2 southern Arizona nonprofits awarded grants to improve rural health care

Two southern Arizona nonprofits were awarded funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help improve health outcomes in rural areas. Rural Arizona towns have been historically under-resourced and residents there have many barriers to health care access.

In total, the two nonprofits — Campesinos sin Fronteras and the Copper Queen Community Hospital Foundation — were award over $11 million for equipment and updating medical facilities through USDA’s Emergency Rural Health Grants. The funding comes from a pool of $110 million in grants for improving health care facilities in rural towns.

Funding for these grants came from the American Rescue Plan Act passed in March 2021.

“Access to modern and sustainable health care infrastructure is critical to the health, well-being and prosperity for the millions of people who live in rural and Tribal communities,” Xochitl Torres Small said in an Oct. 12 press release. Small serves as the Under Secretary for Rural Development.

The Copper Queen Community Hospital Foundation in Bisbee, a nonprofit that supports the Copper Queen Community Hospital and its rural clinics, was awarded $11 million to upgrade its equipment and facilities.

Another southern Arizona nonprofit, Campesinos sin Fronteras, a Yuma-based nonprofit that provides services to agricultural workers received $82,500 in funding to rehabilitate and equip a building in Gadsden to provide services in the area.

The Copper Queen Community Hospital received two grants, one for state-of-the-art medical equipment and another to help expand its capacity and surgical services. The building will have two stories and measure 22,000 square feet.

Parts of the current building not leveled for construction will be repurposed for expanded outpatient services and an education center.

Danielle Boochever, a registered nurse and foundation board member said the funding is vitally important in helping the hospital meet its goal of increasing services to keep care local.

“Our goal is to make sure that people do not have to leave their community to be able to access good quality healthcare,” Boochever said.

Pandemic exposes need for more capacity

The urgent need for increasing capacity was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic when hospitals were full, causing critically ill patients who would typically be sent to larger hospitals in Tucson, had to stay at in Bisbee’s hospital.

That meant patients were sicker and staying at the hospital for longer leading to challenges the hospital had to overcome. For example, the hospital changed emergency rooms into intensive care units, which required a more complicated medication regimen, requiring upgraded pumps.

Through the grant, the hospital was granted $1 million to purchase updated equipment and supplies, including Smart Pumps which will connect to their patient tracking system and allow for multiple fluids and medications to be given to a patient at once.

The need for expanding surgical services came out of an agreement between the hospital, four other critical access community hospitals and the Tucson Medical Center. Together, they decided to work to expand telehealth services in their rural communities.

The administration at Copper Queen Community Hospital realized if telemedicine services were to increase, their services would also have to increase if patients needed more care.

With the additional surgical wing, the hospital will have the “capacity to provide services within the community instead of sending people out great distances for treatments or services,” Boochever said.

Keeping care local and upgrading facilities and equipment could also help with recruitment and retention of medical professionals.

Boochever also highlighted how grateful the hospital was to receive the funding and how supportive the USDA was in helping the foundation succeed in getting the grants.

“We wouldn’t have been able to do this without them,” she said.

Coverage of southern Arizona on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is funded by the nonprofit Report for America in association with The Republic.

Reach the reporter at sarah.lapidus@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 2 southern Arizona nonprofits awarded grants to improve rural health care