Tim Size

"Rural health a great field in which to work for three reasons: we address above average challenges with below average resources means that the work stays challenging, the smaller scale of most rural health organizations allows for more opportunities to generalize, to master a diverse array of practices and issues, and the field tends to understand and appreciate the value of smaller organizations, continuity of relationship and integration with community."

Tim Size

Tim Size has been the Executive Director of the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative since its founding in 1979. He has been a Kellogg National Fellow and received the National Rural Health association's Louis Gorin Award for Outstanding Achievement in Rural Health Care.

The Cooperative is owned and operated by twenty-eight rural hospitals; in addition, four regional tertiary systems are non-voting Affiliate Members. RWHC has worked to be a catalyst for regional collaboration, an aggressive and creative force on behalf of rural communities and rural health. The Cooperative's emphasis on developing an integrated network among freestanding entities distinguishes it from alternative approaches.

Rural providers through the Cooperative formed HMO of Wisconsin in 1983. In 1994 it was sold to United Wisconsin services (a BlueCross subsidiary) and subsequently merged with an HMO based at the University of Wisconsin. A joint venture among these entities governs the resulting HMO, Unity Health Plans.

Cooperative staff and contracted professionals provide services directly in areas such as: advocacy, audiology, multi-hospital benchmarking and other quality improvement initiatives, grantsmanship, occupational therapy, per diem nursing, physical therapy, respiratory therapy, physician credentialing, speech pathology, emergency room physician staffing and ongoing rural specific continuing educational opportunities. Our most recent project is establishing the Cooperative in cyberspace through the development of RWHC Data Network, a hybrid between a "virtual network" and a "wide area network."