Issue link: http://accesshealth.uberflip.com/i/1220202
PAGE 8 March 2020 Like a food desert, a health care desert is a place where it's difficult to access affordable, high-quality health care. Nearly two decades ago, Lexington, Missouri was a health care desert. Today, this rural town of roughly 4,555 residents is a national rural health care model. And in a few months one of its clinics will be the first federally qualified health centers (FQHC) to transfer ownership from one provider to another. This was the topic of a recently held community forum in Lexington. But ask Samuel U. Rodgers (SURHC) Health Center CEO Faisal Khan or Health Care Collaborative (HCC) of Rural Missouri CEO Toniann Richard about the timing, and they'll both say this transition is years in the making. It all started when some well-intentioned community advocates appealed to the federal government to help the area establish a primary care facility. This launched an effort to recruit a health care provider from Kansas City, Missouri's urban core to rural Lexington in Lafayette County. Established health centers and hospital systems were asked but they declined. A call to action However, SURHC, located near downtown Kansas City, answered the call. This assignment, Khan said, aligned with their founder's mission, the late Dr. Samuel U. Rodgers, who exuded an Albert Schweitzer modus operandi—to serve, show compassion, and have a willingness to help others. With $200,000 in seed money, SURHC opened the clinic in the newly built Lexington 4-Life Center, about an hour away from its urban base. Not long after that, Health Care Collaborative of Rural Missouri, formerly called Health Care Coalition of Lafayette County, was formed and incorporated as a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit. With seed money from Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) and the Health Forward Foundation (formerly known as the Healthcare Foundation of Greater Kansas City), the two-person rural health network launched grassroots initiatives to promote health and wellness throughout Lafayette County. The ultimate proposition As the fledging nonprofit was establishing roots, the REACH Healthcare Foundation approached HCC with a proposition: design and implement a program in Lafayette County to By Tonia Wright, Publisher