Healthcare Conference Panelists Discuss Diversifying the RGV Economy and Retaining Workforce – Rio Grande Guardian

Dr. Rashmi Chandran poses a question to a panel of judges at the Accelerator 2023 RGV Health Equity Conference.

MISSION, Texas – Dr. Rashmi Chandran, a leading health equity advocate in the Rio Grande Valley, asked one of the questions at the recent Accelerator 2023 RGV Health Equity Conference.

The conference was co-hosted by Western Governors University and AltaCair and held at the Mission Event Center.

Chandran, the new president of the AltaCair Foundation, asked this question:

“I come from another country. I’ve been in the Valley for ten years. I came from India. What I see is that there are one or two sectors in particular that are thriving in RGV. Usually it’s healthcare and then there’s the food industry, right? Those are the two things that come up.

Dr. Rashmi Chandran

“How can we diversify this and work harder on employee retention? Because there are a lot of people who move here and leave again. And that’s because there are limited industries and limited jobs. There are only so many things you can do and that is what our children learn.

“You only see hospitals nearby. So will they just become nurses and doctors? How are they exposed to the fact that there is so much out there? What different educational paths are there?”

Chandran posed the question to a panel consisting of Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez, UT-Rio Grande Valley Vice President Veronica Gonzales, Texas A&M University Vice President Manny Vela and Kimberly Kelly-Cortez, senior associate dean and program director at the Leavitt School of WGU Health.

Here is a video recording of the four panelists’ response:

In their program notes, Western Governors University and AltaCair explained why they co-hosted the recent Accelerator 2023 RGV Health Equity Conference.

“The research-backed program leverages the power of coopetition (collaboration with competitors, thought leadership and action-oriented thinking) to stimulate discussions about the socioeconomic and environmental factors that contribute to health disparities.

“The investment brings together health systems, community-based organizations, accountable care organizations, workforce organizations and educational alliances into one policy and advocacy group.”

“The vision is to think beyond geographic boundaries and develop a scalable model with reproducible results to optimize the entire health equity structure in rural America.”

Key topics of discussion at Accelerator 2023, held at the Mission Event Center, were:

• Access to healthcare and value-based care
• Innovative, high-quality health and nursing education programs
• Food security
• Preventive care

The program pointed out that, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 9.8 percent of people under age 65 lack health insurance nationwide, but the percentages are much higher for the four poorest counties in the RGV:

• Hidalgo County: 33.1 percent
• Cameron County 29.9 percent
• Starr County 28.9 percent
• Willacy County 24.1 percent
• Editor’s note: The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service has divided the above panel discussion into four video recordings. The shot above was part three. Here are the links to Part One, Part Two and Part Four.