Slide Presentation from the AHRQ 2007 Annual Conference

Building infrastructure to address the quality chasm in Rural Communities

Graphical illustration of the infrastructure that is being put in place in East Kern County.

A box at the top of the illustration is labeled "Provider Leadership Team" and captioned "Governance." A large black arrow points to this box. A two-headed arrow points between this box and a large oval labeled "East Kern County Integrated Technology Association 'EKCITA' (a 501(c)3 public benefit corporation)"

On one side of this oval is a neat cluster of green dots labeled "Providers in SE Kern." On the other side is a smaller cluster of green dots, one large dot above three smaller ones, labeled "Hospital and RHSs." Arrows point from these two clusters to the large oval.

Arrows also point from the oval the following items below in a row of boxes:

• Acquisition and Dissemination of information technology
• Community Based Quality Improvement Programs and Monitoring
• Continuing Education
• Research
• Practice Management Support
• Evidence Based Medicine
• Workforce Development

Text above these boxes reads, "Consistent, Coordinated, Integrated, Community Approach to Health."