Center for Excellence in Rural Health-Hazard

KRHA president’s column: Setting an agenda for the future

BY STEVE FISHER − PRESIDENT, KENTUCKY RURAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION

In this publication I have the privilege of making my first written statements as KRHA president. To prepare for this project, I reviewed the past couple of years’ comments from previous presidents Elizabeth Cobb and Dwain Harris, whom I am now privileged to call friends. I don’t want to launch out on rabbit trails and tangents, but I also want to bring my personal perspective and style to this forum. Both Dwain and Elizabeth are excellent models.

My goals for this year are to focus on KRHA infrastructure and membership participation. I am not a stranger to the challenges and benefits of “volunteer” professional organizations such as KRHA, since I have been involved with the Kentucky physician assistant organization for 20 years. What is commonly meant by “volunteer professional organization” is that most of the activities of the organization are planned and executed by the members of the profession themselves on a voluntary basis, in addition to the “day jobs” and other parts of life in which they are involved. There often is very little in the way of “paid staff” to keep day-to-day activities going.

One of the benefits of having a volunteer organization is that the people involved in making decisions are “at the front line” of the issues, not detached and making decisions based on “reports.” The major challenge, in my mind, is finding individuals with enough time and appropriate skills to run a full-time organization with a lot of part-time participants. KRHA has the added challenge that its membership spans many different professions and aspects of health care where people are often committed first to their individual profession, and secondly to the larger issue of “rural health.” But, consistent with the National Rural Health Association’s premise, it is beneficial to have a “one stop” venue for “all things rural” in health care, and is a worthy goal on a smaller scale for Kentucky.

We in Kentucky are not alone in these challenges and benefits. The vast majority of states (43 of 50) in the U.S. have a rural health association that works in conjunction with government, professional and non-profit entities. There are many models for success to which we can look and learn. The National RHA is very supportive of state-level activities as well.

My initial definition of assessing and updating infrastructure for KRHA meant updating the bylaws and creating a policy manual as well as better defining and communicating officer and committee responsibilities. These aspects are in process and will take more than one year to complete, but we are getting started. Membership recruitment, retention and involvement are a perennial task. The annual meeting/conference and supplemental events during the year are well developed, but are ready to be reassessed for effectiveness and timing of when they occur. How KRHA can be effective to influence legislation and regulation for rural health care is an area that many desire to see develop. We are trying to define a focus so that efforts can be concentrated and more effective.

These are all big plans, and as Elizabeth said in her final article as president, the time goes very quickly. My term is now almost 25 percent completed and we are just scratching the surface. I am pleased to have a very capable incoming president, David Gross, and we are working together on plans that will carry over into next year and beyond. We are all experiencing how the health care environment is changing on an almost daily basis. My desire is to see KRHA become a responsive organization that can be nimble in its responses to change, and effective for individuals that need health care in rural Kentucky and beyond. It requires a broadly based cooperative effort. I am soliciting your input, feedback and energies to that end.

Steve Fisher is president of the Kentucky Rural Health Association. KRHA is a member organization that educates health care providers and consumers about rural health issues. It also advocates actions by private and public leaders to assure equitable access to quality health care for rural Kentuckians. Fisher is a physician assistant within the University of Kentucky’s Department of Neurosurgery. He may be contacted at (859) 257-7576 or via e-mail at sbfish00@uky.edu.