PCMC Kicks-Off $2 Million Grant Program

BY GENA HUFF, Editor

It was a big day for the Pickens County Medical Center (PCMC) and all those who worked to get the hospital back on the upswing. The Delta Regional Community Health Systems Development (DRCHSD) Program, in collaboration with the National Rural Health Resource Center and the Health Resources Services Administration’s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP), is an intensive three-year program focused on improving and uplifting rural hospitals throughout the country. Pickens County and PCMC are one of only nine communities in the United States to be selected in the $2 million program. This is the first time a program like this has been offered and the excitement and hope for the future of PCMC was palpable.

Although PCMC has begun the process of delivering information for evaluation and a group of consultants for the financial aspects of the hospital will be talking with staff this week, the kick-off luncheon, meet and greet, and official press release was held May 15 at the Pickens County College and Career Center in Carrollton, Ala. Among representatives from Senator Richard Shelby’s office, Alabama Power, United States Department of Agriculture, members of the PCMC Executive Board, and members of the Friends of the Hospital organization, Bethany Adams, Senior Program Manager for the National Rural Health Resource Center was there to explain how the program would work and the benefits to PCMC and the surrounding communities.

The National Rural Health Resource Center is “a center for helping rural health community hospitals including securing access to healthcare,” said Adams. “We are dedicated to helping them sustain and improve processes for the future. We are internationally known as a knowledge center.”

“Everything we do focuses really around the collaboration of leadership and partnerships,” continued Adams. “And here’s a great example, all of you coming here today supporting the hospital. If it was not for the partnerships we have forded, our rural health system is going to be very fragile and it is very dependent on that (partnerships).”