Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending - Construction - CentraCare Health System; 1406 6th Ave. N., St. Cloud, Minnesota 56303-1900; Website: www.centracare.com Project Director: David Larson, VP Facilities, 320-251-2700, ext. 55747; larsondavid@centracare.com Project Type: Alteration/Renovation of an Existing Facility and Equipment Project Name: CentraCare (CC) Child Advocacy Center Centralization and Emergency Medical Services Modernization (CACC/EMSM) Project Total CPF/CDS Funding Request = $1,342,000 Total Project Cost = $1,358,823 The CentraCare (CC) Child Advocacy Center Centralization and Emergency Medical Services Modernization (CACC/EMSM) Project entails the two-fold objectives of centralizing Child Advocacy Center Services and modernizing the health system’s ambulance fleet to improve access to care for children and families throughout Central Minnesota. The overarching goal of this initiative is to increase access to health care and improve health outcomes by expanding critical services for populations in the 18-county service area of CentraCare in Central Minnesota, a primarily rural area outside of the urbanized St. Cloud MSA. Without new funding, these services might not otherwise be available given the limited resources of a rural health system and as a result of geography and lack of available services in the Central Minnesota area. The CACC/EMSM Project strengthens the rural healthcare system as whole by bringing evidence-based practices to address health disparities for rural populations and advanced services, such as CAC services, and clinical care close to home. The project will help CentraCare achieve efficiencies by combining CAC services for a medically underserved region into a centralized location that provides access to primary, specialty and emergent care necessary to treat victims of abuse. The project improves access overall and improves quality of healthcare services in rural communities. It expands capacity and services by enabling patients to receive care from multiple providers within the health system throughout the region. This creates effective systems to provide patient care, and provides knowledge, skills, structures, and leadership models for rural partner providers. The project enhances outcomes by enabling the CAC to serve more patients from rural communities, and the project results in improved health outcomes for children and rural patients who need reliable emergency transport to a medical facility. The project improves access to CC’s regional hospitals and emergency services with a modernized ambulance fleet that enables CentraCare to reach patients experiencing a medical emergency safely and efficiently and bring them to appropriate regional medical care services. Finally, the project is sustainable through patient billing through Medicare, Medicaid, third-party insurance and private pay as well as through philanthropic support and other funding provided by CentraCare. While CAC services are free, the CAC is supported by the hospital, grants and philanthropic resources. EMS services are billable and clinical services provided to patients are billable, which generates sufficient revenue to sustain EMS services.
