Rural Project Examples Addressing Service delivery models

Auburn University Rural Health Initiative

Added May 2024

Need: To expand healthcare access in rural Alabama communities.
Intervention: The Auburn University Rural Health Initiative is working with communities across Alabama to develop a healthcare model that includes primary care, substance use disorder treatment and mental health treatment via state-of-the-art telehealth technologies, coupled with health and wellness programs and services provided by faculty and students.
Results: The first telehealth care station, located in LaFayette, Alabama, began offering services in April 2023. Within the first year after opening, clinicians in the telehealth station conducted 592 patient consultations and issued 720 prescriptions.

Updated/reviewed April 2024

Need: To implement coordinated, integrated, and holistic healthcare to improve patient health and engagement and to reduce the overall cost of medical services in Maine.
Intervention: The Northern Light Health ACO network launched with a focus on patient-centered care to improve overall wellness, reduce healthcare costs, and improve patient engagement and quality.
Results: Through care coordination, Northern Light Health is enhancing provider efficiency and supporting a team approach to delivering care, leading to improved patient engagement and healthcare quality, and lowering the overall cost of care.

Updated/reviewed April 2024

Need: To connect patients to resources in order to reduce use of emergency services, emergency department visits, and hospital readmissions.
Intervention: Patients receive support (by in-person visit, phone call, or telehealth visit) from a paramedic, community health nurse, peer recovery specialist, and pharmacist.
Results: Between July 2016 and March 2024, the program made 1,098 patient contacts and continued to see a reduction in emergency department and inpatient visits and costs.

Updated/reviewed December 2023

Need: To ensure the quality and sustainability of rural West Central Missouri's health services through the use of technology.
Intervention: The Health Care Coalition of Lafayette County convened a Health Information Technology (HIT) workgroup to establish electronic medical and prescription records, telemedicine capabilities, and training for Lafayette County and surrounding areas.
Results: The workgroup fully equipped a local emergency department with HIT, launched electronic prescriptions for nearly a dozen Lafayette County providers, and identified acute needs hindering the adoption of electronic health records.

Added November 2023

Need: To fill gaps in care for rural communities in southeastern Virginia while providing clinical placement opportunities for nursing students.
Intervention: A free mobile health clinic staffed by Old Dominion University nursing students that visits rural schools and other community centers.
Results: Hundreds of students have gained hands-on rural experience working in the clinic since its launch.

Updated/reviewed August 2023

Need: To bring medication-assisted treatment to rural and underserved areas in Colorado.
Intervention: Six mobile health units travel to 32 counties and offer services like telehealth sessions, counseling, naloxone, and referrals to wraparound services.
Results: The units traveled more than 100,000 miles from January 2020 to January 2021.

Added August 2023

Need: To reduce poor maternal and infant health outcomes and improve access to prenatal and postpartum care for at-risk pregnant women and recent mothers in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
Intervention: A home visitation program that uses community paramedics to deliver wrap-around care to women experiencing high-risk pregnancies and/or social and environmental challenges.
Results: Since 2018, more than 200 women have been served by the program.

Updated/reviewed May 2023

Need: To help adults and children in rural South Dakota prevent or manage their diabetes.
Intervention: The Facing Diabetes Project offered medical visits for adults and provided prevention and education sessions for the local 4th and 5th graders.
Results: Many adults and children in the region felt better equipped to choose healthy foods, exercise regularly, and manage their stress: all factors that can help prevent diabetes or decrease its effects.

Updated/reviewed May 2023

Need: Out of 79 Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) surveyed in Minnesota in 2015, behavioral health was the most frequently cited service requested.
Intervention: In response, Rural Health Innovations launched the Minnesota Integrative Behavioral Health Program. This initiative engaged representatives across all sectors in health integration between hospital, primary care, and community services.
Results: Strategy sessions resulted in the creation of resource directories to improve care coordination, evaluation measurements to document results, and an overall better understanding of integrative care challenges.

Updated/reviewed March 2023

Need: Improving outcomes for Outer and Lower Cape Cod residents in need of social, behavioral health, and substance use disorder services while reducing the burden and costs to town agencies and hospital emergency rooms.
Intervention: The Community Resource Navigator Program works with local social services, town agencies, faith-based institutions, hospitals, the criminal justice system, and others to identify and connect clients to needed services.
Results: Clients are gaining access to the care they were once lacking, as measured by improvements in self-sufficiency. The program also helps community partners and stakeholders work together to reduce the impact of risks associated with behavioral health symptoms, substance use disorder, and social determinants of health.