Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Healthcare quality

Promising Practice: Texas SORH's Handheld Ultrasound Project - An Innovative Approach to Providing Training & Technology to Small Rural Hospitals
Details a pilot program implemented by the Texas State Office of Rural Health that allows rural hospitals to uses handheld ultrasound machines as a cost-effective method for improving quality of care.
Author(s): Beth Blevins
Date: 09/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health
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Evergreen Medical Center Remains Committed to Quality Care
Describes Evergreen Medical Center's (EMC) progress as part of the Small Rural Hospital Transition (SRHT) Project, focused on care transitions and healthcare quality. EMC is a short-term acute care hospital located in Evergreen, Alabama. EMC focused on patient satisfaction, clinical documentation, preventing readmissions by improving care transitions, and quality reporting.
Date: 09/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Rural Health Resource Center
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California's Physician Assistants: How Scope of Practice Laws Impact Care
Provides an overview of physician assistants (PAs), focusing on scope of practice regulations in California and evidence for expanding their scope of practice. Discusses how PAs increase access to care, particularly in rural areas, and summarizes studies on the quality and cost-effectiveness of the care they provide. Appendix A includes data on California's PAs, such as their distribution, demographics, and practice setting. Appendix B identifies physician assistant scope of practice elements for each state.
Author(s): Timothy Bates, Joanne Spetz, Miranda Werts
Date: 09/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Healthforce Center at UCSF
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2017 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report
Provides a comprehensive summary and data analysis of healthcare quality and access in the U.S. Includes a discussion of disparities encountered by race/ethnicity and geographic locations along the rural-urban continuum. Addresses access to healthcare, patient safety, person-centered care, care coordination, affordability, healthy living, and effective treatment.
Date: 09/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
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A Small Town Stroke
Narrative essay by a medical student reflecting on his family medicine rotation in a hospital in rural Minnesota. Describes the process through which he came to understand that patients in well-supported rural hospitals might have access to therapeutic relationships not available in large urban medical centers.
Author(s): William Hoffman
Citation: Family Medicine, 50(8), 623-624
Date: 09/2018
Type: Document
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Report to Congress: Demonstration Project on Community Health Integration Models in Certain Rural Counties, Interim Report 2018
Provides an overview of and first year findings from the Frontier Community Health Integration Project Demonstration (FCHIP), which includes 10 Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) in three states: North Dakota, Montana, and Nevada. The demonstration intends to increase the quality and coordination of care, with focuses on access to and payments for telehealth, ambulance services, and skilled nursing facility/nursing facility beds, as well as related regulatory challenges.
Date: 09/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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Community Reinvestment Program
Profiles the Eastern Oregon Coordinated Care Organization (EOCCO), a rural program that received community reinvestment funding from the Oregon Health Authority to invest in the community and provide care for Oregon's Medicaid recipients using a fixed global budget system. EOCCO engaged a community advisory council (CAC) comprising local individuals that showed an active interest in improving their own and the community's health. EOCCO in turn reinvests the money they receive in projects targeted to improving priority health concerns determined by local community health assessments.
Date: 09/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Value
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2017 QIO Program Progress Report: Putting Patients at the Core
Describes the impact of Medicare's Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Program throughout the U.S. in 2017. Highlights a number of successful projects in rural areas focused on diabetes management, care coordination, hypertension management, and more.
Date: 09/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Quality Improvement Organization Program
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California's Nurse Practitioners: How Scope of Practice Laws Impact Care
Provides an overview of nurse practitioner (NP) scope of practice regulations in California and other states. Discusses how NPs increase access to care, particularly in rural areas, and reviews studies on the quality and cost-effectiveness of the care they provide. Appendix A includes data on California's NPs, such as their distribution, demographics, practice setting, and specialty.
Author(s): Joanne Spetz
Date: 09/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: California Health Care Foundation, Healthforce Center at UCSF
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Grantee Sourcebook: Rural Health Network Development Grant Program, 2014-2017
Detailed descriptions of 54 Rural Health Network Development grant projects funded during the 2014-2017 period. Includes an overview of the networks and their impact, a list of grantees by state and focus area, and grantee profiles providing contact information and in-depth project descriptions.
Date: 08/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, National Rural Health Resource Center
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