Electronic Library

The Panhandle AHEC, through support by the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC), offers community preceptors access to the TTUHSC electronic library resources.

This access is available to each of our preceptors free of charge, as a resource for health care practice and education.

Some of the tools that are available through the electronic library resources include:

• Access to more than 2,500 electronic journals, many with links to full-text articles.
• Access to EXAM MASTER, for subject review and exam preparation for USMLE and board examinations.
• Access to MD Consult ™, with full-text medical and pharmaceutical textbooks, as well as patient handouts in both English and Spanish.
• Access to MICROMEDEX ®, which is the U.S. National Formulary online. This database provides information on drugs, interactions, toxicology management, as well as dosing tools.
• Other library services, like interlibrary loan, are available for a fee.

For more information about this service, contact the Panhandle AHEC at 806-651-3482.

HealthMATCH Success: Connecting rural communities and providers across West Texas

Finding a physician to meet the needs of your community can be like finding a needle in a haystack. Just ask Wally Boyd, the administrator for Ochiltree General Hospital in Perryton, Texas. He had tried several times to recruit a family practice physician who also wanted to provide OB/Gyn services.

Perryton has two doctors that deliver babies, but one has wanted to slow down so that he could spend more time with his own children as they were going through school.

Perryton has the only hospital in the northeast corner of the Texas Panhandle that offers baby delivery. The hospital, with its 8-bassinet nursery and two delivery suites, has almost 200 baby deliveries each year. Without that facility, residents from that region have to drive at least 55 miles to the next nearest hospital in Texas that delivers babies.

“While many rural communities have had to discontinue obstetric care, we’ve felt that it is very important to our service to Perryton and the area to continue to provide that care. If mothers receive prenatal care, then you are less likely to have problems when the baby is born,” says Boyd.

After unsuccessful recruiting attempts, Boyd heard about an event hosted by the Panhandle Area Health Education Center (AHEC) at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center campus in Amarillo. The event, called HealthMATCH, offered rural communities the opportunity to meet primary care medical residents who are interested in rural practice.

At HealthMATCH-Amarillo in January 2005, Boyd met Dr. Jenny McGaughy, a family practice resident who was seeking a practice opportunity that allowed her to practice OB/Gyn.

The community presentation piqued her interest, and after several conversations and visits to the community, the doctor had found her place. McGaughy is now completing a fellowship in Obstetrics, with an emphasis in high-risk and operative Obstetrics, to better prepare for rural practice. She will begin working in Perryton in September 2006.

“Without HealthMATCH, I would still be looking for a physician,” says Boyd. “I found a quality physician who understands rural practice, and I can offer her a practice opportunity that is much broader in scope than anything an urban area offers.”

“I’ve always wanted to be a small-town doctor,” says McGaughy, who grew up in Boyd, Texas, the daughter of a rural family physician. “Actually, I probably should have run from it; I can remember that there were times when my dad was rarely home. But there is a continuity to rural practice—taking care of people and their children and their parents. You can be very involved in the community, caring for families and watching them grow. That was exactly what I wanted.”

The community of Eastland, Texas, is also seeking two physicians—both family practice, with one including OB in their practice. Community and hospital representatives are currently in conversation with a resident they met at the HealthMATCH event held in Odessa in September.

“We recruited a doctor at HealthFIND, the state rural recruiting event, three years ago,” says Dana McKelvain, RN from Eastland Memorial Hospital. “We had to wait two years while he completed his training, but he was the right person for our community. It’s been a great fit. Events like HealthMATCH and HealthFIND are excellent opportunities for communities to interact with professionals seeking rural practice.”

HealthMATCH is an event, hosted annually on each campus of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.