LEWISTON, Idaho — The Regence Foundation announced today it has awarded a $34,500 grant to Project ACCESS to increase collaboration among the three hospitals and eight rural health clinics that serve Whitman County, Washington, and Latah County, Idaho. Project ACCESS is the result of a partnership among the three area hospitals: Gritman Medical Center, Pullman Regional Hospital, and Whitman Hospital and Medical Center.

 "It's rare that separate, competing health care organizations set aside their  interests and pool their resources to better serve their communities," said Peggy Maguire, Regence Foundation board chair. "The Regence Foundation is proud to support Project ACCESS' joint commitment to community and its broad vision of improving the delivery of health services."

Project ACCESS' effort, called the PARC (Palouse Association of Rural Clinics) Project, aims to reduce health disparities in rural communities, improve the quality of care, reduce cost and improve patient outcomes. The Regence Foundation grant will fund research to identify the communities' most pressing health care needs and opportunities for collaboration and resource sharing among the hospitals and clinics – especially as it relates to electronic medical records.

"Our philosophy is that as a health care community, we can accomplish more together than we can as separate entities," said Jeana Boyd from Project ACCESS. "The goal of this project is to identify ways we can strengthen our network of rural clinics. Maybe it's by sharing specialized staff members, joining together to purchase an electronic medical records system, or coordinating schedules to ensure there is at least one area clinic open each day. Those are the types of questions we'll be exploring with the help of The Regence Foundation grant."

Clinics participating in the PARC Project include Palouse Medical Clinic, Rosalia Health Clinic, Tekoa Medical Clinic, Garfield Clinic, St. John Clinic, Kendrick Family Clinic, Potlatch Family Care and Troy Clinic.