Skip to main content
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Hospitals

MedPAC Comment on CMS's Proposed Rule on the Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility PPS for FY 2020
Comments on an April 24, 2019, Federal Register proposed rule updating payments for Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities (IRFs) and IRF quality reporting. Addresses proposed changes to the wage index system that would adjust for geographical differences, potentially impacting rural areas.
Date: 06/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
view details
Coteau des Prairies (CDP) Health System: Improving Quality of Care
Features a Critical Access Hospital (CAH) in Sisseton, South Dakota that worked with the Small Rural Hospital Transition (SRHT) project on care transitions and quality improvement. Highlights their successes improving finances, internal communication, patient satisfaction, physician documentation, and quality improvement infrastructure.
Date: 06/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Rural Health Resource Center
view details
Report to Congress on Medicaid and CHIP, June 2019
Semi-annual report to Congress from the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC). Addresses the Medicaid Prescription Drug Program and Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments to safety-net hospitals, therapeutic foster care coverage, state efforts to improve Medicaid integrity, and challenges facing Medicaid in Puerto Rico.
Date: 06/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission
view details
Life 'til the End: Hospice in Rural America
Describes the role of hospice in rural communities. Features a rural Iowa family sharing how hospice helped them care for their father at the end of his life. Also highlights a Critical Access Hospital (CAH) in Wisconsin that provides hospice care, explaining how this service supports the hospital's mission to provide care to the community.
Author(s): Tami Lichtenberg
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 06/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
view details
Rural Success: High-Performing CAHs Take Action for Antibiotic Stewardship
Highlights antibiotic stewardship program best practices and strategies from Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) based on a series of focus groups. Includes antibiotic stewardship results from a CAH facility survey.
Citation: MBQIP Monthly, 1-3
Date: 06/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Stratis Health
view details
Investing in America's Health Care
Recording of a U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing on a wide variety of healthcare bills addressing funding for community health centers, teaching health centers, the National Health Service Corps, a tribal diabetes program, the National Quality Forum, Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments, and more. Includes testimony from Shasta Community Health Center, Vidant Health, SPAN Parent Advocacy Network, Medicare Rights Center, and others.
Additional links: C. Dean Germano Testimony, Diana Autin Testimony, Fred Riccardi Testimony, Michael Waldrum Testimony, Thomas Barker Testimony
Date: 06/2019
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organization: House Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Health
view details
Are Rural and Urban Emergency Departments Equally Prepared to Reduce Avoidable Hospitalizations?
Presents the results of a cross-sectional, web-based survey sent to medical directors and/or nurse managers from 135 hospital-based emergency departments (EDs) in Michigan. Examines the rural and urban differences in the presence of clinical pathways, services to reduce admissions, barriers connecting patients to outpatient services, and the availability of resources to reduce or prevent avoidable admissions.
Author(s): Margaret B. Greenwood-Ericksen, Michelle L. Macy, Jason Ham, et al.
Citation: Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, 20(3), 477-484
Date: 05/2019
Type: Document
view details
North Dakota Hospital Assessment: 2017 Flex Chartbook
Presents the results of a 2017 survey of North Dakota Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs). Includes information on hospital characteristics, hospital foundations, relationships with tertiary hospitals, telehealth services, and issues facing CAHs ranked by severity. Covers hospital impacts from the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) program.
Author(s): Robin Besse, Mandi-Leigh Peterson, Lynette Dickson
Date: 05/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: University of North Dakota Center for Rural Health
view details
A Picture of the Loss of Rural Obstetrical Service in Alabama 1980 to 2019
County-level maps showing counties offering obstetric service in 1980 and those offering service as of May 2019.
Date: 05/2019
Type: Map/Mapping System
Sponsoring organization: Alabama Office of Primary Care and Rural Health
view details
The Association of a Rural Hospital Closure with 30-Day Post Hospital Discharge Mortality from Selected Conditions
Poster presentation describing a 60-month-long study using data from the all-payer claims database from rural counties in one Southeastern state. Includes statistics for pre-closure characteristics of 3,029 study participants, with breakdowns by diagnoses of acute myocardial infarction, stroke, sepsis, and trauma.
Author(s): Melinda A. Merrell, Janice Probst, Kevin Bennett, Bankole Olatosi, Jeffrey Hall
Date: 05/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural and Minority Health Research Center (formerly the South Carolina Rural Health Research Center)
view details