Ashtabula County Medical Center gets ARC grant
Thursday, September 30, 2010
U.S. Rep. Steven C. LaTourette (R-OH)
today announced that Ashtabula County Medical Center (ACMC) will
receive a $59,659 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission to
expand a diabetes and wellness program for lower-income
patients.
The funding will allow more than 100 patients to receive
comprehensive care to manage their diabetes. The total cost
of the program is about $119,000 and ACMC will be responsible for
about half the cost for the grant's local match.
LaTourette said officials believe that up to 25 percent of the
county's population suffers from untreated diabetes, and deaths
from diabetes in the county are significantly higher than state or
national rates. In 2007, there were 129 deaths in the county
due to diabetes - a rate of 42.3 deaths per 100,000 in
population.
The grant will allow the ACMC to work with its fitness center to
design exercise plans for diabetes patients as part of their
disease management plans. The ARC said if the program is
effective in attracting patients to the ACMC's fitness center in
the coming year the hospital intends to incorporate the program
costs into future operating budgets.
"This will help many people in the county suffering from
diabetes, and this is an example of one of the many ways the
Appalachian designation is helpful to the county. The ARC
recognizes the merit of the hospital's plan and I'm grateful
they'll pick up half the cost," LaTourette said.
The congressman worked for several years to have Ashtabula
County added to the ARC, which provides grants and seed money to
economically distressed area for functions ranging from health care
to sewer and infrastructure projects. The county received the
designation two years ago.
LaTourette said ACMC was the county's first recipient of ARC
funding about a year ago. The ARC provided a $250,000 grant
for the hospital in late August 2009 to create an electronic
medical records system. In that instance, the ARC grant was
supplemented by more than $1 million provided by the medical
center, making the total investment in the electronic records
system at $1.257 million.