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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Access

Kansas Primary Care Needs Assessment
Reports the results of a statewide needs assessment conducted in 2021 that focuses on the primary care needs of rural and underserved populations in Kansas. Includes discussion on provider shortages, access issues related to quality preventive and primary care services, telehealth services, and more. Shares maps providing county-level data on Primary Care, Dental, and Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs).
Date: 2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Kansas Office of Primary Care and Rural Health
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Rural Transportation Issues: Research Roadmap
Report details the form and function of the transportation systems serving rural areas. Discusses gaps in service for all forms of rural transportation, including EMS and non-emergency medical transportation.
Additional links: Read Online
Date: 2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, National Cooperative Highway Research Program
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Bright Spots: Case Studies in Innovative Rural Healthcare
Profiles 8 rural healthcare facilities and communities that successfully addressed issues regarding access to healthcare and explores commonalities across the case studies. Describes how these initiatives optimize leadership, cultural transformation, data utilization, rural maternity care, and external partnerships.
Date: 2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: A&M Rural and Community Health Institute
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Identification of Rural Communities with Limited Access to Safety Net Health Care Providers
Fact sheet examining rural access to core safety net providers using 2017 data. Offers a county-level map of rural counties depicting distribution of Rural Health Clinics and Federally Qualified Health Centers. Discusses rural health needs in relation to access to facilities in their counties.
Date: 2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural and Minority Health Research Center (formerly the South Carolina Rural Health Research Center)
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Population Health in Challenging Times: Insights from Key Domains
Summarizes presentations and panel discussions from a September 21-24, 2020 workshop on how the field of population health is responding to and being changed by racial injustice and the COVID-19 pandemic. Examines lack of access to healthcare in rural and tribal areas, and explores the philanthropy sector's conceptual and practical responses to the pandemic and the movement for racial justice.
Author(s): Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice
Date: 2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Health Disparities Report 2021
Report examining health disparity trends based on data from America's Health Rankings reports. Offers reports by state and discusses disparities related to social and economic factors, physical environment, clinical care, behaviors, and health outcomes. Most state reports offer data comparisons by metro and non-metro residence.
Additional links: Executive Brief, State Summaries
Date: 2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: United Health Foundation
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Exploring the Role of Health Centers in Providing Medication-assisted Treatment
Examines the geographic areas that are most dependent on health centers for medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder. Compares statistics on DATA-waived providers and health centers with MAT patients across metropolitan, non-metropolitan, and rural health centers.
Date: 2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health Resources and Services Administration
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Exploring Health Center Capacity in Rural Maternity Care Deserts
Examines the capacity for health centers to provide maternal healthcare in rural maternity care deserts. Compares the performance of priority health centers (PHC) and non-PHCs and national benchmarks on the prenatal patients, the number of patients who delivered with a health center provider, the percent low birth weight babies, and the percent prenatal patients who received prenatal care in the first trimester.
Date: 2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health Resources and Services Administration
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Rural and Minority Health Research Center: Annual Report 2020
Highlights research projects in areas including healthcare access, maternal and child health, health economics and policy, cancer prevention and control, and social determinants of health. Features statistics on hospital-based obstetric units from 2002-2013 with breakdowns by metropolitan, micropolitan, and noncore locations, social determinants of health in rural areas with breakdowns by race or ethnicity, adverse child experiences exposure with breakdowns by urban or rural location, and colorectal cancer incidence trends from 2000-2016 with breakdowns by urban and rural location.
Date: 2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural and Minority Health Research Center (formerly the South Carolina Rural Health Research Center)
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Voices From the Field: A Qualitative Study of the Challenges and Promising Practices of Rural Public Health in Addressing HIV and Hepatitis C
Examines rural vulnerability to HIV and hepatitis C for people who inject drugs. Presents findings from interviews with 36 public health professionals from rural states, addressing funding limitations, staffing, public health infrastructure challenges, public health initiatives, and community education programs.
Author(s): Martha Elbaum Williamson, Karen B. Pearson, Amanda R. Burgess, Jennifer D. Lenardson, Erika C. Ziller
Citation: Journal of Health and Human Services Administration, 44(2), 114-136
Date: 2021
Type: Document
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