Rural Project Examples Addressing Healthcare needs and services

Genesee and Orleans County Cross Jurisdictional Sharing Project (GO Health)

Updated/reviewed September 2023

Need: Two rural upstate New York counties struggled to provide necessary public health leadership and services amid a fluid environment with rising costs and funding limitations.
Intervention: The Genesee County and Orleans County health departments began a cross jurisdictional sharing relationship that integrated select functions and services, beginning with sharing a director and deputy director.
Results: By sharing personnel and functions, management personnel costs have been cut in half and both counties have saved over $2 million for the counties combined.

Updated/reviewed August 2023

Need: To bring medication-assisted treatment to rural and underserved areas in Colorado.
Intervention: Six mobile health units travel to 32 counties and offer services like telehealth sessions, counseling, naloxone, and referrals to wraparound services.
Results: The units traveled more than 100,000 miles from January 2020 to January 2021.

Added August 2023

Need: To reduce poor maternal and infant health outcomes and improve access to prenatal and postpartum care for at-risk pregnant women and recent mothers in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
Intervention: A home visitation program that uses community paramedics to deliver wrap-around care to women experiencing high-risk pregnancies and/or social and environmental challenges.
Results: Since 2018, more than 200 women have been served by the program.

Updated/reviewed July 2023

Need: School-based drug misuse prevention program in Appalachian Ohio, a need triggered by a high school student's overdose death.
Intervention: Implementation of the HOPE curriculum, an age-appropriate K through 12th grade drug abuse prevention program.
Results: No further drug overdose deaths after curriculum initiated.

Added June 2023

Need: To improve maternal and birth outcomes in rural and underserved areas by increasing the number of family medicine physicians in these areas who have high-quality, evidence-based obstetrical care skills.
Intervention: The STRETCH-OB program trains a select number of family medicine residents at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford each year to provide high-quality maternity care, including surgical obstetrical care.
Results: The first two STRETCH-OB residents graduated in June 2023.

Updated/reviewed May 2023

Need: To address the needs of pregnant women who are using substances and infants born into drug-positive families.
Intervention: The Mothers and Infants Sober Together (MIST) program assisted mothers who used substances get treatment and provide a safe, drug-free home for themselves and their newborn.
Results: MIST has helped mothers find treatment and education and has helped children grow up in safe and healthy homes.

Updated/reviewed May 2023

Need: Out of 79 Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) surveyed in Minnesota in 2015, behavioral health was the most frequently cited service requested.
Intervention: In response, Rural Health Innovations launched the Minnesota Integrative Behavioral Health Program. This initiative engaged representatives across all sectors in health integration between hospital, primary care, and community services.
Results: Strategy sessions resulted in the creation of resource directories to improve care coordination, evaluation measurements to document results, and an overall better understanding of integrative care challenges.

Updated/reviewed March 2023

Need: Lack of access to oral healthcare for children from limited-income families in the rural and urban areas of South Dakota.
Intervention: Delta Dental of South Dakota launched the Delta Dental Mobile Program in 2004 to expand access to oral healthcare services to children throughout the rural state.
Results: The Delta Dental Mobile Program has provided over $38 million in dental care to more than 68,000 South Dakota children.

Updated/reviewed March 2023

Need: Transportation to medical appointments for children and expectant mothers living in rural Alabama.
Intervention: Kid One Transport provides rides to medical appointments for clients who otherwise have no other means of transportation.
Results: The program has transported 442,439 children and expectant mothers to and from medical appointments. Children have recovered from life-threatening illnesses and are experiencing a higher quality of life.

Updated/reviewed March 2023

Need: Improving outcomes for Outer and Lower Cape Cod residents in need of social, behavioral health, and substance use disorder services while reducing the burden and costs to town agencies and hospital emergency rooms.
Intervention: The Community Resource Navigator Program works with local social services, town agencies, faith-based institutions, hospitals, the criminal justice system, and others to identify and connect clients to needed services.
Results: Clients are gaining access to the care they were once lacking, as measured by improvements in self-sufficiency. The program also helps community partners and stakeholders work together to reduce the impact of risks associated with behavioral health symptoms, substance use disorder, and social determinants of health.