Rural Project Examples Addressing Healthcare needs and services

Queen Anne's County Mobile Integrated Community Health (MICH) Program

Updated/reviewed April 2024

Need: To connect patients to resources in order to reduce use of emergency services, emergency department visits, and hospital readmissions.
Intervention: Patients receive support (by in-person visit, phone call, or telehealth visit) from a paramedic, community health nurse, peer recovery specialist, and pharmacist.
Results: Between July 2016 and March 2024, the program made 1,098 patient contacts and continued to see a reduction in emergency department and inpatient visits and costs.

Added March 2024

Need: Enhanced support for people with substance use disorders leaving jail and reentering communities in rural northeastern Kentucky.
Intervention: A reentry program that uses peer support specialists to teach cognitive life skills, obtain essential identification documents, and help people create and follow personalized case plans before and after their release.
Results: More than 420 people have been served by First Day Forward, with recidivism rates significantly lower among people who successfully completed the program.

Updated/reviewed March 2024

Need: Affordable, dependable alternative to bridge the transportation gap between rural Missouri residents and their ability to connect with healthcare providers.
Intervention: Creation of HealthTran, a sustainable multi-service non-emergency transportation platform model based on the Community Mobility Management framework.
Results: After national recognition of its initial grant-funded pilot success, HealthTran has further evolved into a sustainable and replicable rural health-centric transportation membership model. Linking patients to appointments with healthcare providers, the model continues to expand further into rural Missouri, with some additional scaling in urban areas.

Updated/reviewed February 2024

Need: To reduce farm injuries and improve EMS and fire/rescue's response to these injuries in rural Louisiana and Mississippi.
Intervention: AGRIMEDIC is a two-day training for first responders.
Results: 810 first responders have received training.

Updated/reviewed February 2024

Need: To provide affirming, destigmatized healthcare and support to thousands of Tennesseans living with HIV/AIDS, mental illness, substance use disorder, and homelessness – and prevention services for individuals at risk of contracting HIV.
Intervention: Positively Living & Choice Health Network provides services including a medical clinic, pharmacy, therapy, case management, client services like housing aid and transportation, HIV prevention, and a harm reduction program.
Results: The program currently serves 5,000 individuals and families through its offices in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Memphis, and Cookeville and its mobile medical unit for rural communities in Cocke and Claiborne counties.

Updated/reviewed February 2024

Need: To improve students' access to behavioral health services in rural North Carolina.
Intervention: North Carolina Project ACTIVATE provides three tiers of behavioral health supports in the school setting.
Results: The six pilot sites (Cohorts 1 and 2) have created or revised 91 mental health policies, and 40,572 school-based and related employees have received training in different topics and protocols.

Updated/reviewed January 2024

Need: Hawai'i is experiencing a severe shortage of family medicine physicians.
Intervention: The Hawai'i Island Family Medicine Residency (HIFMR) program uses an interprofessional team-based approach so residents learn how to care for many types of patients in different healthcare settings.
Results: Since 2017, HIFMR has graduated a class of 3 to 6 Board-certified family medicine physicians annually. Most graduates have remained in the state to practice medicine; those who have left have entered fellowship programs and plan to return to Hawai'i Island to practice.

Added January 2024

Need: To create rural clinical placement and postgraduate fellowship opportunities for Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) students and recent Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner (ARNP) graduates in Washington.
Intervention: The Rural Nursing Health Initiative (RNHI), a program out of the University of Washington School of Nursing that created clinical placement opportunities for DNP students and a postgraduate fellowship program for ARNP graduates.
Results: Rural clinical stipends have been awarded to 80 DNP students, and 12 ARNPs completed rural fellowships between 2021 and 2023.

Added December 2023

Need: To address high rates of substance use in Princeton, Illinois and the surrounding area.
Intervention: The Arukah Institute, a local nonprofit organization providing mental health services, adapted a statewide model to provide support and a safe space for people in need of substance use resources.
Results: The Living Room program had 1,485 visits in its first year, with 100% of clients served by recovery support specialists.

Updated/reviewed December 2023

Need: To ensure the quality and sustainability of rural West Central Missouri's health services through the use of technology.
Intervention: The Health Care Coalition of Lafayette County convened a Health Information Technology (HIT) workgroup to establish electronic medical and prescription records, telemedicine capabilities, and training for Lafayette County and surrounding areas.
Results: The workgroup fully equipped a local emergency department with HIT, launched electronic prescriptions for nearly a dozen Lafayette County providers, and identified acute needs hindering the adoption of electronic health records.