Rural Project Examples Addressing Service delivery models

SCDMH Emergency Department and Community Telepsychiatry Programs

Updated/reviewed April 2025

Need: To expand access to psychiatric services throughout South Carolina, with a focus on underserved and rural communities.
Intervention: South Carolina Department of Mental Health (SCDMH) created the SCDMH Emergency Department and Community Telepsychiatry programs to expand telepsychiatry access for patients in emergency departments and in various settings across the state.
Results: The program has improved access, affordability, and provided quality care for patients with mental illness living in rural and underserved areas of South Carolina.

Added December 2024

Need: To provide basic pregnancy-related and preventive health services to women in the Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Intervention: A mobile clinic travels to different communities and provides basic preventive care, contraception, and pregnancy testing and ultrasounds.
Results: Since the program began, clinical staff have provided services to nearly 6,000 women.

Updated/reviewed November 2024

Need: To reduce rural Oklahoma patients' risks for heart disease and stroke.
Intervention: Heartland OK was a care coordination model in 20 counties.
Results: Using a team-based care model increased patients' ability to reduce their blood pressure or achieve blood pressure control.

Updated/reviewed October 2024

Need: To increase access to specialty care for rural veterans living with HIV.
Intervention: The HIV Telehealth Collaborative Care (TCC) study connects these patients with HIV specialists via clinical video telehealth or VA video connect and works to create shared care relationships with primary care teams in rural areas.
Results: The HIV TCC program provides HIV specialty care access to rural veterans in a sustainable manner with infrastructure, mentorship, and capacity building.

Updated/reviewed October 2024

Need: To bring preventive care and other services to rural Missouri patients with chronic illnesses and difficulties accessing primary care.
Intervention: Community paramedics and community health workers make home visits and provide basic care, home assessments, and medication reconciliation and facilitate telehealth visits.
Results: Patients experienced improved access to care, health status, and compliance with medication regimens along with increased patient engagement, satisfaction, and access to community resources.

Updated/reviewed October 2024

Need: Critical Access Hospitals in Idaho were not able to afford a fixed MRI system.
Intervention: The hospitals partnered to purchase a mobile MRI unit to travel among facilities.
Results: The MRI unit went into service in 2012, providing hundreds of scans per month and traveling among six member hospitals in rural Idaho.

Updated/reviewed September 2024

Need: To increase access to healthcare throughout Alabama.
Intervention: The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) has created telehealth communications at county health departments.
Results: ADPH telehealth services are currently available in 65 of 67 county health departments.

Updated/reviewed July 2024

Need: To provide healthcare for children and adults at-risk for genetic conditions from the rural, uninsured Amish and Mennonite communities in southern Pennsylvania.
Intervention: A clinic that serves as a comprehensive medical practice for children and adults (primarily from the Amish and Mennonite communities) with rare, inherited, or complex disorders.
Results: In 2023, about 1,700 active patients with more than 450 unique genetic mutations were treated at the Clinic for Special Children.

Added July 2024

Need: To increase access to preventive dental care among children living in rural Arizona.
Intervention: A nonprofit organization formed to offer free, school-based preventive dental services to children in two rural Arizona counties.
Results: Throughout the 2023-24 school year, Tooth B.U.D.D.S. provided preventive services to 1,710 students in rural Graham and Greenlee Counties. Program staff use a telehealth platform to connect children to local dentists for follow-up care.

Updated/reviewed June 2024

Need: Clinicians in rural and underserved areas are often unprepared to provide comprehensive medical-forensic examinations for patients who present for care following a sexual assault.
Intervention: The MDPH TeleSANE Center uses secure telehealth software to connect sexual assault nurse examiners to clinicians and patients in hospitals across Massachusetts — including four in rural counties — offering expert clinical guidance and support before, during, and after examinations.
Results: Clinicians report that the service gives them increased confidence throughout the examination process. To date, the MDPH TeleSANE Center has assisted in the care of over 960 patients.