An academic administrator and registered nurse with front-line experience in rural health care has been named to the Green Mountain Care Board.
Gov. Peter Shumlin on Thursday appointed Dr. Betty Rambur, a registered nurse and professor of Nursing and Health Policy at the University of Vermont, to the board, which was created by the Legislature in 2011 to ensure that changes in health care policy improve service and reduce costs.
“Betty brings two critical skills to the Board. As a nurse she has the hands-on health care experience of those who deliver care in our hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices,” Shumlin said in a news release. “But she is also an expert in health policy, understanding the complex financing of care, as well as the special challenges of delivering health care in rural areas.”
Rambur said her experience as a nurse and as chair of North Dakota’s Health Financing Reform Task Force in the 1990s have helped her gain insight into the health care needs of a rural population.
“There is a paradox of over-treatment and under-treatment, most of which is spurred by economics,” she said. “If we can get our arms around these issues, quality of care will improve and costs would be contained.”
Rambur will fill the spot on the board vacated when Al Gobeille, a Burlington businessman, became chairman. Other board members are Colchester physician Allan Ramsay, Karen Hein of Jacksonville, Vt., adjunct professor of Family & Community Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, and former Human Services Secretary Con Hogan of Plainfield.
“We are excited to welcome Betty to the Green Mountain Care Board,” Gobeille said in the news release. “Her knowledge and experience will be tremendous assets as we work to make health care more affordable for all Vermonters.”
Rambur served as a family nurse practitioner, physician assistant, health services researcher and nurse educator. In addition, she served as Founding Dean of UVM’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences from 2002-2009.
