On the third Thursday of November every year, the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH), the member organization for each of the 50 State Offices of Rural Health (SORH), leads National Rural Health Day (NRHD), an annual day of recognition, shining a light on those who serve the vital health needs of the estimated 57 million people living in rural America. NOSORH provides support to rural hospitals, clinics, and first responders in several ways including technical assistance, funding that supports workforce development, population health management, quality improvement initiatives, and more.
In 2015, NOSORH invited its members to nominate hospital and emergency first responder teams, community health, and volunteer service heroes on the front lines of rural health who were making a positive impact on rural lives. Soon after the stories started coming, the book of Community Stars has been published on NRHD.
Chris Holcomb, Assistant Vice President, Behavioral Health Services, Baptist Health Corbin was nominated and his story was selected to appear in the 2019 edition that will be available on the https://www.PowerofRural.org website, the official hub for NRHD and the Power of Rural movement, beginning November 21, 2019. For the first time since its inception, a limited number of Community Star books will also be available for purchase.
Anthony Powers, President of Baptist Health Corbin extended his congratulations to Chris on his nomination and added “Chris’ contributions to rural health and the behavioral health program he helped to develop at Baptist Health Corbin are most deserving of recognition and appreciation, we are so proud of his accomplishments.”
Rural communities, health organizations, schools are all invited to participate in NRHD. Free tools, ideas and details about NRHD events occurring across the United States are also available on PowerofRural.org.
