Sowing Seeds of Hope was honored to receive the University of Alabama Council on Community-Based Partnerships’ Excellence Award for Outstanding Community Partner-Initiated Engagement Effort. The award recognized our work with Dr. Chapman Greer and her students at the Culverhouse College of Business in the Fall 2019 semester. Dr. Greer and her students examined the feasibility of bringing a critical access hospital to Perry County. They determined that a hospital with critical access designation and managed by a larger healthcare corporation could be financially viable.

Designation as a “critical access hospital” by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services gives hospitals certain benefits, including 101% cost-reimbursement for Medicare services. Congress created the critical access hospital (CAH) designation in response to the high rate of rural hospital closures. The designation is intended to improve healthcare access to healthcare by keeping or returning essential services to rural communities.

Sowing Seeds of Hope has been laying the groundwork to bring a hospital back to Perry County for almost a decade. Dr. David Potts, former president of Judson College and a founding board member of Sowing Seeds of Hope, did much to spearhead the effort.

There are still several steps before a critical access hospital could be established, including requesting a change to the state health plan to allow a hospital to reopen in Perry County. However, the completion of the feasibility study in partnership with Dr. Greer and her students was a critical hurdle that had to be overcome before more progress could be made.

Sowing Seeds of Hope is thankful to the Council on Community-Based Partnerships for the award and remains deeply grateful to Dr. Chapman Greer for her contributions to our effort.

Sowing Seeds of Hope’s Executive Director, Frances Ford, is pictured above with Dr. Samory Pruitt, UA’s Vice President for Community Affairs, at the awards ceremony on August 21.