75
¢
Including Sales Tax
Subscribe to the Unionville Republican TODAY $32.50 in-county $36.50 out of county Call TODAY 660-947-2222 Mastercard • VISA Discover accepted
Two Sullivan County FFA Chapters Participated in Drive to Feed Kids
The Unionville
REPUBLICAN & Putnam County Journal
“157 years of continuous service to Putnam County” www.unionvillerepublicanonline.com
Over 700 FFA members and agriculture leaders worked together at the MO State Fair for MO State FFA Food Insecurity Day of Service on August 15. Photo source: Missouri Farmers Care Members of two Sullivan County FFA Chapters, Milan and Green City joined more than 700 FFA members and agricultural leaders at the Missouri State Fair on Tuesday, August 15, for the Missouri State FFA Food Insecurity Day of Service held in conjunction with the Missouri Farmers Care Foundation Drive to Feed Kids. Together, members packed 160,000 meals to feed food insecure Missouri families. “The Missouri FFA Day of Service is an incredible opportunity for members across the state to give back to our community. It is super exciting to see members exemplifying what ‘Living to Serve’ truly means when packing meals this year,” said Sam Tummons, Missouri State FFA president. The seventh annual Day of Service brought Missouri FFA members together to pack meals for food insecure neighbors and experience the Missouri State Fair. The food packing and food drive are held in partnership with Missouri Farmers Care Foundation’s
Drive to Feed Kids, presented with ADM and Brownfield Ag News. The meal packing was a component of a yearlong effort to stand in the gap for the one in seven Missouri children facing food insecurity. “As we see the energy and compassion of Missouri FFA members in action during the FFA Day of Service, we are reminded that the future is bright,” said Ashley McCarty, Missouri Farmers Care Foundation executive director. “Hundreds of students from across the state spend one of their last days of summer in service to Missourians facing hunger. The impact of the Drive to Feed Kids is a reminder that, collectively, our individual efforts can make a big impact.” In addition to meals packed by FFA members, almost 700 pounds of fresh produce were donated from exhibits at the Missouri FFA building. Through the Missouri Farmers Care Food Drive $2 Tuesday
FFA ... Cont. to pg. 5
Volume One Hundred Fifty-seven, Issue Number 10
September 6. 2023
Scotland County Hospital Making Plans to Provide OB & Women’s Health in Unionville and Milan
es for hospitals providing these services in rural areas, where a higher proportion of births are covered by Medicaid. Medicaid covered 50 percent of rural births in 2018, compared to 43 percent of births for the United States as a whole, according to the most recent analysis from the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission. Recruiting and retaining providers is particularly challenging for rural areas, as they must compete with urban areas for a limited pool of providers to staff obstetric units that require a full range of maternal health providers, such as physicians and nurses, as well as anesthesiologists. Dr. Weber said, “We feel very, very fortunate that Dr. DeBlieck and his family chose us. They had many options and yet, Memphis and Scotland County Hospital was their first pick. He’s an excellent doctor and when I asked him to do the outreach clinics in Milan and Unionville, he absolutely had no reservations and agreed.” Dr. Elliot DeBlieck recently joined the Medical Staff at Scotland County Hospital. He accepts patients of all ages. He is also accepting OB patients and he is currently in training for C-Section deliveries. Having been trained as an osteopathic physician, he also offers Osteopathic Manipulative Treatments (OMT). OMT is a hands-on technique that involves moving and manipulating a person’s muscles and joints to help diagnose, prevent, and treat certain conditions.
Dr. Meagan Weber, CEO, Scotland County Hospital, hosted administration from Putnam County (Unionville) Memorial Hospital and Sullivan County (Milan) Memorial Hospital to discuss their future plans of collaboration with women’s health and obstetrics. In the future, Dr. Elliot DeBlieck (Board Certified Family Practice-OB) and Sonya See, WHNP, will be providing clinics in these communities to serve their patients in the areas of OB and Women’s Health. The number of hospitals providing obstetric services in rural areas has declined since 2014. This is particularly prevalent in low-income areas. Also, a higher proportion of rural patients rely on Medicaid,
which doesn’t fully cover obstetric services. In 2020, almost half of rural community hospitals nationally did not offer obstetric care, according to the American Hospital Association. Access to obstetric care is a growing concern in rural American communities, given recent closures of hospitals in these areas. Unlike other Missouri labor and delivery wards that are closing, the team at Scotland County Hospital is eager to come up with solutions to provide obstetrics care at Scotland County Hospital and work collaboratively with their neighbors. All three hospitals in northeast Missouri are designated as Critical Access Hospitals by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS). Thus, these hospitals
operate differently than for-profit or not-forprofit hospitals in metropolitan areas. Rural hospitals serve smaller populations than their urban counterparts, but have many of the same fixed costs, such as staffing emergency rooms, labor and delivery wards and surgery departments. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), interview of stakeholders, they most often ranked two factors as most important among a list of seven factors potentially affecting the availability of obstetric care in rural areas. Specifically, stakeholders said: Medicaid reimbursement rates set by states do not cover the full cost of providing obstetric services. This may mean particular financial loss-
Allen New PC Library Director
Welcome to the new Putnam County Public Library Director Christy Allen [center] accompanied by the library staff, Circulation Librarian Sarah Downing [Left] and Assistant Librarian/Director Monica Brown [Right]. Come in and meet the new director and check out a great book!