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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Primary care

Addressing a Workforce Crisis in Primary Care Made More Severe by the COVID-19 Pandemic
Podcast exploring the reasons for the current healthcare workforce crisis in primary care, especially in rural areas and among certain demographic groups, and describes the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the workforce shortage. Includes transcript.
Author(s): J.B. Wogan
Date: 06/2022
Type: Audio
Sponsoring organization: Mathematica
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The Racial and Ethnic Diversity of the Family Physician Workforce in Non-Metropolitan and Metropolitan Counties
Policy brief exploring distribution of family physicians (FPs) in rural areas by race/ethnicity and whether rural minority physicians were more likely to work in underserved rural areas. Features statistics on characteristics of early career FPs practicing outpatient care from 2017-2019, with breakdowns by metropolitan, micropolitan, and non-core non-metropolitan location, and race of FPs practicing in persistent poverty or primary care Health Professional Shortage Areas, by stage in career.
Author(s): Lars E. Peterson, Zachary J. Morgan
Date: 06/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural and Underserved Health Research Center
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Georgia Counties without Primary Care/Core Practitioners: Based on 2019-2020 Licensure Renewal Data and New Licensees
County-level Georgia maps showing counties without any physicians, and without physicians specializing in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN, general surgery, psychiatry, and emergency medicine. Features statistics on numbers of these physicians with breakdowns by county.
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce
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HPSA 101: Health Professional Shortage Areas Explained
Video describing Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), scoring calculations and factors affecting HPSA scores, National Health Service Corps loan repayments programs, and the role of the Virginia primary care office in identifying shortage areas in Virginia. Includes a brief history of HPSAs. Transcript available.
Date: 05/2022
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organization: Virginia Department of Health: Office of Health Equity
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Telemedicine Versus In-Person Primary Care: Impact on Visit Completion Rate in a Rural Appalachian Population
Explores telemedicine use in a primary care clinic in rural West Virginia and its impact on patient access and visit completion rates. Examines visit completion rates of 110,999 patients from January 2019 to November 2020, with patient data broken down by sex, age, marital status, and distance in miles from facility.
Author(s): Treah Haggerty, Heather M. Stephens, Shaylee A. Peckens, et al.
Citation: The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 35(3), 475-484
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
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Independent Evaluation of Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+): Fourth Annual Report
Reports on the first four program years of the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) model, a CMS primary care payment and delivery reform effort. Discusses CPC+ participating practices, payer partners, and health information technology (HIT) vendors supporting the program. Describes practice changes regarding care delivery and outcomes for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries.
Additional links: Appendices, Findings at a Glance
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Mathematica
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Assessing the Effectiveness of Policies to Improve Access to Primary Care for Underserved Populations: Case Study Analysis: Grant County, New Mexico
Case study of policy initiatives to increase access to primary care, focusing on rural Grant County, New Mexico. Discusses challenges to expanding the primary care workforce, bringing outpatient clinics into communities, mobile clinics and telehealth, affordability, and more.
Author(s): Maanasa Kona, Megan Houston, Jalisa Clark, Emma Walsh-Alker
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Milbank Memorial Fund
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Supporting Community-Based Family Medicine Residency Training Programs in North Carolina and their Potential Impact on Healthy NC 2030
Examines ways in which training family medicine residents in rural North Carolina communities can address disparities in healthcare access and improve rural population health metrics for all subsets of the population. Describes Healthy NC 2030, a public health initiative that seeks to bridge healthcare disparities in North Carolina. Features a county-level map showing locations of training programs in rural settings and urban settings, and statistics on the distribution of family medicine residency positions in North Carolina, with breakdowns by rural or urban setting.
Author(s): Audy G. Whitman, Geniene Jones, Danny Pate, et al.
Citation: North Carolina Medical Journal, 83(3), 173-177
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
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Exploration of Remote Didactics at Rural Family Medicine Training Programs
Results of an electronic survey of rural family medicine residency site directors across the United States. Includes analyses through statistics with an emphasis on descriptions of current didactic practices, facilitators, and challenges to implementation. Features statistics with breakdowns by urban or rural location.
Author(s): Ying Zhang, Tessa E. Moore, Amanda Weidner, et al.
Citation: Family Medicine, 54(5), 362-363
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
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Primary Care Clinicians in Low-Access Counties
Evaluates the weighted contribution of advanced practice providers to the primary care workforce in well-served and underserved counties in North Carolina. Features statistics on population per primary care clinician by North Carolina county and composition of the North Carolina primary care workforce from 2017-2019, and a county-level map with shadings showing percentages of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and certified nurse-midwives in 2017-2019.
Author(s): Adam J. Zolotor, Evan Galloway, Margaret Beal, Erin P. Fraher
Citation: North Carolina Medical Journal, 83(3), 163-168
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
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