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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by State: North Carolina

Racial and Rural-Urban Disparities in Maternal Cardiac Disease Care in North Carolina: A Call to Action
Analyzes cardiac-specific severe maternal morbidity of rural and urban, as well as Black and White, populations using data from the 2019 North Carolina State Inpatient Database. Provides statistics on delivery hospitalizations in North Carolina, including births with preexisting maternal cardiac disease, maternal cardiac disease outcomes, and patient characteristics. Discusses disparities in comorbidities, cardiac categories, and health outcomes.
Author(s): Julia M. Moyett, Linda M. Zambrano Guevara, Divya P. Mallampati, et al.
Citation: North Carolina Medical Journal, 84(4), 249-256
Date: 07/2023
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Leveraging Policy Changes Made in Response to COVID-19 to Advance Telehealth and Novel Treatment Approaches for People Who Use Opioids: Qualitative Perspective from Two Rural North Carolina Communities
Results of interviews with 10 providers of healthcare and supportive services for people who use opioids in rural counties in North Carolina. Discusses topics including COVID-19's influence on telehealth, models for opioid treatment delivery in rural areas, and common barriers to service access. Identifies strategies for facilitating services in rural areas, including expanded telehealth access and implementation of other service delivery models.
Author(s): Hillary Chen, Brandon A. Knettel, Lisa Macon Harrison, et al.
Citation: North Carolina Medical Journal, 84(5), 54-60
Date: 07/2023
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North Carolina Counties Designated Health Professional Shortage Areas
County-level map of Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) in North Carolina. Includes Primary Care, Mental/Behavioral Health, and Dental Care HPSAs.
Date: 06/2023
Sponsoring organization: North Carolina Office of Rural Health
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Rural Relocators: COVID-19 and Rural Population Growth
Compares population growth in rural and urban North Carolina in context of COVID-19 using U.S. Census and NC Office of State Budget and Management data. Identifies trends before the COVID-19 public health emergency and during its first and second years, and discusses contributing factors. Presents county-level maps of population change as well as graphs comparing data of rural, suburban, and urban counties, and also provides a table of county-level population data.
Date: 06/2023
Sponsoring organization: NC Rural Center
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Development and Evaluation of the Delivery-Based HEALED Produce Rx Program for Uninsured Patients With Diabetes in Rural Eastern North Carolina
A program evaluation brief that provides an overview of the Healthy Eating and Active Lifestyle to Enhance Diabetes management (HEALED) program that surveyed patients in 2019 and then delivered plant-based foods to 40 participants as a part of a produce prescription (PRx) program in 2021. Reports on how PRx programs and related resources such as cooking instructions can positively impact diabetes patients. Discusses the importance of performing a needs assessment, pilot programming, and a formative evaluation in rural and underserved programs to remove food access barriers such as lack of transportation and involve participants in their own wellness journeys.
Author(s): Lauren R. Sastre, Brandon Stroud, Elisa Smith, Khadijah Hendrix, Olivia McBride
Citation: Preventing Chronic Disease, 20
Date: 06/2023
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Training the Primary Care Workforce to Deliver Team-Based Care in Underserved Areas: The Teaching Health Center Program
Provides an overview of the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (THCGME) program. Describes the THCGME program's outcomes in training primary care medical and dental providers, the practice settings of THCGME family medicine graduates, and services provided by program graduates. Profiles four THCGME programs, including three programs that serve tribal or rural areas. Discusses challenges facing Teaching Health Centers, proposed solutions, and key takeaways and recommendations for policymakers.
Author(s): Emily Hawes, Jacob Rains, Candice Chen, Erin Fraher
Date: 06/2023
Sponsoring organization: Milbank Memorial Fund
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Rural NC at a Glance
Fact sheet on North Carolina's rural counties. Provides statistics on topics including population and age, race and ethnicity, poverty, income, education, health workforce, uninsured population, employment and economy, and agriculture.
Date: 05/2023
Sponsoring organization: NC Rural Center
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Characterizing Social Insecurity in a Rural North Carolina Emergency Department
Results of a study exploring, characterizing, and quantifying the social insecurity profile of emergency department patients at a rural teaching hospital in southeastern North Carolina with a large Native American population. Uses data from a survey questionnaire administered in May and June 2018, focusing on food insecurity, transportation insecurity, and exposure to violence.
Author(s): Elizabeth Gignac, Godwin Y. Dogbey, Aleksandr Pevtsov, et al.
Citation: Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, 24(3), 538–546
Date: 05/2023
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Community Health Centers Seek to Prepare Medicaid Beneficiaries, and Themselves, for the Risks Ahead
Explores how Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), including an FQHC serving rural North Carolina, are helping Medicaid beneficiaries stay enrolled or find alternate coverage during the post-COVID-19 redetermination process. Describes how operations of these FQHCs have been changed by funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and pandemic-related regulatory flexibilities.
Date: 05/2023
Sponsoring organization: Commonwealth Fund
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Factors Associated with Lengths-of-Stay for Inpatients with Substance Use Disorders
Policy brief identifying factors associated with inpatient length-of-stay (LOS) for the treatment of substance use disorders (SUDs) and exploring whether there are systematic differences in LOS for rural and urban residents. Includes statistics on characteristics of stays for a primary SUD diagnosis in Kentucky, North Carolina, Vermont, and Washington in 2018, with breakdowns by Mental Health Professional Shortage Area and rural or urban location, and selected factors on LOS for an SUD diagnosis, with breakdowns by mental diagnoses, chronic conditions, and sociodemographic measures.
Author(s): Curt Mueller, Craig Holden, Shena Popat, Alana Knudson
Date: 04/2023
Sponsoring organization: ETSU/NORC Rural Health Research Center
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