SWOK ARPA Regional Alliance - Comanche County Memorial Hospital

PROJECT PURPOSE

The purpose of this project is to improve access to primary and emergency care for rural or underserved areas of Southwest Oklahoma. The new access locations for emergency medicine and primary clinics would be Elgin, Frederick, and areas in Lawton that are near Ft. Sill. The access points in Lawton and Elgin would be urgent care/emergent medicine facilities. The new site in Frederick would either be a Critical Access Hospital or Rural Emergency Hospital. The Rural Emergency Hospital is a new designation that is not effective until January 2023. The decision of critical access or rural emergency hospital will based on which model offers the greatest opportunity for clinical and financial success.

EVIDENCE

There are statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and many other sources that show Oklahoma is ranked near the bottom in many health categories. Increasing access to primary care and emergency medicine is an important step to improving health outcomes.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

Seniors and low income individuals will be most positively impacted by improving access to care in underserved and rural areas. Rural areas without emergency care were severely impacted by COVID due to lack of access to care.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

Project success will be displayed by utilization of these new facilities. We will be able track the growth of the new facilities. In addition, to volume, we will be able to show the different segments of the population impacted by the project (age and demographics). Other data that will be collected will be the impact on the existing healthcare facilities in the area. These new locations will decrease wait-times and increase availability at our current hospital.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

One-time project will not need continued funding