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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Health systems

Emerging Strategies to Ensure Access to Health Care Services: Frontier Health System
Discusses the challenges of providing care in frontier communities and offers solutions for improving access to and delivery of care. Proposes the creation of a frontier-specific accountable care organization (ACO), the Frontier Health System (FHS), that provides traditional ACO services along with transportation, swing beds, home-based care, expanded visiting nurse services, and more.
Date: 11/2017
Sponsoring organization: American Hospital Association
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Innovations in Rural Health System Development: Federally Qualified Health Center Initiatives
Reports on Maine's Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). Discusses strategies for workforce recruitment and retention, serving high-need patient populations, addressing critical community needs, and providing services that address the social determinants of health. Provides various examples of programs from across the state.
Author(s): Sara Kahn-Troster, Amanda Burgess, Andrew Coburn
Date: 09/2017
Sponsoring organizations: Catherine Cutler Institute, Maine Health Access Foundation
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An Emerging Approach to Payment Reform: All-Payer Global Budgets for Large Safety-Net Hospital Systems
Examines the possibility of implementing global all-payer budgets in safety net hospital systems throughout the U.S. Provides background on the all-payer model, and discusses the experiences of rural hospitals in Maryland and Pennsylvania, where current global budgeting demonstrations are ongoing.
Author(s): Joshua M. Sharfstein, Sule Gerovich, Elizabeth Moriarty, David Chin
Date: 08/2017
Sponsoring organization: Commonwealth Fund
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Telehealth: Delivering the Right Care, at the Right Place, at the Right Time
Highlights case examples of telehealth use in hospitals and health systems. Provides an overview and information on impacts, lessons learned, and future goals segments. Includes rural specific programs such as Intermountain Healthcare in Utah and Avera ePharmacy in South Dakota.
Date: 07/2017
Sponsoring organization: American Hospital Association
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The Hub-and-Spoke Organization Design Revisited: A Lifeline for Rural Hospitals
Provides an overview of the hub-and-spoke organization design and how Willis-Knighton Health System in Louisiana used it to partner with rural hospitals in their region. Discusses the model's outcomes and implications for rural hospitals.
Author(s): James K. Elrod, John L. Fortenberry, Jr.
Citation: BMC Health Services Research, 17(Suppl 4), 795
Date: 2017
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Innovations in Rural Health System Development: Recruiting and Retaining Maine's Health Care Workforce
Illustrates examples of rural-focused medical education programs to support an adequate supply of physicians in rural Maine. Discusses behavioral and oral health workforce development, and promising programs utilizing other types of healthcare workers such as community paramedics and community health workers (CHWs) to increase the availability and accessibility of healthcare in rural Maine and in other rural regions of the U.S.
Author(s): Amanda Burgess, Andrew F. Coburn
Date: 11/2016
Sponsoring organizations: Maine Health Access Foundation, Maine Rural Health Research Center
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Innovations in Rural Health System Development: Governance
Discusses the need for collaboration between healthcare facilities and their communities, including ideas for new approaches to governance to help make these transitions happen. Provides examples of hospital/health system collaborations and population health programs from throughout the U.S.
Author(s): Sara Kahn-Troster, Andrew F. Coburn
Date: 11/2016
Sponsoring organizations: Maine Health Access Foundation, Maine Rural Health Research Center
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Innovations in Rural Health System Development: Moving Rural Health Systems to Value-Based Payment
Offers examples of rural health system transformation models and strategies from Maine and other regions of the U.S. to assist rural communities in moving forward with value-based payment systems.
Author(s): Sara Kahn-Troster, Andrew F. Coburn
Date: 10/2016
Sponsoring organizations: Maine Health Access Foundation, Maine Rural Health Research Center
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Facilitators of Health Systems Change for Tobacco Dependence Treatment: A Qualitative Study of Stakeholders' Perceptions
An evaluation of tobacco treatment programs in rural and urban health systems in Minnesota that demonstrates they can implement extensive changes in a short time to enhance treatment of tobacco dependence. Emphasizes the use of electronic health records and healthcare quality measures to improve the healthcare environment for tobacco dependence.
Author(s): Amanda L. Jansen, Traci R. Capesius, Randi Lachter, Lija O. Greenseid, Paula A. Keller
Citation: BMC Health Services Research, 14, 575
Date: 2014
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Rate of Return on Capital Investments at Small Rural Hospitals
Discusses whether the aging of rural facilities is due to a lower rate of return on capital investment at small rural hospitals. Also examines the impact of membership in a hospital system on access to capital leading to updated buildings and equipment.
Author(s): Jeffrey Stensland, Astrid Knott, Ira Moscovice, Gestur Davidson
Date: 01/2003
Sponsoring organization: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
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