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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Project Examples: Primary care

Promising Examples

Cross-Walk: Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care

funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy

Updated/reviewed October 2021

  • Need: To address and treat substance use disorder (SUD) and depression in the Upper Great Lakes region.
  • Intervention: Cross-Walk, a program that integrates behavioral healthcare into primary care services, was developed in Michigan's Marquette County.
  • Results: The collaborative efforts strengthened care management services in local healthcare facilities as primary care patients were referred to a behavioral health specialist.

Other Project Examples

HealthTran

Updated/reviewed March 2024

  • Need: Affordable, dependable alternative to bridge the transportation gap between rural Missouri residents and their ability to connect with healthcare providers.
  • Intervention: Creation of HealthTran, a sustainable multi-service non-emergency transportation platform model based on the Community Mobility Management framework.
  • Results: After national recognition of its initial grant-funded pilot success, HealthTran has further evolved into a sustainable and replicable rural health-centric transportation membership model. Linking patients to appointments with healthcare providers, the model continues to expand further into rural Missouri, with some additional scaling in urban areas.

Hawai'i Island Family Medicine Residency

Updated/reviewed January 2024

  • Need: Hawai'i is experiencing a severe shortage of family medicine physicians.
  • Intervention: The Hawai'i Island Family Medicine Residency (HIFMR) program uses an interprofessional team-based approach so residents learn how to care for many types of patients in different healthcare settings.
  • Results: Since 2017, HIFMR has graduated a class of 3 to 6 Board-certified family medicine physicians annually. Most graduates have remained in the state to practice medicine; those who have left have entered fellowship programs and plan to return to Hawai'i Island to practice.

Premera Rural Nursing Health Initiative at the University of Washington

Added January 2024

  • Need: To create rural clinical placement and postgraduate fellowship opportunities for Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) students and recent Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner (ARNP) graduates in Washington.
  • Intervention: The Rural Nursing Health Initiative (RNHI), a program out of the University of Washington School of Nursing that created clinical placement opportunities for DNP students and a postgraduate fellowship program for ARNP graduates.
  • Results: Rural clinical stipends have been awarded to 80 DNP students, and 12 ARNPs completed rural fellowships between 2021 and 2023.

Community Care Partnership of Maine Accountable Care Organization

funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy

Updated/reviewed April 2023

  • Need: To increase access and quality of care for patients in rural Maine.
  • Intervention: Community hospitals and Federally Qualified Health Centers in Maine formed the Community Care Partnership of Maine Accountable Care Organization (CCPM ACO).
  • Results: CCPM serves about 120,000 patients in Maine. In addition, it has implemented shared savings arrangements/contracts with different Medicare Advantage and other private health payers.

Health-e-Schools

funded by the Health Resources Services Administration

Updated/reviewed October 2022

  • Need: Rural school children lack proper healthcare resources within the school setting.
  • Intervention: Health-e-Schools provides health services to students via telehealth using video conferencing and special equipment.
  • Results: Health-e-Schools increases access to primary healthcare, increases attendance in the classroom, and decreases the amount of time that parents or guardians must take off of work to bring their child to health-related appointments.