Rural PREP Grand Rounds: Integrating Rural Medical Practice into Public Health

Abstract

On March 25, 2020, the headline in the local paper read, “CDC says Douglas County one of the worst counties to be in during the COVID-19 crisis.” Rural populations tend to be older, sicker and poorer than their urban counterparts with geographic and logistical barriers not seen in urban and suburban areas. Physicians working in rural health systems must be prepared to step up to fill a variety of roles in a public health emergency. This grand rounds will use lessons learned in the early days of the COVID-19 response in one rural county to facilitate exploration of roles, responsibilities and challenges for rural physicians in a public health emergency.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

1. Describe the interface between public health and the care delivery system in rural pandemic response.
2. Inventory the public health and care delivery resources in their local rural community.
3. Describe the various possible roles of a rural physician in a public health emergency.

Pre-Session Review Content & Assignment

Prior to the Grand Rounds event, participants should:

1. View the Oregon Office of Rural Health’s  “Integrating Primary Care and Public Health” Video, with emphasis on the first 45 minutes.
2. View a featured presentation from the 2020 Rural Health Scholars online Retreat. Click here to view via YouTube
3. Discuss your community’s response to COVID-19 with a local rural clinician (physician, NP, etc.). Listen to their “story” to hear what roles physicians in your community played in the local response to COVID-19. Ask these questions:
   1. Using a word or phrase, describe your thoughts and emotions from the first few days or weeks of the pandemic.
   2. How did your practice change?
   3. How did you align your practice with your community’s public health response?
4. Prepare a few notes on the discussion to share with the group during the event.

Bring these reports to the Grand Rounds event, for discussion with your group.

Presenter

Chip Taylor, MD, MPH, CAPT, MC, USN (ret)
Residency Program Director & Chief Residency Officer, Aviva Health

Dr. Taylor is a rural family physician and the director of the Roseburg Family Medicine
Residency. He is a retired Navy Captain who served as the Medical Director for Navy
Medicine’s Office of Homeland Security following 9/11/2001. At the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to his other duties, Dr. Taylor was called upon to
serve as the Operations Chief for Douglas County’s COVID-19 Emergency Response.