Skip to main content
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Hospitals

Critical Access Hospital: 2025 National Patient Safety Goals
Identifies National Patient Safety Goals for the Joint Commission's Critical Access Hospital Accreditation Program. Covers patient identification, caregiver communication, medication safety, infection prevention, suicide prevention, healthcare equity, and more. Effective January 1, 2025.
Date: 10/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Joint Commission
view details
Separate Payment for Essential Medicines – New Biweekly Interim Payments for the Inpatient Prospective Payment System
Provides an overview of payment adjustments to small, independent hospitals for establishing and maintaining access to buffer stocks of essential medicines for cost report periods beginning on or after October 1, 2024.
Date: 10/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
view details
Characteristics of Patients Hospitalized in Rural and Urban ICUs From 2010 to 2019
Examines the characteristics of fee-for-service Medicare patients who received intensive care in rural. Compares patient characteristics to those who received intensive care in urban hospitals, and the change in patient characteristics between 2010 and 2019. Presents data by patient age, sex, race and ethnicity, mean area deprivation index rank, primary diagnosis, and more.
Author(s): Emily A. Harlan, Muhammad Ghous, Ira S. Moscovice, Thomas S. Valley
Citation: Critical Care Medicine, 52(10), 1577-1586
Date: 10/2024
Type: Document
view details
Influenza and COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage Among Health Care Personnel — National Healthcare Safety Network, United States, 2023–24 Respiratory Virus Season
Reports on influenza and COVID-19 vaccination coverage among healthcare personnel working in acute care hospitals and nursing homes during the 2023-2024 respiratory virus season. Includes data by workplace location for rural and urban areas.
Author(s): Jeneita Bell, Lu Meng, Kira Barbre, et al.
Citation: MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report), 73(43), 966-972
Date: 10/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
view details
CAH Perspectives on Collection and Use of Demographic and Social Drivers of Health Data
Describes how collecting information about social drivers of health (SDOH) can help hospitals inform treatment and discharge planning decisions and identify local health disparities. Summarizes findings from interviews with nine Critical Access Hospital (CAH) staff regarding their experiences collecting demographic and SDOH data. Highlights themes related to challenges CAH staff face in collecting this data and how CAHs utilize the data they collect.
Author(s): Madeleine Pick, Carson Crane, Megan Lahr
Date: 10/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Flex Monitoring Team
view details
Frontier Community Health Integration Project (FCHIP) Demonstration Extension Fact Sheet
Provides an overview of the Frontier Community Health Integration Project (FCHIP) Demonstration Extension, which tests new healthcare delivery models in the most sparsely populated rural counties. Identifies participating Critical Access Hospitals and models tested.
Date: 10/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
view details
The Rural Emergency Hospital Model: Year Two Progress Report
Provides an overview of the Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) payment designation, including the growth in REHs through September 1, 2024, factors that contribute to a hospital seeking REH conversion, and the impacts of REH conversion. Outlines concerns identified by REH leaders, facilities considering converting to REH status, and other rural stakeholders related to the REH designation, as well as policy recommendations to address these concerns.
Author(s): Emma Sheffert, Julia Harris, Marilyn Werber Serafini
Date: 10/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Bipartisan Policy Center
view details
Northern Maine Medical Center: A Rural Hospital Gaining Momentum in its Work Toward Quality Improvement
Profiles a prospective payment hospital in northern Maine that engaged in the 2022-2023 Rural Healthcare Provider Transition Project (RHPTP), focusing on financial sustainability, cost efficiency, and quality improvement. Highlights hospital accomplishments and improvements via participation of the project.
Date: 10/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Rural Health Resource Center
view details
Interfacility Transfer of Children With Time-Sensitive Surgical Conditions, 2002-2017
Explores changes in the number of interfacility transfers and travel distance for children with four time-sensitive surgical conditions across nine states between 2002 and 2017. Examines whether the changes in transfers and travel distance varied by patients' urban or rural residence.
Author(s): Kyle J. Van Arendonk, Elisabeth T. Tracy, Jonathan S. Ellison, et al.
Citation: JAMA Network Open, 7(10), e2440251
Date: 10/2024
Type: Document
view details
Hospital Differences in Adult Inpatient Stays with Healthcare-Associated Infections, 2019 and 2021
Examines the rate of adult inpatient hospital stays involving five healthcare-associated infections (HAI) in 2019 and 2021. Presents data from an analysis of 2019 and 2021 State Inpatient Databases (SID) from public, non-federal acute-care hospitals across 38 states by hospital characteristics, including ownership, rural or urban location, safety-net designation, and Critical Access Hospital designation.
Author(s): Melissa A. Miller, Leyi Lin, David P. Calfee, Amy Gehrke, Alex Bohl
Date: 10/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
view details