Governor Reeves announces second round of Rural Health Transformation Program

• The first round garnered more than 700 applications from more than 230 organizations. Mississippi is expected to receive more than $1 billion over five years as part of the nationwide effort to fill healthcare gaps across the nation.

A new round of application opportunities for funding under Mississippi’s Rural Health Transformation Program was promoted by the governor Wednesday morning. 

Mississippi received $206.5 million in federal funding as part of the first round of the Rural Health Transformation Program. Governor Reeves said Mississippi is expected to receive more than $1 billion over five years as part of the nationwide effort to fill healthcare gaps across the nation.

Mississippi has until October to award grants as part of the first round of funding. 

With the first round of applications now closed and being reviewed, Governor Tate Reeves (R) said a second round of applications is open for three more efforts to ensure Mississippians in rural areas have access to the healthcare they need. Those new projects are the EMS Capacity Assessment, Psychiatric Emergency Services grant, and Workforce Expansion Initiative grant. 

AccelerateMS is working to expand the healthcare workforce in the state as part of the Workforce Expansion Initiative. Dr. Courtney Taylor, Executive Director of AccelerateMS, said the initiative aims to locate and recruit more people to healthcare fields by exposing them to opportunities. Those efforts will start at the K-12 school level and continue into community colleges and universities. It will also include people currently in the workforce. 

“The governor has tasked us, very simply, with working on things that get more people working, making higher wages,” Taylor said.

The Psychiatric Emergency Services grant program seeks to help local emergency rooms better cater to individuals suffering from a mental health crisis.

Dr. Wendy Bailey, Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, explained that emergency rooms across the state are currently ill-equipped to handle those suffering from a mental health crisis, but people in crisis go to ERs due to a lack of options. The efforts announced Wednesday will create safe, separate spaces within rural emergency rooms that offer calming atmospheres. 

“That emergency room may not be equipped to provide the very specific psychiatric care that they need,” Bailey described. “And that is what psychiatric emergency services with the impact model is going to bring to Mississippi.”

She said the goal is to get those in need assistance as quickly as possible.

“And within 15 minutes they are going to be seen by someone who can respond to the crisis,” Bailey added. “This is going to fill a major gap, and it is going to help our rural areas that don’t have these services available.”

Efforts under the EMS Capacity Assessment seek to create a unique health information exchange to improve regional coordination, increase the EMS workforce, and develop a roadmap for emergency care in the state, Governor Reeves explained. 

These new efforts are following the first round of projects in which the state is currently reviewing the applications.

During the first application period, 727 applications were submitted from 236 organizations.

“The response we’ve seen tells me that organizations across Mississippi are ready to be part of transforming healthcare in Mississippi,” Reeves said.

The deadline to submit applications in this second round of applications is July 24 for the EMS Capacity Assessment and August 17 for the Psychiatric Emergency Services and Workforce Expansion Initiative grant opportunities.