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Minneapolis,MN  (August 20, 2018)—The Comprehensive Advanced Life Support (CALS) Program has received a $70,000 grant from the Otto Bremer Trust based in St. Paul Minnesota to develop online learning modules to enhance staff training at rural Minnesota and Wisconsin critical access hospitals.

The one-year grant will allow CALS to begin developing courses for online instruction that will enhance the availability of critical access hospitals (CAH) to train staffs in trauma care treatment more efficiently and more cost effectively.  CAH’s are typically in smaller communities and hours away from regional trauma centers.

“All healthcare organizations are challenged with providing quality healthcare in a cost-effective manner, “said Paul E. Lakeman, FACHE, Executive Director of CALS. “Rural facilities are particularly stressed because of smaller staffs and more limited resources.  This grant will allow us to design of our educational component for online consumption while at the same time continue the signature focus of the CALS education model– hands on, team-based skills training. This new model will make it easier for the CAH’s to educate their staffs in the life saving techniques, while at the same time reduce their health care costs without impacting the quality of care they provide.”

The CALS Program was founded in 1992 by rural Minnesota physicians who were committed to providing quality care to rural patients with critical illnesses and injuries. Classes began in 1996 and the organizational model has spread across the country to include programs in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Montana, Michigan, Maine and internationally to Kenya, Tanzania and Haiti.  CALS is located on the UMN-Twin Cities campus. For more information, call 612 624-7123

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