Health Notes: Help for rural health

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Help for rural health

A Duluth-based health institute that serves rural hospitals increased its funding muscle by more than $1 million at the start of the fiscal year.

The National Rural Health Resource Center, which has headquarters in the Fitger’s Brewery Complex building, received a contract of just over $1 million from the federal Office of Rural Health Policy to provide technical assistance to rural hospitals, said Terry Hill, the center’s executive director.

Because of their small size, rural hospitals often lack the technical expertise that larger hospitals have available, Hill said. The National Rural Health Resource Center is able to fill that gap.

The contract with the Office of Rural Health Policy, which began Sept. 30, is double the size of the previous year’s, Hill said. The contract gives the center responsibility for four specific programs, an expanded role from previous years, Hill said.

In addition, the center received a contract for about $800,000 for a program to work with rural hospitals in the eight Delta states, Hill said. That’s new money for the center, giving it a total budget of almost $3 million, he said. The center has about 20 employees, mostly in Duluth, he said. It has satellite offices in Florida and Utah.

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