Iowa Models and Innovations

Evidence-Based Examples

Helping Kids PROSPER

Updated/reviewed January 2023

• Need: An approach to support sustained, quality delivery of evidence-based programs for youth and families in rural communities.
• Intervention: PROSPER, a program delivery system, guides communities in implementing evidence-based programs that build youth competencies, improve family functioning, and prevent risky behaviors, particularly substance use.
• Results: Youth in PROSPER communities reported delayed initiation of a variety of substances, lower levels of other behavioral problems, and improvements in family functioning and other life skills.

Effective Examples

Parent Partners

Updated/reviewed March 2024

• Need: To support parents whose children have been removed from the home so that the parents can make the changes needed for the children to return safely home.
• Intervention: A statewide program in Iowa pairs these parents with mentors who have successfully navigated their own child welfare cases.
• Results: Participants' children were more likely to return home than non-participants' children and participants were less likely to have another child removal within a year of the child coming home.

Promising Examples

TelePrEP

Updated/reviewed March 2024

• Need: To prevent new cases of HIV in rural Iowa.
• Intervention: TelePrEP provides preventive care via telehealth and prescription delivery.
• Results: Between February 2017 and August 2020, TelePrEP received 456 referrals, with 403 patients completing an initial visit.

SD eResidential Facilities Healthcare Services Access Project

Updated/reviewed August 2020

• Need: To increase local health services to rural elderly populations in long-term care facilities located in four Midwest states near a tertiary care organization.
• Intervention: A non-profit healthcare organization implemented telehealth services to provide acute care evaluations for long-term residents in their home facilities.
• Results: The program increased local care as evidenced by improved year-over-year provider-determined available transfer data: 33%, 50%, 63% program years 1 through 3, respectively. From the success of the initial pilot implementation, the program has further matured into a long-term care offering that now reaches many other rural facilities located in 10 states across the nation.

The Rural Virtual Infusion Program

Updated/reviewed April 2020

• Need: Allow rural cancer patients in a region inclusive of 26 counties in Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota to have access to tertiary-level chemotherapy regimens in rural infusion centers.
• Intervention: With telehealth-based oversight from a tertiary care oncology team, 3 rural infusion teams were trained to coordinate cancer treatment plans and administer complex chemotherapy regimens.
• Results: Almost 130 patients were transitioned to receive chemotherapy in a rural infusion center, translating to over 1,000 infusion visits and saving patients/families nearly 65,000 trip miles, 1,800 travel hours and $71,000.

Other Project Examples

CAPABLE (Community Aging in Place—Advancing Better Living for Elders)

Updated/reviewed July 2023

• Need: To help older adults age in place.
• Intervention: For five months, CAPABLE participants receive home visits from a registered nurse, occupational therapist, and home repair services.
• Results: There are currently over 35 CAPABLE sites across the country, 11 of which are located in rural communities.

Avera LIGHT

Updated/reviewed March 2021

• Need: Assistance for urban and rural physicians — as well as other healthcare providers — who are experiencing burnout and other issues associated with well-being.
• Intervention: As part of its provider well-being focus in its rural and urban facilities, Avera Health system has created a program which attends to physician wellness issues starting with recruitment with continued support through retirement.
• Results: With increasing engagement due to word of mouth, the program creates a culture of wellness where stigma is decreased and providers are encouraged to be proactive in reaching out for assistance for issues related to their personal and professional well-being.