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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health Information Hub

 

Rural Project Examples: Service delivery models

Effective Examples

Children's Mercy Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Telemedicine
Updated/reviewed August 2018
  • Need: To increase access to an allergy/asthma/immunology specialist for children in rural Kansas and Missouri.
  • Intervention: Children's Mercy Kansas City offers a telemedicine option for allergy/asthma/immunology visits.
  • Results: Patients and their families report a 98% satisfaction rate with the telemedicine visits, which a six-month study found to be as effective as in-person visits.
Rural Telemental Health (RTMH) Program
Updated/reviewed July 2018
  • Need: To provide high-quality mental healthcare to rural veterans.
  • Intervention: The Rural Telemental Health (RTMH) program, stationed at the Portland VA Medical Center, reaches rural veterans in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington via telehealth.
  • Results: From 2010 to 2013, 1,754 veterans received diagnoses, therapy, medication management, and other mental health services.
University of Vermont Medical Center's Nursing Home Telepsychiatry Service
Updated/reviewed July 2018
  • Need: To improve the health status and access for rural nursing home patients in need of mental health services.
  • Intervention: The University of Vermont Medical Center provides telepsychiatry care and education to nursing homes in communities that face shortages of mental health professionals.
  • Results: These telepsychiatry consultations have eased the burden on nursing home residents by saving travel time, distance, and money it takes to travel to the nearest tertiary facility.
Patient Care Connect
Updated/reviewed December 2017
  • Need: Cancer patients living in the Deep South encounter multiple barriers in accessing regular cancer treatment.
  • Intervention: The University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center developed a program that uses lay patient navigators to support and direct patients to appropriate resources to overcome barriers to accessing care.
  • Results: The program has become a model for improving cancer care quality, decreasing unnecessary utilization (ER visits and hospitalizations), removing barriers to care, and enhancing patient satisfaction.

Promising Examples

funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Bridges to Health
Updated/reviewed October 2020
  • Need: To reduce barriers to accessing healthcare for immigrant farmworkers in the rural areas of Vermont.
  • Intervention: Bridges to Health uses care coordination and health promoters to reduce barriers to accessing healthcare on an individual level. The program offers targeted technical assistance to address systemic barriers at health access points in areas with high numbers of immigrant farmworkers.
  • Results: Some barriers to accessing healthcare have been reduced or removed for immigrant farmworkers in certain counties.
funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Physical and Behavioral Health Integrated Care Project
Updated/reviewed October 2020
  • Need: To provide unified and seamless access to primary care to adult patients in Pennsylvania's rural Clearfield and Jefferson counties who have been diagnosed with Serious and Persistent Mental Illness.
  • Intervention: A "one-stop shop" of healthcare services addressed the physical and behavioral health and medication needs of adults in the region.
  • Results: Results indicated better behavioral and physical health outcomes for participants as well as increased adherence to medications.
TelePrEP
Updated/reviewed September 2020
  • Need: To prevent new cases of HIV in rural Iowa.
  • Intervention: TelePrEP provides preventive care via telehealth and prescription delivery.
  • Results: Between February 2017 and August 2020, TelePrEP received 456 referrals, with 403 patients completing an initial visit.
Atlantic General Hospital Patient Centered Medical Home
Updated/reviewed August 2020
  • Need: Ways to reduce hospital admission rates, emergency department visits, and total cost of care while better accommodating patients of the Atlantic General Hospital Corporation.
  • Intervention: The hospital system applied a patient centered medical home care model to their 7 rural outpatient clinics located throughout the Eastern Shore of Maryland and southern Delaware.
  • Results: From the program's care coordination, care transitions, and intervention efforts, AGH saw improvements in quality-of-care processes, service use, and spending.
funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy SD eResidential Facilities Healthcare Services Access Project
Updated/reviewed August 2020
  • Need: To increase local health services to rural elderly populations in long-term care facilities located in four Midwest states near a tertiary care organization.
  • Intervention: A non-profit healthcare organization implemented telehealth services to provide acute care evaluations for long-term residents in their home facilities.
  • Results: The program increased local care as evidenced by improved year-over-year provider-determined available transfer data: 33%, 50%, 63% program years 1 through 3, respectively. From the success of the initial pilot implementation, the program has further matured into a long-term care offering that now reaches many other rural facilities located in 10 states across the nation.
funded by the Health Resources Services Administration Learning Exchange Reverse Demonstration (LERD) Model
Updated/reviewed July 2020
  • Need: To make it easier for rural nurses to continue their education by decreasing the need to travel.
  • Intervention: An innovative, online health assessment course uses telehealth to allow rural RN-BSN students to demonstrate skills acquisition.
  • Results: Rural participants had similar learning outcomes to those participating in the onsite version of the course, with fewer travel costs, less time away from work, and higher overall satisfaction.

For examples from other sources, see: