Skip to main content
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Access

The Opioid Crisis: Leadership and Innovation in the States
Presents the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) hearing on state policy approaches to combating the opioid crisis. Features testimony from the governors of Maryland and Oregon detailing the opioid interventions implemented in their states.
Date: 03/2018
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organization: Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions
view details
2017 Transportation Trends Topic Spotlight: Rural Travel Training
Presents a report on rural travel training programs. Discusses the challenges and opportunities rural elderly and people with disabilities face in navigating their communities. Features several examples of programs exhibiting best practices.
Date: 03/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Aging and Disability Transportation Center
view details
Competition and Premium Costs in Single-insurer Marketplaces: A Study of Five Rural States
Examines participation in the individual health insurance market from 2010, before the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), through 2017 and analyzes premium changes in 5 rural states with a single-insurer health insurance marketplace. States include Alabama, Alaska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wyoming.
Author(s): Jon R. Gabel, Heidi Whitmore, Matthew Green, Sam Stromberg
Date: 03/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Commonwealth Fund
view details
Providing Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support For Rural Americans
Policy brief focused on Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support (DSMES) in rural areas. Provides an overview of factors that impact rural access to and use of DSMES. Identifies policy options to improve rural access to DSMES and provides two brief case studies.
Date: 03/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
view details
Developing a "Toolkit" to Measure Implementation of Concurrent Palliative Care in Rural Community Cancer Centers
Reports on the implementation of an early palliative care telehealth model identified as ENABLE (Educate, Nurture, Advise, Before Life Ends) for patients with recently diagnosed cancer and their caregivers in 4 rural cancer centers. Describes the measures used to determine early palliative care implementation and their development and testing, and the challenges and lessons learned in the implementation process.
Author(s): Lisa Zubkoff, J. Nicholas Dionne-Odom, Maria Pisu, et al.
Citation: Palliative & Supportive Care, 16(1), 60-72
Date: 02/2018
Type: Document
view details
Differences in Access to and Use of Electronic Personal Health Information Between Rural and Urban Residents in the United States
Analyzes nationally representative data to detect geographic differences in access to and utilization of health information technology (HIT). Compares rural and urban locations on internet accessibility and sociodemographic factors, including sex, age, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, annual income, and health insurance coverage.
Author(s): Alexandra Greenberg, Danielle Haney, Kelly Blake, Richard Moser, Bradford Hesse
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 34(S1), s30-s38
Date: 02/2018
Type: Document
view details
Geographic Diffusion and Implementation of Acute Care Surgery: An Uneven Solution to the National Emergency General Surgery Crisis
Analyzes a survey on emergency general surgery care administered to 2,811 acute care hospitals in the U.S. in 2015. Examines the uptake of acute care surgery (ACS) by geography and further describes areas that are slow to implement ACS, which includes implications for rural communities. Includes county-level maps showing the distribution of hospitals with and without ACS and access to a hospital with ACS based on race and ethnicity and socioeconomic characteristics.
Author(s): Jasmine A. Khubchandani, Angela M. Ingraham, Vijaya T. Daniel, et al.
Citation: JAMA Surgery, 153(2), 150-159
Date: 02/2018
Type: Document
view details
Geographic Access to Mammography Facilities and Frequency of Mammography Screening
Explores a study on the role location plays in mammography utilization. Draws data from the Wisconsin Women's Health Study and uses Rural Urban Commuting Area (RUCA) codes to determine the distance women would have to travel to a mammography facility.
Author(s): Patricia I. Jewett, Ronald E. Gangnon, Elena Elkin, et al.
Citation: Annals of Epidemiology, 28(2), 65-71
Date: 02/2018
Type: Document
view details
Hospitals and Health Systems Ensuring Access in Their Communities: A Compendium of Case Examples
Identifies 9 primary strategies used by hospitals to increase access to healthcare services in rural and urban areas and offers examples of each. Covers virtual care options such as telehealth, emergency and urgent care models such as freestanding emergency departments (EDs), rural hospital networks, partnerships with Indian Health Service providers, and strategies to address social determinants of health.
Date: 02/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: American Hospital Association
view details
Current State of Child Health in Rural America: How Context Shapes Children's Health
Describes the health status of children in rural America. Highlights the components of the rural environment that may affect children's health and health outcomes, including economic characteristics, healthcare provider availability, behavior health risks, and usage of health services.
Author(s): Janice C. Probst, Judith C. Barker, Alexandra Enders, Paula Gardiner
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 34(Suppl 1), s3–s12
Date: 02/2018
Type: Document
view details