Improving Health in Rural Hawaii and Throughout the

Pacific

Currently, an organizational home for rural health initiatives at UH Hilo

In the future, a magnet for additional rural health resources: Faculty Partnerships Grants

To solve rural health problems throughout the Pacific through research, education, community service, and policy change

To improve life in rural communities through transformative models of health and healthcare

30% of the population in Hawaii are now living in rural area (up from 24% in 1990)

Population increase since 1990: Honolulu County = 8% All other counties = 42%

Hawaii’s hospitals spent nearly $112 million in 2008 on hospitalizations that could possibly have been prevented with timely and effective ambulatory care.

Hospitalizations per 1,000 population on Oahu are much lower than the more rural neighbor island hospitalization rate.

DOE grants: Pacific Pre-pharmacy program established Achieved accreditation as a provider of CPE

and CME STEP program launched for guaranteed

admission for students (5 currently enrolled) PharmD/DNP dual degree Rural pharmacy residency program in Maui

County

USDA grant To improve medication safety among elderly in

rural areas of Hawaii Over 700 older adults on Neighbor Islands

have received medication safety education Over 50 healthcare professionals on Neighbor

Islands have received CME/CPE/CE for APRN-Rx on medication safety in the elderly

MS degree in Clinical Psychopharmacology Supported by Tripler Army Medical Center For doctoral-level clinical psychologists to

prescribe medications in the military Significant impact in rural Hawaii if legislation

is passed to grant prescriptive authority to licensed clinical psychologists (vast majority of psychiatric medications are currently prescribed by clinicians with no specialized training in mental health or psychiatry)

The Beacon grant (HHS/ONC-funded) Hawaii Island Beacon Community was one of

17 communities selected across the nation to receive a Beacon grant

Hawaii Island is the ONLY Beacon community that is 100% rural

GOAL: to improve healthcare quality, cost-efficiency, and population health through clinical transformation, enabling health information technology, and payment reform