Wednesday, February 5, 2025
2/5/2025
Expanded Hours (HRSA-25-084) Big Springs Medical Association, Inc., d/b/a Missouri Highlands Health Care P.O. Box 157 Ellington, MO 63638-157 Karen White, Chief Executive Officer 573-663-2313 (phone), 573-663-2441 (fax) Email address: kwhite@mohigh.org Web site: www.mohigh.org U.S. Congressional Districts: Missouri-008 Funding Request: $500,000/year for two years History, Community and Target Population: Big Springs Medical Association, Inc., d/b/a Missouri Highlands Health Care (MHHC), has provided care for the underserved for over 40 years. MHHC’s service area includes the following seven counties in southeast Missouri: Butler, Carter, Iron, Reynolds, Ripley, Shannon, and Wayne. Because of hospital closures in the service area, in many counties MHHC is the main provider of health care services. Through this Expanded Hours grant, MHHC proposes to increase the hours of clinic operation by 20 hours at its Doniphan Urgent Care site and nine (9) hours at its Doniphan South (pediatric) site in Ripley County. These sites are co-located in the same facility; however, due to having separate entrances, they are considered two sites by the Health Resources and Services Administration. MHHC stepped in to help the community after the Ripley County Memorial Hospital closed in October 2018. This was the only hospital serving the county, so MHHC took over the hospital’s Rural Health Clinic and opened an urgent care clinic and pediatric clinic in the old hospital building to address the health care needs of area residents. Because the nearest hospital is approximately 40-45 minutes away, this urgent care and pediatric facility serves as an important access point in the community. MHHC will increase hours of operation Monday-Friday by two hours/day, as well as add five hours/day on Saturday and Sunday for a total of 20 hours/week at the Urgent Care Clinic site and add nine hours on Thursdays at Doniphan South, providing access to pediatric care, (currently closed on Thursdays). Through the proposed Expanded Hours project, MHHC estimates serving 750 patients in year 1 and 1,000 patients in year 2. Of the patients served, MHHC estimates 250 new unduplicated patients, as MHHC is the only health care provider in the community and anticipates expanded hours will serve a majority of existing patients. Staffing for the project includes 1.0 FTE Family Medicine Nurse Practitioner (two @ 0.5 FTE), 0.25 FTE Pediatrician, a Chief Operations Officer at 0.5 FTE, a 1.0 FTE Clinic Manager for the urgent care services and 0.5 FTE for pediatric services, a 1.0 FTE Patient Service Representative, a 1.0 FTE LPN, and a 1.0 FTE Scribe. Funding is also requested for travel for staff to attend training, medical supplies for patient encounters, IT supplies, Ozark Alarm Security Coverage, Catscan service agreement for urgent care, and marketing expenses to advertise the new expanded hours in the community.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).