Rural Project Examples: Healthcare needs and services
Other Project Examples
Garrett County Regional Cancer Patient Navigator Program
Updated/reviewed March 2020
- Need: Comprehensive cancer services for residents of an 8-county, 3-state area in Appalachia.
- Intervention: Using a Cancer Patient Navigation Tool Kit, a Maryland acute care facility led a multidisciplinary collaboration that provided the area's patients with expanded cancer treatment services.
- Results: In addition to several new cancer-related programs, expanded services are now available for cancer patients, families, and cancer survivors.
Medical Home Plus
Updated/reviewed February 2020
- Need: To help reduce diabetes, depression, and stroke risk in rural residents.
- Intervention: A collaborative care model was implemented in the Idaho counties of Clearwater, Idaho, and Lewis.
- Results: Increased number of patients with controlled blood sugar, controlled blood pressure, and higher depression screening rates.
Optimal Health Behavioral Health Home Models
Updated/reviewed December 2019
- Need: A healthcare delivery model to improve health and well-being of Pennsylvania patients with serious mental illness in Pennsylvania, especially those in rural settings.
- Intervention: County human service administrators, patients, families, a behavioral health provider network, and a nonprofit behavioral health managed care organization implemented 2 versions of a behavioral home health model focusing on a complete culture of wellness.
- Results: These unique models significantly increased patient activation, engagement in both primary and specialty care, and improved client perception of their mental health status.
Ohio Northern University's HealthWise Mobile Outreach Program
Updated/reviewed July 2019
- Need: Meeting both advanced practice pharmacy student education needs and patient healthcare needs in a nearby rural/underserved area.
- Intervention: With support from multiple organizations, students in the Ohio Northern University's College of Pharmacy program use a motor coach to deliver a wide range of healthcare services during scheduled outreach visits.
- Results: In the program's first two years, point-of-care screening, immunizations, and chronic disease prevention and management education have been provided to 800+ Hardin County, Ohio, residents.
Families Plus Comprehensive Health and Mentoring for Underserved Youth
Added March 2019
- Need: Pediatric behavioral health services in Delta County, Colorado.
- Intervention: Multi-organizational and community-wide effort to increase healthcare access for underserved children and to integrate behavioral health care into the area's primary care clinics.
- Results: Sustainable increases in access to pediatric behavioral health services.
The Adolescent Pre-Diabetes Prevention Program
Added October 2018
- Need: Prevention of type 2 diabetes in adolescents living in rural parts of Louisiana.
- Intervention: Through screenings, the Adolescent Pre-Diabetes Prevention Program detects the onset of prediabetes. Through nutrition and physical activity education, the program teaches high school students and staff how to adopt healthy lifestyles.
- Results: The program has seen an increase in enrollment and continues to see decreases in body weight, body mass index, and A1C levels among participants.
For examples from other sources, see: