Rural Health

What happens when the traditional boundaries of rural healthcare and paramedicine begin to blur for the benefit of the patient? In this 75th episode of Registry Insider, Bill Seifarth sits down with Shannon Chambers, the Senior Director of Provider Solutions at the South Carolina Office of Rural Health, to explore the vital intersection of rural health and EMS. They discuss how innovative partnerships and pilot projects are paving the way for the community Clinician to thrive through telehealth and home visits. Shannon also shares her insights on the journey toward securing national recognition and sustainable funding for community paramedics. This conversation offers a unique look at how collaborative efforts are bridging gaps in care and provides a roadmap for agencies looking to evolve through new resources. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Welcome to the Registry Insider. I'm Bill Sepreth from the National Registry of EMTs. And today on this episode, we're going to be talking about rural health and its intersection with EMS. Joining me is Shannon Chambers. She's from the South Carolina Office of Rural Health. She's also the board president for the National Association of Rural Health Clinics. So Shannon, thanks for joining me.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

So rural health and EMS, where do they intersect and particularly obviously with your state? And let's explore that a little bit so we can have our listeners and viewers perhaps doing some more exploration research as to how they can intersect with rural health for their respective states.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Perfect. So what's really cool and unique is we do have a clinic that is partnered with a community paramedic, and they are actually have that community paramedic going out and doing home visits. So what we do as the South Carolina Office of Rural Health is help them understand the requirements for billing, like let's bill for community health integration and get our EMS folks paid for that. We have them utilizing telehealth and helping patients at the home utilize telehealth back with the RHC. So I'd love to see this model kind of expand. It's really a pilot project that we started in South Carolina, and that's kind of through the EMS Association, first priority, and then also Fairfield Medical Associates, who is a certified rural health clinic. I would love to see it take a national stage. Like, how do we do this? So one of the things that we at the Office of Rural Health did is when they started the community health integration, CMS started it. They listed out peer support specialists, they listed out community health workers, and they didn't list community paramedics. So I was actually able to get in writing from CMS that community paramedics could actually do this as well. So that was kind of the start. On a national stage, with leading the National Association of Rural Health Clinics, this is going to be new for us. So one of the exciting things for me is just recently graduated and completed my NREMT.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Thank you. So now I can tie that back in to the world that I've been in in rural health for 15 years. So that's exciting for me to kind of see.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

Cool. So obviously you're in EMS now, but if you'll mind share with us a little bit more of your background too, so that that can kind of uh maybe connect the dots as far as where rural health can intersect EMS a little bit better.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Sure. So our office has always done a lot with EMS and rural EMS providers. Um, one of the things that we continue to do is scholarships or opportunities, and we'll get into like grant funding and things like that. I have been in the rural health clinic space for about 15 years. Prior to that, I worked at a hospital system. Um, and prior to that, which we won't list that year, but prior to that I worked at an insurance company. So I learned from how to not pay claims from an insurance company standpoint to going to the provider to know how to get claims paid, and then got into rural health where that is my passion, and I will always be in rural health. I'm excited as we continue down that journey to look at how EMS can integrate even more because that's not something we've done yet. In 10 years, let's talk about this again, and we can be like, look at all the things that we did nationwide.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

So we're filming this from the uh EMS uhsociation summit, which is largely a gathering of uh state EMS associations here in uh Kansas City, Kansas. And um so the the logical next question is how do we connect the Office of Rural Health in Phill and the state, which you're South Carolina, to EMS? Um, in particular EMS associations or EMS uh state officials, the regulators, or any other group that's related to EMS, how how can they go about connecting that? Dot, how did you do that in South Carolina?

SPEAKER_00 4:36

So we have a great partnership with the EMS Association, Henry Lewis, and their team. Um we kind of started there, but if the EMS agencies in across the country do not have a relationship with their state office of rural health, that is your first place. There are opportunities they know about funding regulatory data. Um, that is something that we've picked up a lot on here during the summit is making those connections. So I've been lucky to already make some connections with our other state offices to some folks that have been in the room looking for specific data. I think the more that we can tell our story and whether that's our EMS story mixed with our rural health clinic story or rural health period, because if you look at how many rural EMS agencies that we have, that's where we want to get the funding and we want to get the support to. Um so more partnerships and funding is a big one.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Yeah, partnership is the key. Um developing the relationship, developing a partnership will lead to funding. That's the key. Um and also being, I guess, uh a vocal voice in favor of EMS getting some of these funds, but also being more involved, whether it be mobile integrated health, community paramedicine, or it be um basic staffing and reimbursement uh elements. There's a lot, there's a lot of work that certainly EMS associations can do, but the fruits, the fruits are great.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Yeah. So there are a lot of um, I kind of remind folks to go out and look for additional funding opportunities. So the RHI Hub is a great one. You can go and divide by topic, you can go divide by state. And that's a website though, it is, RHI Hub, correct.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Um and that's the web address for it or?

SPEAKER_00 6:32

It's RHIHUB.org.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Um and then if you're interested in like, you know, HRSA always has those EMS grants that are available out there. That's always great ways to look at funding. But you have to reach out to some of those small organizations. Um, think about the Blue Cross Blue Shields. Think about the Medicaid MCO plans in your state. Um, even places such as so being the board president for the National Association of Rural Health Clinics, and that is N-A-R-H-C.org, we provide a lot of education out there. Um so I think the more that we can tell each other, so one of the great things that we do with our EMS Association in our state is maybe it's something as a state office I can't apply for, but it's something that they could apply for. So we share resources back and forth. You know, we sponsor folks to take their EMT or advanced EMT or paramedic, et cetera. They do the same. So making sure that we understand and kind of how that's gonna work so we don't duplicate efforts is the probably the most important thing is why are we recreating wheels when we can duplicate, make sure that we clean it up. It's process improvement to me. So I'm I'm excited about the future.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

Cool. Um, so you mentioned a couple websites, I just want to repeat them again. Sure. Um go ahead with your both you you I think you referenced two websites, if I'm not mistaken.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Perfect. So I have the National Association of Rural Health Clinics, and that is N-A-R-H-C.org, and then you have RHI Hub, and that's R-H-I-H-U-B.org. Um, and that is where you can go out and look at all kinds of funding. They put some great resources out there. There's actually community paramedic resources out there and how to start one in your state if you're struggling. Um, so lots of topic guides and lots of funding opportunities.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

Wonderful. All right. Well, I appreciate you um spending some time with me and sharing your success stories with our audience. And uh I look forward to hopefully many others uh tapping into this resource to uh expand and evolve and continue to advance their EMS programs respectively in their state. So thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Appreciate the opportunity.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Thank you as well for joining us, and as always, stay safe. Thank you for joining us for this episode. If you wouldn't mind, please click the like and subscribe buttons as well as the notifications so you can get notifications of upcoming episodes. Also, for the latest and greatest happenings out of the National Registry, feel free to go to NRMT.org. Thank you very much, and again, stay safe.