Hawaiʻi is receiving $58 million through the Rural Health Transformation Program under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Most of the grant, about $45 million, will go to the University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine for its Hawaiʻi Outreach for Medical Education in Rural Under-resourced Neighborhoods, or HOME RUN initiative.
The remaining $13 million is going to the state Department of Health to acquire new ambulances and improve emergency communication systems in each county.
Dr. Kelley Withy, the physician workforce researcher at JABSOM, said most of the money the school receives is being used for financial education awards to pay for the tuition and fees for anyone who commits to practice in rural Hawaiʻi for at least five years. This applies to anyone in the healthcare field.
“As we know, trying to find healthcare in rural areas is a lot harder than finding it in Honolulu,” Withy said. “And a lot of people are confused about rural because there are so many definitions, but for this grant, we have chosen the most generous definition of rural, that is less than 800 people per square mile.”
Under the definition stated in the grant, everywhere in Hawaiʻi is considered rural except for the areas between Honolulu, Nānākuli and Kāneʻohe.
She believes the money will help train more than 1,000 people to understand rural healthcare and the unique atmosphere within the state.
The other chunk of the $45 million will be used to establish a health education program in every rural high school across the islands, allowing students to join the healthcare workforce immediately after graduating.
Withy said they have worked with statewide Emergency Medical Services officials to implement EMS training and curriculum as well.
“Every rural high school is being approached. There will be teacher training, a student track, and Health Occupations Students of America support,” she said. “We're really training up students in rural areas to be in healthcare because we know there's so many bright young students, and they might not know that they can be in healthcare coming out of high school.”
Withy said both programs from the new funding will help tackle the physician shortage, while also boosting retention rates. The five-year commitment program already has more than 500 applications.
Officials said additional federal monetary awards under the RHTP are expected through 2030.
