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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Healthcare quality

Maternity Care in California: An Environmental Scan
Examines factors affecting declining hospital-based maternity care services in California and identifies approaches to increase access and quality of care. Includes discussion of rural hospital closures and rural quality of care challenges, and highlights rural program models in California and Alaska.
Date: 02/2025
Sponsoring organization: California Hospital Association
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Nursing at an Inflection Point: Creating Systems of Care that Support and Value the Contributions of Nurses: 20th Annual Report to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Congress
Presents policy and programmatic recommendations to address valuing the impact of nursing care on patient outcomes, strengthening academic-practice partnerships, removing practice barriers for advanced practice registered nursing, and supporting the infusion of technology of nursing education and practice. Includes rural references throughout.
Date: 01/2025
Sponsoring organization: National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice
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Impact of a Diabetic Retinal Exam Screening Program on Quality Measure Gaps at a Family Medicine Practice
Examines access to diabetic retinal exams and the impact of their availability on quality measures at a rural family medicine center in southwestern Pennsylvania. Includes data on diabetic retinal screenings and associated factors related to exam access.
Author(s): Michael Hair, Alexandra Tardugno, Alyssa Greenaway, Chelse Wisenor, Autumn Stewart-Lynch
Citation: Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, 65(1)
Date: 01/2025
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Kansas Prenatal Care Report, 2023
Examines the adequacy of prenatal care for women in Kansas in 2023. Utilizes the Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization (APNCU) index to provide county-level and peer group statistics, including rural and frontier areas, on prenatal care, with further data breakdowns by age and insurance type. Includes map showing county rate of receiving inadequate prenatal care.
Author(s): Cathryn Savage
Date: 01/2025
Sponsoring organization: Kansas Department of Health and Environment
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Antibiotic Stewardship Detailed Data Summarization Tool for State Flex Programs: 2023 Annual Facility Survey
Tool to help state Flex programs summarize and utilize the Core and Detailed Annual Facility Survey antibiotic stewardship data. Provides a core element summary and a question-by-question summary of Critical Access Hospital responses.
Date: 01/2025
Sponsoring organization: Flex Monitoring Team
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Urban and Rural Differences in Cancer Treatment Disruption Among Patients With COVID-19: An Analysis of the US ASCO COVID-19 in Oncology Registry
Examines rural and urban experiences of cancer treatment delay or discontinuation associated with COVID-19 between March 2020 and September 2022, utilizing data of 3,797 cancer patients from the American Society of Clinical Oncology Survey on COVID-19 in Oncology Registry. Includes data breakdowns by demographic and clinical factors.
Author(s): Yu Chen Lin, Kea Turner, Oliver T. Nguyen, et al.
Citation: Cancer Medicine, 14(2), e70512
Date: 01/2025
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Travel Time as an Indicator of Poor Access to Care in Surgical Emergencies
Results of a study to determine how proximity to emergency care impacts disease complexity for patients with acute surgical conditions. Features statistics including sociodemographic and clinical characteristics by travel time, with breakdowns by rural, micropolitan, and metropolitan areas.
Author(s): Nina M. Clark, Alexandra H. Hernandez, Mia S. Bertalan, et al.
Citation: JAMA Network Open, 8(1), e2455258
Date: 01/2025
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Eighth Biennial Report 2025: Health Issues for the State of North Dakota
Updates the previous seven editions of this report with a comprehensive examination of healthcare workforce licensure data related to number of licensed professionals, locations, specialties, and demographics in rural and urban North Dakota. Includes three new chapters on indigenous health, women's and children's health, and the community impacts of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Additional links: Executive Summary
Date: 01/2025
Sponsoring organization: University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences
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Emergency Triage, Treat, and Transport (ET3) Model: Final Evaluation Report
Presents quantitative and qualitative results from the evaluation of the Emergency Triage, Treat, and Transport (ET3) Model, a voluntary model that allowed ambulance care teams to use alternate models of emergency healthcare to improve quality and lower care costs. Describes the characteristics of ET3 participants, the extent to which ET3 interventions successfully prevented emergency department (ED) visits, and how average Medicare Parts A and B spending for patients that received ET3 interventions compared to patients who had low acuity ED visits. Discusses challenges and barriers to delivering ET3 interventions. Includes rural references throughout.
Additional links: Findings at a Glance, Technical Appendix
Date: 01/2025
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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A Summary of State Innovation Models (SIM) Evaluation Results Across 17 States (2013-2020)
Summarizes evaluation results of the State Innovation Models (SIM), which examined the ability of 17 state governments to implement and test innovative value-based payment (VBP) healthcare models across multiple payers between 2013 and 2020. Presents findings regarding the implementation and impact of 29 delivery and payment models, including patient-centered medical homes, accountable care organizations, behavioral health integration, and more. Covers state contracting and consensus building, practice transformation, pediatric care, behavioral healthcare, beneficiary and provider perspectives, and more. Includes a section on payment model designs tailored to unique state needs, including rural populations, as well as rural references throughout.
Additional links: A Summary of State Innovation Models (SIM): Focus on State-Led Transformation - Findings at a Glance, Executive Summary, Findings at a Glance
Date: 01/2025
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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