N3C will help scientists develop insight into potenrector of the UNMC Office of Rural Health tial risk factors, protective factors, and long-term health Initiatives. consequences. Fifty-seven sites across the country will “Healthcare professions are high demand, share data from the electronic health records of individuhigh skill, and high wage occupations,” als (identity of individuals will not be included) tested for COVID-19, including demographics, symptoms, laboratory said Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, the chancellor of UNMC and the University of Nebraska at test results, procedures, medications, medical conditions, Omaha. physical measurements, and more. “These professions are critical to the Matthew Rizzo, MD, Frances & Edgar Reynolds Chair overarching healthcare system as they and professor in the UNMC Department of Neurological Sciences, in collaboration with James McClay, MD, said he facilitate access to quality healthcare and and his team rapidly responded to the challenge recently by have a significant impact on Nebraska’s health, economy, and the sustainability and being the first in the region to contribute to the enclave. Dr. McClay is principal investigator of UNMC’s research vibrancy of the state’s rural communities.” The study, commissioned and funded by data warehouse and director of the Biomedical Informatics the Office of Rural Health Initiatives and Core of the Great Plains IDeA-CTR. the Nebraska Area Health Education Center “Being nimble, pivoting quickly, and marshalling reProgram, used the most recent data from the sources to face down COVID helped create this gold mine for all kinds of answers for all kinds of questions,” Dr. Riz- UNMC Health Professions Tracking Serzo said. “Some of the questions we want to answer are what vice and the state of Nebraska. “This report helps to measure the progtreatments work, what are the long-term side effects, is ress we have made in the state in dealing there a greater rate of cognitive problems, who’s at greater with some of the workforce issues in rural risk, will the virus have consequences down the road? Nebraska and in planning for the future,” “It’s unprecedented to get so many networks together quickly so we can pool data to help figure out what is going said Nizar Wehbi, MD, assistant professor and deputy director for the UNMC Center on with this disease and the pandemic.” By aggregated counts of anticipated positive COVID-19 for Health Policy. Several programs have helped increase patients, the N3C Data Enclave is anticipated to be one of the number of rural health professionals in the world’s largest collections of data on COVID-19 paNebraska. tients. “Grow Your Own programs encourage, Dr. Rizzo said the registry also ensures the data repreincentivize, and support students from rural sents the diversity of the country so researchers can underand disadvantaged backgrounds who enroll stand and address geographic and population disparities in pre-health and health profession training during the pandemic. programs and are committed to returning to “There are many opportunities in the future,” Dr Rizzo rural areas to practice,” Carritt said. “More said. “We could apply this national strategy for gathering information on COVID to gain comprehensive information than 71% of graduates from the UNMC’s Rural Health Opportunities Program and the on critical areas such as mind and brain health and many Kearney Health Opportunities Program are medical disorders. The exciting thing is that we now have practicing in rural Nebraska.” a robust framework to gain new knowledge to face down future health challenges beyond COVID.” till, challenges remain including the (UNMC provided this information.) reality that nearly one-fourth of the physicians in Nebraska are more Alzheimer’s Association offers free webinars than 60 years old, and thus likely to retire in the near future; 17 of 93 Nebraska The Alzheimer’s Association is offering a variety of counties have no pharmacist; and 14 of 93 free educational webinars. Nebraska counties have no practicing priTopics include the warning signs of Alzheimer’s, mary care physician. dementia research, healthy living, legal and financial Demographics in many Nebraska counties planning, early stage care partners, late stage caregivers, are becoming more diverse, but the current and understanding and responding to dementia-related health workforce doesn’t necessarily reflect behavior. the populations being served. To register or for more information, please call 800“In partnership with stakeholders across 272-3900 or go to alz.org/crf. UNMC’s 500-mile campus, we’ve made
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progress over the years. But the landscape of healthcare is rapidly changing, and we must remain diligent to sustain the progress we’ve made and close the gaps,” Carritt said.
“The time is right for new and innovative community-based ideas and policy solutions that incentivize healthcare providers to practice in high-need areas and attract private investment to strengthen the healthcare infrastructure in rural Nebraska.” Other key findings of the report include: • Out of 93 Nebraska counties, only 39 have active OB/GYN physicians in 2019 compared to 49 in 2017. • There are 1,335 nurse practitioners in Nebraska. That’s a 16.3% increase since 2017 when there were 1,148. • The number of registered nurses increased by 1,137 between 2017 and 2019. • The number of practicing pharmacists decreased slightly between 2017 and 2019 while the number of pharmacy technicians increased by 83. • There are substantial gaps in the distribution of allied health professionals across the state, particularly in north central Nebraska. Based on the findings, the report issued the following recommendations: • Enhance existing pipeline programs and educational initiatives that incentivize healthcare professionals to practice in rural communities. • Enhance the availability of scholarships and student loan repayment programs for health profession students and practitioners at all levels, especially those interested in working in rural and underserved urban areas to assist students with unmet financial needs and encourage students to remain in the state after completion of their training programs. • Increase the number of medical residency training positions in Nebraska to include significant training in rural and underserved areas. • Expand the capacity of the telecommunication infrastructure to support the adoption and utilization of telehealth for expanding access to healthcare. • Develop innovative healthcare delivery solutions and related policy interventions to mitigate gaps in healthcare access due to health profession shortages as well as support rural training programs. • Perform targeted, ongoing data collection to monitor the healthcare workforce and forecast future needs and requirements. • Establish and streamline existing public-private partnerships aimed at health professions education, workforce development, and healthcare delivery. (UNMC provided this information.)
