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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Infrastructure

Watered Down Justice
Report focuses on water quality standards, violations, and potential solutions, specifically for social and economic minority populations. Features county-level maps showing the intersection of various drinking water violations and length of violations with racial, ethnic, and language vulnerability.
Author(s): Kristi Pullen Fedinick, Steve Taylor, Michele Roberts
Date: 09/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Coming Clean, Environmental Justice Health Alliance, Natural Resources Defense Council
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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
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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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
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: State of Childhood Obesity
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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
Type: Document
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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
Type: Document
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Emergency Management: FEMA's Disaster Recovery Efforts in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
Describes the disaster recovery efforts of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in response to hurricane damage, including damage to hospitals and infrastructure. Discusses grant funding and recovery office establishment, and addresses the challenges in implementing the public assistance program.
Date: 07/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
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A Qualitative Study Identifying Barriers and Facilitators of Physical Activity in Rural Communities
Highlights a study on physical activity rates and structural impediments and advantages within rural communities that affect those rates. Bases findings on interviews with rural adults in southeast Missouri. Examines the attitudes and concerns about physical activity and makes suggestions for future interventions.
Author(s): Amanda S. Gilbert, Dixie D. Duncan, Alan M. Beck, Amy A. Eyler, Ross C. Brownson
Citation: Journal of Environmental and Public Health, (2019)
Date: 06/2019
Type: Document
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Running Clear: Preventing Private Water Sources from Becoming a Health Hazard in Rural America
Provides an overview of the potential contaminants in well water and describes how the safety of private water sources is maintained. Features water experts and a public health professional explaining what can be done to keep well water clean, including water testing, education and training, funding, and technical assistance.
Author(s): Jenn Lukens
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 06/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Broadband Mapping: Small Carrier Perspectives on a Path Forward
Congressional hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Contracting and Infrastructure regarding challenges to developing accurate broadband access maps to help direct funding to rural areas without broadband services. Includes testimony from the Competitive Carriers Association, The Rural Broadband Association, WTA-Advocates for Rural Broadband, and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
Additional links: Beth Osler Testimony, Dan Stelpflug Testimony, Jason Hendricks Testimony, Tim Donovan Testimony
Date: 06/2019
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organization: U.S. House of Representatives
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Medicaid Financing Cliff: Implications for the Health Care Systems in Puerto Rico and USVI
Issue brief providing an overview of the status of healthcare systems and Medicaid programs in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) a year and a half after hurricanes hit the islands in September 2017. Focuses on challenges and includes an analysis of the implications for the islands' Medicaid finances, as most of the temporary disaster relief funding is set to expire in September 2019. Features statistics on the two territories' past and projected Medicaid spending.
Author(s): Robin Rudowitz, Cornelia Hall, Barbara Lyons
Date: 05/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: KFF
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