KSB Receives Distinguished Community Award
The University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford presented its 2019 Distinguished Community Award to KSB Hospital.
The Distinguished Community Award goes to a nominee that enhances the stature or growth of the University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford with contributions of a special nature.
KSB Hospital in Dixon, Ill., 45 miles southwest of Rockford, has become a hub of research and innovation for the College of Medicine through a partnership that spans over 40 years, according to Alex Stagnaro-Green, dean of the College of Medicine Rockford.
“KSB Hospital was a leading supporter in establishing the Rural Medical Education Program (RMED), which has since become one of the most successful rural medical education training programs in the United States,” says Stagnaro-Green. Since the RMED Program’s inception in 1990, KSB Hospital physicians have trained College of Medicine students in rural rotations in Dixon and they have representatives on RMED’s Recruitment and Retention Committee.
In 2004, through collaborative efforts, the medical school and KSB established the College of Medicine Rockford’s Family Medicine Residency Program’s Dixon Rural Training Track. This program aims to train family medicine physicians who are committed to rural and underserved populations.
KSB has been an innovator in other ways as well, according to Hana Hinkle, assistant director of the National Center for Rural Health Professions, who nominated KSB for the award. These include workforce development efforts, support of the Illinois Area Health Education Center Network Program, and establishment of the successful Summer Interprofessional Preceptorship Program that provides an intensive and immersive experience to advanced health professions students who train together for six weeks with KSB healthcare providers.
KSB also has consistently demonstrated a commitment to improving health outcomes through community-based research, most recently partnering with the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics and National Center for Rural Health Professions in the grant-funded Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute to develop adolescent depression prevention programs. Finally, KSB has been a key donor contributing to building projects, providing faculty support and sponsoring events at the College of Medicine Rockford.