Grant saves program from cancellation

Ryan A. Mihalyi Arizona Daily Wildcat Dr. James A. Galloway, cardiology director for Indian Health Services.

The $100,000 award, courtesy of the California-based William Randolph Hearst Foundation, will enable the University of Arizona to purchase two trailers for students to live in while working at Hopi and Fort Apache reservation hospitals, said Dr. James Galloway, Indian Health Services cardiology director.

The program faced cancellation because of inadequate housing, he said.

"Housing was in short supply because of the growth of the hospitals," Galloway said.

Keams Canyon Hospital on the Hopi Reservation and White River Hospital on the Fort Apache Reservation will each receive a university-purchased trailer.

Dr. David Yost, White River Hospital's clinical director, said students working on the reservations needed new living arrangements.

"They were really in very poor shape - leaky roofs and poor heaters - but they were the best we could do," he said.

Galloway said losing the program would jeopardize the quality of rural health care on the reservations.

"Finding physicians who want to go into rural health is difficult," he said. "Having medical students work on the reservation is one of the major recruitment tools - a positive rural experience has a major influence on a physician's decision to practice in a rural area."

At least 10 percent of the 350 students who pass through the health-care program have gone to work for Indian Health Services, said Josh Gormally, a program research assistant and author of the Hearst grant.

Indian Health Services is a federal agency established to provide health care on reservations.

Yost said working in a similar program is what helped him choose a career working in reservation hospitals.

Galloway said those who choose to work in health care on rural reservations bring to their job a passion and dedication to their work.

"The quality of the physicians within Indian health is outstanding in general - they've often dedicated their lives to really improving the health of Native American people," he said.

Galloway said the two reservation hospitals approached his program and asked it to help raise funds.

They partnered with the University of Arizona when applying for funds because the program is federally-supported. Foundations are less apt to grant awards to federal programs, Yost said.

"The UA was a nonfederal intermediary and this was a good way for them to work on our behalf," he said.

Because the trailers actually belong to the university, the hospitals will lease the trailers for about $1 per month, Yost said.

Galloway said the American Indian health program assists reservation hospitals in achieving their goals.

"Our goal is not to do things for ourselves and follow our own agenda; our goal is to enhance tribal and urban capacity in health matters and promote health and wellness among Native American people," he said.