The hospital in Abilene is receiving $150,000 in state grant funding.

According to the hospital,  Memorial Health System in Abilene has been announced as one of seven recipients of Kansas Department of Health and Environment funding for the Community Health Worker + Accountable Food is Medicine Grant Program (CHW+AFIM), an initiative with the Rural Health Transformation Program. Memorial Health System will receive $150,000 of the $1,007,152 awarded to rural health care organizations across the state to implement or expand CHW and AFIM programs – increasing community access to health and social services and clinical nutrition.

The hospital sought funding through the CHW+AFIM Program to implement the Healthy Dickinson County Initiative, a comprehensive program designed to improve outcomes for patients with diabetes and hypertension by integrating Community Health Workers, medically tailored meals, social determinants of health screening and community resource navigation.

“The program at MHS, Nourish & Navigation, highlights two topics we care deeply about: public health and our community,” said Kimberly Haverly, Memorial Health System administrator. “The grant will assist us in hiring two Community Health Workers. One CHW will serve as a Community Resource Navigator focused on screening, resource coordination and addressing social needs. The second CHW will serve as a Food Is Medicine Coordinator responsible for enrollment, meal coordination, patient follow-up and outcome tracking.”

The recipients of the CHW+AFIM funds will foster collaborative arrangements between a Kansas-based organization and at least one eligible provider to implement or expand CHW+AFIM projects. These transformative projects will improve health outcomes among rural Kansans by integrating CHWs, who serve as frontline public health workers with a deep understanding of their communities, into clinical settings and connecting individuals to health and social services. Projectswill also deliver AFIM programs, a model which clinically integrates outcomes-based nutrition interventions, such a s medically tailored meals and produce prescriptions, to improve chronic disease outcomes. Though the program is not allowed, under federal funding restrictions, to directly purchase food, it supports services and structures that reinforce the role healthy food can play in overall health.

“By integrating CHWs and AFIM into rural communities, we’re providing critical supports at a time when many rural Kansans need access to reliable health care services more than ever,” Kansas Governor Laura Kelly said. “I look forward to the positive impact these initiatives will have in some of our most vulnerable communities.”

Awardees of the grant program were selected through a competitive application process that evaluated proposals based on community need, long-term financial sustainability, innovation and alignment with federal and state rural health priorities.