Making Healthcare Accessible

In rural areas such as Carbon County, access to healthcare doesn’t always mean it is affordable.

According to the Rural Health Information Hub (ruralhealthinfo.org), while access to healthcare would imply that services are available and obtainable in a timely manner many rural residents encounter barriers to healthcare.

“Even when an adequate supply of healthcare services exists in the community, there are other factors that may impede healthcare access,” reported the Rural Health Information Hub.

One of those factors included the financial means to pay for services. Services such as blood draws to test for a variety of health conditions can run into the thousands of dollars. That’s where community health fairs, such as the one hosted by the Valley Service Organization (VSO) on April 17 or the 2nd Annual Care Fair on April 27 can help rural residents.

Providing Affordability

“Monitoring your regular blood work can tell us so much about your health status. People would spend huge amounts of money for that,” said Merlynn Hoopes, a member of VSO. “This gives us accessibility, more of a social atmosphere and greatly reduced cost. To bring this in and have it available for people is a real plus.”

According to Hoopes, while the access to healthcare in the Platte Valley has increased due to the Memorial Hospital of Carbon County (MHCC) Health Center - Platte Valley and the North Platte Valley Medical, many Valley residents still have out-of-town providers. By having access to discounted blood draws, said Hoopes, it allows residents to establish a baseline of their own healthcare.

“If you can catch a change or abnormality early, you can correct it. With the (blood) chemistry, we look at blood sugars,” said Hoopes. “Sometimes, somebody doesn’t know they’re pre-diabetic but we can, year over year, watch a change in their values and see that’s something going on.”

According to Stephanie Hinkle, MHCC Marketing Director, people in rural areas tend to have an independent streak which may prevent them from putting themselves and their health as a priority.

“The discounted blood draws takes away the objection of ‘I don’t want to spend the money on this.’ We’re taking that piece out of the equation,” said Hinkle. “Some of these packages are upwards of $2,000 if you were going to have it done throughout the year. Let’s take the financial worry out of the equation, let’s make it affordable and really give everybody the opportunity to get this great reflection of what’s happening and to work with their providers to make some changes.”

Start Young

At both the Wyoming Health Fairs blood draws hosted by the VSO and the MHCC discounted blood draws at the 2nd Annual Care Fair, people could opt to have their results sent to their primary provider. While it seemed, at both events, the majority of people using the discounted blood draws were older both Hoopes and Hinkle advocated for establishing a baseline at an early age.

According to Hoopes, earlier in adulthood someone could start establishing a baseline the better. She added that, in the 20s and 30s someone might use the blood draws every two or three years. Once someone reaches 40, she said, they may want to begin getting their blood tested on an annual basis.

“It’s really different person-to-person and what your individual situation is but we start our blood draws at 18 and over,” said Hinkle. “I don’t know that there’s a magic number of when you really should start paying attention.”

Harm Reduction

“Blood draws are one thing. I think worrying about your health all around should start at a young age. As early as you can start understanding your health, if that’s some education on sexual reproduction health, on chronic disease, on healthy eating habits, mental health and suicide prevention,” said Megan Cragun, Communicable Disease Unit Outreach Coordinator with Carbon County Public Health. “I definitely think it’s across the lifespan.”

Carbon County Public Health had a presence at both the Wyoming Health Fairs in the Platte Valley and the Annual Care Fair. Cragun, in fact, helped organize the latter both last year and this year. The Care Fair provided more than just blood draws, but included vendors ranging from Safe2Tell Wyoming to Wyoming Equality to Casada Funeral Home. A total of 42 vendors were present at the event.

“It was really Megan’s great idea that everything came to fruition. How do you pull together all these resources for the community’s benefit? Health is a big piece of that when we talk about an event like this, but we really wanted to expand and make it more of a resource-based event,” said Hinkle. “There’s so much that touches our daily lives, so how do we begin to give our community members of Carbon County some access and knowledge of all the resources and knowledge that we have?”

For Cragun, harm reduction falls under the umbrella of healthcare in rural areas like Carbon County. That includes ensuring people are safe in their day-to-day lives with whatever they are doing.

“Mainly, I’m sexual and reproductive health education, STD testing (and) education that goes along with that. This year, I can also cover with my umbrella harm reduction because of HIV, Hepatitis C. Those things that can be spread bloodborne pathogen wise,” said Cragun. ““IV (intravenous) drug use, unprofessional tattoos and piercings, and high risk sexual situations as well. IV drug use and addiction is something for all ages to be aware of.”

Public Health

As part of that goal of harm reduction, Cragun’s focus has been towards sharp containers. Whether that’s for tattoo artists, people with diabetes or those who use needles for other reasons.

“People get accidental needle sticks in some very weird places. People who use testosterone or (have) diabetes or any other number of reasons should have a sharps container,” said Cragun. “Don’t use a milk jug, don’t use your detergent bottle. It saves people at landfills, it saves our police when they’re doing searches.”

According to Cragun, public health’s goal can be boiled down to harm reduction.

“It’s going to be in our communities, so doing things and living our lives to the best of our abilities and in the least harmful way is the goal. We are a very safe place. We are advocates of all communities and a lot of our services are free or at very low prices,” said Cragun. “Public health is a place where you can go and ask those questions freely and have an understanding of what goals you need to meet for yourself and at what age.”