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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Type: Document

Organizational Challenges to Improving Quality of Care in Indian Health Service Hospitals
Identifies organizational issues hindering the Indian Health Service (IHS) from improving the management of IHS hospitals. Discusses concerns related to formal structure, policies and roles; awareness of hospital performance and problems; and IHS officials' confidence in the agency's ability to make sustained improvements. Recommends strategies for improvement.
Author(s): Suzanne Murrin
Date: 08/2019
Sponsoring organization: Office of Inspector General (HHS)
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Medi-Cal Telehealth Updated Policy
Summarizes a California Department of Health Care Services telehealth policy update for the Medi-Cal fee-for-service program. Highlights key changes related to the definitions, reimbursable services, e-consults, and more.
Date: 08/2019
Sponsoring organization: Center for Connected Health Policy: The National Telehealth Policy Resource Center
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Examining Rural Cancer Prevention and Control Efforts: Policy Brief and Recommendations to the Secretary
Provides an overview of issues related to cancer in rural areas, including barriers to accessing cancer care. Describes federal programs that support and enhance national and rural cancer control efforts, including funding, and offers policy recommendations. Features statistics on average annual percent change in cancer mortality rates from 2006-2015, with breakdowns by metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. Includes a U.S. map showing locations of cancer centers that received Rural Cancer Control Supplements grants in 2018.
Date: 08/2019
Sponsoring organization: National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services
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Supportive Services and Caregiving for Older Rural Adults: Policy Brief and Recommendations to the Secretary
Provides an overview of current supportive services and caregiving policies for rural older adults, in terms of availability, accessibility, and acceptability of services. Explores topics including long-term services and supports, telehealth, care coordination, transportation, stigma, and unpaid caregivers, and describes federal programs for older adults. Offers policy recommendations and considerations.
Date: 08/2019
Sponsoring organization: National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services
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The Geography of Uninsurance in Massachusetts: An Update for 2013-2017
Identifies high-uninsurance communities in Massachusetts using three measures: uninsurance rate, number of uninsured, and concentration of uninsured. Describes socioeconomic characteristics of high-uninsurance communities and uninsured residents. Supplemental tables include data by county, county subdivision, place, and additional geographies.
Additional links: Full Report
Author(s): Michael Karpman, Dulce Gonzalez, Sharon K. Long
Date: 08/2019
Sponsoring organizations: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, Urban Institute
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Impact of Rural and Urban Hospital Closures on Inpatient Mortality
Examines the impact of California's hospital closures from 1995-2011 on adjusted inpatient mortality for sepsis, stroke, asthma/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and acute myocardial infarction. Features statistics including the number of closures by year, patient demographics with breakdowns by urban or rural location, and differential impacts of rural and urban closures with breakdowns by condition.
Author(s): Kritee Gujral, Anirban Basu
Citation: NBER Working Paper Series, Working Paper 26182
Date: 08/2019
Sponsoring organization: National Bureau of Economic Research
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Community Health Centers Meeting Rural Health Needs
Discusses the barriers to receiving and providing healthcare in rural communities, and highlights with data how community health centers are addressing barriers, delivering needed services, and improving health outcomes.
Date: 08/2019
Sponsoring organization: National Association of Community Health Centers
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Evidence Brief: Barriers and Facilitators to Use of Medications for Opioid Use Disorder
Report details an analysis of barriers and facilitators to administering medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder (OUD) that are applicable to the Veterans Health Administration. Highlights a synthesis of data extracted from a number of selected studies from 2014-2019, as well as VA data from 2006-2019. Includes data focusing on rural areas.
Date: 08/2019
Sponsoring organization: Veterans Health Administration
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Implementation of Liver Cancer Education Among Health Care Providers and Community Coalitions in the Cherokee Nation
Describes an intervention in 2017-2018 to plan and implement activities to increase knowledge and awareness of liver cancer prevention among Cherokee Nation health care providers. Includes recommendations to improve viral hepatitis surveillance, increase support for strategies to eliminate hepatitis B virus, and enhance services including risk factor screening and serologic testing.
Author(s): Behnoosh Momin, Jorge Mera, Whitney Essex, et al.
Citation: Preventing Chronic Disease, 16
Date: 08/2019
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Adult Health Status among Native American Families Participating in the Growing Resilience Home Garden Study
Reports the results of a randomized controlled trial examining the impacts of home food gardens on the health status of 176 adults from 96 families of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes living on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Compares the rates of obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes among study participants with the state and national disease rates in 2017, and national disease rates of participants from tribal communities in 2015.
Author(s): Christine M. Porter, Alyssa M. Wechsler, Shawn J. Hime, Felix Naschold
Citation: Preventing Chronic Disease, 16
Date: 08/2019
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