Health
care expert from “Down under” impressed
with local clinic
The Adams County Health Center in Council played host
to an interesting visitor on Tuesday, a representative
of the government of New Zealand, here to study how rural,
community health centers function.
Fiona McArthur, of New Zealand’s Southern District
Health Board, says her country is looking at changing
the way they operate health care in small, rural
areas and have seen something about community health
center
model in the United States that intrigues them.
“We’re looking to change the way we manage health
care in our country,” said McArthur, who said
she represents an area that, like Council, is rural
and somewhat
isolated from the health care options urban areas enjoy. “There
are many differences between our systems, primarily
in how they are funded,” she added. “But
so many of the issues are the same.” She
said she was impressed with the staff and facility
at Adams County Health Center. “This is a really
good working example of the sort of operation we’d like to start implementing in New
Zealand,” she said. “We hope to get the
communities more involved, and I can see that has happened
here.”
For ACHC director Denise Groves, hearing that a
foreign ambassador was visiting her team was
a bit startling,
and very flattering. “I was pleasantly surprised that they wanted to visit
with us,” Groves said. “It makes me
proud of how far we’ve come in a few
short years.”
McArthur
toured the facility and met with staff, while observing
the normal day-to-day operations
at the clinic.
She also met with the clinic’s board
of directors, whom she was impressed with. “They
appeared to represent a diverse group of
people, including those inside and outside
of the health care
profession,” she said. “I was really
impressed with how dedicated and passionate
they were towards
the community and the clinic.”
“A
health care facility like this one in a small town
can really help hold a community together,” she
concluded. Article
by Cody Cahill, The Adams County Record
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