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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Project Examples: Chronic respiratory conditions

Evidence-Based Examples

Chronic Disease Self-Management Program
Updated/reviewed December 2019
  • Need: To help people with chronic conditions learn how to manage their health.
  • Intervention: A small-group 6-week workshop for individuals with chronic conditions to learn skills and strategies to manage their health.
  • Results: Participants have better health and quality of life, including reduction in pain, fatigue, and depression.

Effective Examples

funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy funded by the Health Resources Services Administration New Mexico Mobile Screening Program for Miners
Updated/reviewed December 2022
  • Need: To increase access to medical screening for miners in New Mexico.
  • Intervention: A mobile screening clinic with telemedicine capability screens miners for respiratory and other conditions.
  • Results: In a survey, 92% of miners reported their care as very good, while the other 8% reported it as good. The program has expanded to three other states.
Community-Based Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program
Updated/reviewed February 2021
  • Need: More evidenced-based chronic lower respiratory disease management options for rural Appalachia patients, where lung disease rates are among the highest in the country.
  • Intervention: Implementation of outpatient pulmonary rehabilitation programs in 2 Federally Qualified Health Centers and a Critical Access Hospital in West Virginia.
  • Results: Improved health outcomes for patients with chronic lower respiratory disease, including those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Community Health Worker-based Chronic Care Management Program
Added May 2020
  • Need: Improve healthcare access and decrease chronic disease disparities in rural Appalachia.
  • Intervention: A community health worker-based Chronic Care Management program demonstrated such a level of success in a single West Virginia county that it was further scaled for implementation in a multi-center, 3-state area of Appalachia.
  • Results: When analysis of the disseminated program's results also demonstrated improved health outcomes and decreased healthcare costs, sustainability became possible due to innovative financial reimbursement models.

Other Project Examples

Kansas Asthma Initiative
Updated/reviewed September 2022
  • Need: Many of Kansas's rural residents have low incomes and are medically underserved, putting them at a potential increased risk for uncontrolled asthma.
  • Intervention: The Kansas Asthma Initiative was a partnership that provided education and professional development opportunities via telehealth for healthcare providers and caregivers of asthma patients.
  • Results: The partnership developed a better methodology for working with physicians. Telehealth technology helped facilitate a positive collaboration among providers in Kansas in order to decrease the burden of asthma.
Boone County Health Center Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program
Updated/reviewed June 2022
  • Need: Evidenced-based intervention to improve function and quality of life for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other chronic lower respiratory conditions.
  • Intervention: Pulmonary rehabilitation program implementation in 1989.
  • Results: Compared to a national average of only about 3% of referred Medicare beneficiaries actually enrolling in pulmonary rehabilitation, 60% of the program's referred patients enroll. Averaging around 15 patients/year completing the program, a large combined cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation maintenance population averages 8,000 visits/year.
COPD Inpatient Navigator Program
Updated/reviewed December 2019
  • Need: Improve readmission rates for rural patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
  • Intervention: COPD Inpatient Navigator program implementation in a rural hospital in Oregon.
  • Results: With navigator assistance, COPD-associated readmission rate has decreased by almost 50%, with a continued improvement trend.
COPD Readmission Prevention Program
Updated/reviewed December 2019
  • Need: Organized effort targeting COPD patients' medical needs in order to prevent hospital readmission in Zanesville, Ohio.
  • Intervention: Creation of an integrated system model using nurse navigators that incorporates evidence-based chronic disease care management approaches to COPD care.
  • Results: Improved readmission rates and overall improved acute and chronic care for the area's COPD patients.