This website is being reviewed for updates. Some information is offline. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Skip to main content
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Infrastructure

Telehealth: An Opportunity for State and Territorial Health Agencies to Improve Access to Needed Health Services
Reports results from a 2019 telehealth capacity survey of state and territorial health agencies. Identifies strategies these agencies can take to advance state use of telehealth related to infrastructure, collaboration, and policy.
Author(s): Alexandra Kearly, Janet Oputa, Paris Harper-Hardy
Citation: Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 26(1), 86-90
Date: 2020
view details
CDFIs 'Make Dreams Come True' by Creating Opportunity in Rural Spaces
Describes the role that Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) can play in helping rural areas gain access to flexible financing options to support rural health projects. Highlights how the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and Healthcare Georgia Foundation work with CDFIs to help address rural health concerns. Also features a CDFI recipient of Uplift America, the South Carolina Community Loan Fund, that has helped support a health professions high school.
Author(s): Jenn Lukens
Date: 12/2019
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
view details
Intergovernmental Advisory Committee to the Federal Communications Commission Advisory Recommendation No: 2019-2 in the Matter of State, Local Tribal, and Territorial Regulatory and Other Barriers and Incentives to Telemedicine
Examines the technical infrastructure necessary for effective telemedicine delivery in state, territorial, tribal, and local (rural and urban) areas. Discusses the regulatory barriers including legislation, licensing, reimbursement, malpractice insurance, and privacy that obstruct its development and utilization, and offers recommendations addressing these barriers. Appendix A presents case studies of broadband and telehealth development in several states and territories.
Date: 11/2019
Sponsoring organizations: Federal Communications Commission, Intergovernmental Advisory Committee to the Federal Communications Commission
view details
Rural Development Hubs: Strengthening America's Rural Innovation Infrastructure
Looks at the role rural development hubs play in rural infrastructure development. Discusses healthcare access and population health as beneficiaries of rural infrastructure development.
Additional links: Executive Summary
Date: 11/2019
Sponsoring organization: The Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group
view details
Agua4All: Providing Safe Drinking Water in Rural California Communities
Describes a safe drinking water program established in 2014 in 2 rural San Joaquin Valley communities. Examines the program's feasibility, acceptability, and effect on residents' water intake at 12 study sites. Features statistics including demographic characteristics of the communities, and daily volume of drinking water at the study sites from 2014-2016.
Author(s): Anisha I. Patel, Amelie A. Hecht, Karla E. Hampton, Christina Hecht, Sarah Buck
Citation: Preventing Chronic Disease, 16
Date: 11/2019
view details
Telecommunications: FCC Should Take Additional Action to Manage Fraud Risks in Its Program to Support Broadband Service in High-Cost Areas
Examines the funding reforms and fraud controls implemented by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for small, rural telecommunications carriers, identified as "rate-of-return carriers". Includes recommendations to the FCC supporting fraud risk management, regular assessments, and newly designed strategies. Appendix I identifies key elements of a fraud-risk management assessment process.
Additional links: Full Report
Date: 10/2019
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
view details
Violence Against Hospital Workers: Growing Awareness, Rural Interventions, and Why It Still Goes Unreported
Provides an overview of workplace violence in healthcare settings. Features rural hospitals in Oregon and Idaho that are undertaking a range of prevention activities addressing workplace violence. Also features research findings from a Michigan healthcare system study on the topic, and identifies resources and tools that rural hospital leaders can use to help protect hospital staff.
Author(s): Jenn Lukens
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 09/2019
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
view details
Boosting Physical Activity in Rural Communities with Play Streets
Interview discussion about Play Streets, or the closing down of specific public places for physical activity and leisure, and how they can benefit rural communities that lack infrastructure for children to be active. Discusses public health benefits of Play Streets and the impact on addressing health disparities.
Date: 08/2019
Sponsoring organization: State of Childhood Obesity
view details
Obesity and Diabetes in the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska: From Community Engagement to Action, 2014-2019
Describes interventions implemented on the Winnebago Tribe reservation in rural Nebraska and Iowa, focusing on community-selected and culturally adapted policies, systems, and environmental improvements to reduce obesity and type 2 diabetes. Strategies include infant and childhood obesity prevention education, promotion of healthy foods and beverages, and improvements to pedestrian safety and built environment.
Author(s): Larry Alonso, Lorelei Decora, Ursula Bauer
Citation: Preventing Chronic Disease, 16
Date: 08/2019
view details
Use of Mass Communication by Public Health Programs in Nonmetropolitan Regions
Essay describing the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's efforts to encourage health departments, tribes, universities, and community-based organizations in rural areas to use mass communications as a tool to address racial and ethnic disparities.
Author(s): Jennifer M. Kreslake, Allison Elkins, Christopher N. Thomas, Suzanne Gates, Thomas Lehman
Citation: Preventing Chronic Disease, 16
Date: 07/2019
view details