HEREFORD, Texas (KFDA) – The Deaf Smith County Hospital District has received $750,000 in Rural Texas Strong funding to invest in health care for residents in Deaf Smith County and surrounding areas.
The hospital applied through a competitive application process open to hospitals across Texas. The application required several pages of data, and the district waited about six months before learning it had won the funding.
The funding will focus on diabetic patients. Rural areas see about a 14-percent increase in the diabetic population, according to hospital officials.
The three-year program will provide education, address nutritional compliance and identify food disparities.
“The diabetic patients in our community have a need, and this gives us an opportunity to invest in their health care and improve their diabetic outcomes,” said Candace Smith, CEO of Deaf Smith County Hospital District.
Patients can also be enrolled in the hospital’s community paramedicine program to ensure compliance at home, plus remote patient monitoring if needed.
“This program just further exemplifies the excellent care that people can receive in a rural health facility. They don’t have to travel to Amarillo, to BSA, or Northwest to receive their care,” Smith said.
Trevor Rahm, chief medical officer, said the three-year plan marks a shift from passive to active health care — tracking patients down, reaching them where they live, and starting with the hospital’s existing community paramedic program before expanding to smaller surrounding towns.
He said writing prescriptions isn’t enough, and education is what’s missing.
“And so if you just go in every time and get your labs and they tell you their bad and keep giving medicine that doesn’t fix the problem. So, the education component is going to be important. And that’s what’s missing in America today. Our health care system doesn’t provide for education,” said Rahm.
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