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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Healthcare needs and services

Why Use Swing Beds? Conversations with Hospital Administrators and Staff
Includes interviews of hospital administrators and staff about the use of swing beds, including Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs). Addresses the role of swing beds in patient care, swing bed volume and financial considerations, swing beds in the context of all community post-acute skilled care, and swing beds as a benefit for community residents.
Author(s): Victoria A. Freeman, Andrea Radford
Date: 04/2012
Sponsoring organization: North Carolina Rural Health Research Program
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The Last Frontier: Innovative Efforts to Reduce Colorectal Cancer Disparities Among the Remote Alaska Native Population
Measures changes in rate of colorectal cancer screening among the Alaska Native population in rural and remote Alaska between 2005 and 2010. Reports the impact of intervention programs, such as itinerant endoscopy screening clinics and outreach by patient navigators, on rates of screenings.
Author(s): Diana Redwood, Ellen Provost, David Perdue, Donald Haverkamp, David Espey
Citation: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, 75(3), 474-480
Date: 03/2012
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Stimulant Use Trajectories and the Longitudinal Risk of Heavy Drinking: Findings From a Rural Population-Based Study
Examines the longitudinal relationships between heavy drinking days and dormant sequences of powder cocaine, crack cocaine, and methamphetamine use among rural residents. Study participants were located in rural communities in Ohio, Arkansas, and Kentucky.
Author(s): Tyrone F. Borders, Brenda M. Booth
Citation: Addictive Behaviors, 37(3), 269-272
Date: 03/2012
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Suicide Among Patients in the Veterans Affairs Health System: Rural-Urban Differences in Rates, Risks, and Methods
Examines rural and urban differences in suicide rates, risks, and methods in veterans. Provides characteristic data for veterans by sex, age, psychiatric condition, risk days, distance to Veterans Affairs mental healthcare, and more.
Author(s): John F. McCarthy, Frederic C. Blow, Rosalinda V. Ignacio, et al.
Citation: American Journal of Public Health, 102(Suppl 1), S111–S117
Date: 03/2012
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An Evidence-Based Cessation Strategy Using Rural Smokers' Experiences With Tobacco
Describes personal narratives of current and former smokers living in an economically distressed, rural area of Appalachian Kentucky to identify effective population-based strategies to reach rural smokers and motivate them to quit.
Author(s): Karen M. Butler, Susan Hedgecock, Rachael A. Record, et al.
Citation: Nursing Clinics of North America, 47(1), 31-43
Date: 03/2012
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Handbook for EMS Medical Directors
Provides a baseline overview of key roles and responsibilities to assist current and prospective medical directors in performing their duties. Includes rural and volunteer agencies.
Date: 03/2012
Sponsoring organization: Federal Emergency Management Agency
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Adolescent Alcohol Use: Do Risk and Protective Factors Explain Rural-Urban Differences?
Examines alcohol use among rural and urban adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17. Controls for a broad range of key risk and protective factors and compares rural/urban differences.
Additional links: Policy Brief
Author(s): John A. Gale, Jennifer D. Lenardson, David Lambert, David Hartley
Date: 03/2012
Sponsoring organization: Maine Rural Health Research Center
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Primary Care and Public Health: Exploring Integration to Improve Population Health
Provides a detailed portrait for integrating primary healthcare and public health to move the nation toward a more efficient health system. Includes some examples from rural areas.
Additional links: Read Online
Date: 03/2012
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Delivering Free Healthcare to Rural Central Appalachia Population: The Case of the Health Wagon
Describes the Health Wagon, a full mobile medical clinic delivering free healthcare to those in rural Southwest Virginia in Central Appalachia.
Author(s): Teresa Gardner, Paul Gavaza, Paula Meade, Donna Adkins
Citation: Rural and Remote Health, 12(1), 2035
Date: 03/2012
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Effect of Outpatient Visits and Discharge Destination on Potentially Preventable Readmissions for Congestive Heart Failure and Bacterial Pneumonia
Explores the relationship between potentially preventable hospital readmissions, discharge destination, time to follow-up care, use of outpatient follow-up care and rural versus urban residence of the patient.
Additional links: Policy Brief
Author(s): Marilyn G. Klug, Kyle Muus
Date: 03/2012
Sponsoring organization: Upper Midwest Rural Health Research Center
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