CEO Update: August 21, 2026

USDA/HHS Rural Health Roundtable

Planning continues for our August 24 Rural Development Stakeholder Roundtable at STHCS. In addition to Director Richard Mayfield, we will be joined by USDA Rural Development Pennsylvania State Director Chris Hoffman and John G. McGough, New York/New England Regional Director for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

We have a strong group of regional partners planning to participate. I am structuring the discussion around several of the challenges and opportunities we continue to see across rural health care, including keeping people out of the hospital when appropriate and improving transitions of care, rural hospital and community health system sustainability, and rural EMS workforce and sustainability.

PTC – Medication Reconciliation

Our Pathways to Care (PTC) team continues to place a strong focus on medication reconciliation during patient visits. Staff review medications, dosage and frequency, identify concerns, and provide education when needed to help patients better understand and safely manage their medications.

This also gives us another measurable way to demonstrate the impact of the program by documenting when patients move from needing education or taking medications incorrectly to using them correctly.

These interventions can help support patients at home and reduce the risk of avoidable complications, emergency department visits, and readmissions.

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