Governor Robert Bentley of Alabama recently signed an executive order that creates a 38 member Alabama Health Care Improvement Task Force comprised of doctors, medical school leaders, hospital administrators, government officials, and other medical health professionals. The executive order cites the primary care physician shortage, the prevalence of chronic illnesses, and the high rate of hospital closures in the state as some of the major issues the task force hopes to solve. Governor Robert Bentley, a physician himself, states, “Alabama faces serious problems with chronic conditions. Many of our health issues are related to lifestyle choices, poverty and access to quality health care. The Alabama Health Care Improvement Task Force will address options to improve the health of Alabamians, including strategies to have more-accessible and more-affordable health care in the state.” The goal of the task force is to discover new ways to make healthcare accessible for all citizens of this predominantly rural state. “Some medicine is better than no medicine, and there are people in this state right now that are getting no healthcare whatsoever,” Bentley said. Distance is not to be an obstacle to access. “You probably can’t keep every rural hospital that is alive today, alive in its same form for the next ten years,” Williamson said. “Is a free standing emergency department an option in some of these areas? Is a critical access hospital? We have three of them in the state. Is there a new type of hospital we need to think about?” Recommendations for how Alabama can change state regulations and laws to improve the health of its citizens, who have some of the highest rates of major health problems including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, are due to the Governor before the 2016 Legislature session commences. Such recommendations could include telemedicine, increased medical resources to rural areas, and scope-of-practice revisions for nurse practitioners and other advanced practitioners.
About Danielle Ligenza
Danielle Ligenza was formerly the communications and public relations manager at Barton Associates’ Peabody, MA, headquarters. She received her B.A. and M.A. in political science from Boston University, and her J.D. from Notre Dame Law School.
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