NBRC Health System Chartbooks
In 2021, the Northern Border Regional Commission (NBRC) offered its first health care focused grant rounds, patterned on the HRSA Rural Health System Network Planning Grants. One grant went to each of the Northern Border Region states (NY, VT, NH, ME). The Vermont grant supports the work of the Food Access and Health Care consortium. A grantee directory summarizing all four grants is found here.
A portion of the funding went to the University of Maine to develop a county-level overview of health systems in the NBRC region. The results of that project have now been published. The announcement from NBRC follows:
The Northern Border Region: A Health-Focused Landscape Analysis
The Northern Border Regional Commission State and Region Chartbooks compile county- and state-level data related to health and health care access for the Northern Border Region and the individual states of Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont. Topics covered in the chartbooks include demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, access to care, health outcomes, mortality rates, Health Professional Shortage Areas, and the location of Rural Health Clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, hospitals, and substance use treatment facilities. When data allow, we highlight the counties with the worse performance on a measure, compared with the rest of the counties in the Northern Border Region. These data are intended to inform initiatives to support health and health care, particularly in rural counties and counties served by the Northern Border Regional Commission.
Access the chartbooks:
Contact Information:
Katherine Ahrens, PhD, MPH
Maine Rural Health Research Center
Phone: 207.780.4847
katherine.ahrens@maine.edu
Additional Resources of Interest:
More information about the Maine Rural Health Research Center
More information from the Rural Health Information Hub's topic guides: Applying for Grants to Support Rural Health Projects, Healthcare Access in Rural Communities, Rural Health Disparities
These reports come from one of the several Rural Health Research Centers funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP). Another category supported by FORHP is technical assistance providers to rural health systems. The Delta Regional Authority works with one such provider for their Promoting a Healthy Delta initiative. This spring, there will be a grant funding opportunity to establish a similar option for the Northern Border Region with an anticipated award date of late summer / early autumn.