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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Hospitals

Rural Emergency Hospitals Fact Sheet
Provides a brief overview of the Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) provider designation. Outlines REH payment, services, eligibility requirements, and how to apply for REH designation.
Date: 09/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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Information for Rural Stakeholders About Access to Maternity and Obstetric Care: A Community-Relevant Synthesis of Research
Provides an overview of access to maternity and obstetric care in rural areas, including access to care, childbirth at rural hospitals, and rural obstetric unit closures. Summarizes research findings on healthcare quality and outcomes at low-volume obstetric units, risks associated with rural obstetric unit closures, and challenges faced by communities without hospital-based obstetric care. Describes clinical and policy efforts to improve access and quality of care for birthing people and their families in rural communities with low-volume obstetric units or lack access to hospital-based obstetric care.
Author(s): Katy B. Kozhimannil, Julia D. Interrante, Alyssa H. Fritz, et al.
Date: 09/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
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Revised: Guidance for Rural Emergency Hospital Provisions, Conversion Process and Conditions of Participation
Provides guidance regarding the enrollment and conversion processes for facilities interested in participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs as a Rural Emergency Hospital (REH). Covers eligibility, enrollment, conversion action plans, action plans, and attestation. Includes answers to frequently asked questions about the REH program.
Date: 09/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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Financial Performance of Rural and Urban Hospitals in the Medicare Shared Savings Program
Presents financial performance trends of hospitals that participated in Medicare's Shared Savings Program (SSP) from 2011-2018. Compares trends in 6 financial outcomes between SSP and non-SSP hospitals, and differences in these trends among rural and urban hospitals.
Author(s): Huang Huang, Xi Zhu, Fred Ullrich, A. Clinton MacKinney, Keith Mueller
Date: 09/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis
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Palliative Care Challenges and Solutions in Rural U.S. Communities
Policy brief describing the availability of palliative care (PC) services in rural communities compared with urban areas, and identifying novel solutions for providing PC to rural areas. Features statistics including sociodemographic characteristics of urban and rural counties with and without hospitals offering PC as of 2020, and availability of PC in rural hospitals and health systems as of 2022-2023, with breakdowns by large rural, small rural, and isolated rural areas.
Author(s): Natalia V. Oster, Laura-Mae Baldwin, Pat Justis, et al.
Date: 09/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
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Where and What Separates Rural from Urban Hospital Closures?
A brief report that compares characteristics of rural and metro hospital closures. Utilizes 2010-2021 American Hospital Association Annual Survey data to examine rural versus metro hospital closures by hospital bed size, hospital type, accreditation status, location in Medicaid expansion state, and more.
Author(s): Sara D. Turbow, Jennifer Lom, Mohammed K. Ali
Citation: Journal of Hospital Medicine, 19(9), 812-815
Date: 09/2024
Type: Document
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Small Rural Hospital and Clinic Finance 101
Provides a manual with introductory information on healthcare facility finances and payment for state Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) Program personnel, Critical Access Hospital (CAH) staff and board members, small rural prospective payment system (PPS) hospitals, and provider-based rural health clinics (RHC).
Date: 09/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Rural Health Resource Center
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Remote Patient Monitoring for Rural Michigan Hospitals
Discusses the usefulness of remote patient monitoring (RPM) as a way supplement access to healthcare treatment in Michigan and provides an overview of how to successfully implement an RPM program in rural hospitals. Includes best practices for RPM, with a focus on implementation, measuring and reporting, governance, and more.
Date: 08/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Michigan Center for Rural Health
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Rurality and Patients' Hospital Experience: A Multisite Analysis from a US Healthcare System
Explores the relationship between the patient experience at a Midwestern hospital system and patients' rurality of residence using data from completed Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) surveys between 2016 and 2019. Analyzes data for global, composite, and individual HCAHPS measures by hospital and patient characteristics.
Author(s): Iman Fawad, Karen M. Fischer, Hanieh Sadat Tabatabaei Yeganeh, et al.
Citation: PLoS One, 19(8), e0308564
Date: 08/2024
Type: Document
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Georgia State Office of Rural Health (SORH) Flex Grant: 2024 Health Equity Improvement Project Playbook
Presents health equity plans developed by 28 Georgia Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs). Contains information on goals, partnerships, priority populations, data use, and other aspects of health equity planning and implementation.
Date: 08/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Alliant Health Solutions, Georgia State Office of Rural Health
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