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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Needs assessment methods and resources

Tribal TANF-Child Welfare Coordination: Collaboration Assessment Tool
Details assessment criteria for collaborations between Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Child Welfare Coordination (TT-CW) programs. Provides instructions for conducting the assessment and includes a copy of the tool in the appendix.
Date: 03/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Tribal TANF-Child Welfare
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Using Data to Define Rural Populations
Offers a step-by-step guide for developing a rural community baseline dataset, and identifies links to helpful resources and existing datasets, with the intent to help State Offices of Rural Health (SORH) focus on the demographics influencing health and the health needs of the rural communities within their state.
Date: 02/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health
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Template for Emergency Medical Services Informed Community Self Determination (ICSD)
Includes an agency pre-visit checklist, a sample Program Agreement, and evaluation tools to help outside evaluators report on issues that might affect a community's EMS performance and level of care. Intended for rural, relatively isolated areas with few EMS resource options.
Author(s): Kevin McGinnis, Gary Wingrove
Date: 02/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Association of State EMS Officials
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A Model for Assessing Necessary Conditions for Rural Health Care's Mobile Health Readiness: Qualitative Assessment of Clinician-Perceived Barriers
Explores organizational readiness to adopt mobile health (mHealth) technologies such as Fitbit, My Fitness Pal, and Apple iWatch, among others. Reports on interviews with 13 clinicians from different specialty areas and their perceived barriers to adopt mHealth technologies, including unfamiliarity, clinician time, and electronic medical record and data keeping. Identifies a gap between patient usage versus healthcare organization usage of mHealth and presents a needs assessment model to successfully implement mHealth in unique ways to improve rural healthcare delivery.
Author(s): Bryan Weichelt, Casper Bendixsen, Timothy Patrick
Citation: JMIR mHealth uHealth, 7(11)
Date: 11/2019
Type: Document
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Needs Assessment Methodologies in Determining Treatment Capacity for Substance Use Disorders: Final Report
Presents the results from an environmental scan reviewing the literature on needs assessment methods and substance use disorder (SUD) needs assessment reports representing diverse interests, including rural and urban areas, researchers, government agencies, and private consultants. Highlights best practices for conducting SUD needs assessments, identifies gaps and opportunities for improvement in the available data, and discusses why SUD needs assessments are necessary.
Date: 09/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Office of Disability, Aging and Long-Term Care Policy, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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Resources for Rural Community Health Needs Assessments and Community Health Improvement Plans
Provides basic information for rural health stakeholders interested in improving population health and health equity in rural communities through a community health improvement process (CHIP). Clarifies the differences between a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) and a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP), both components of the community health improvement process. Includes links to more in-depth information.
Date: 08/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health
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A Guide for Rural Health Care Collaboration and Coordination
Describes how rural hospitals, community health centers, local public health departments, and other organizations can work together to identify health needs in their community and develop partnerships and strategies to help address these needs. Identifies areas of collaboration and coordination. Includes networking and collaboration case studies in rural Missouri and North Dakota. Provides a template and discussion questions for developing partnerships.
Date: 08/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health Resources and Services Administration
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Planning, Conducting and Leveraging Primary Care Office Needs Assessments
Issue brief highlighting components unique to primary care offices (PCOs) and offering resources on promising practices. Intended to build knowledge regarding PCO needs assessment.
Citation: NOSORH Issue Brief, 1(3)
Date: 07/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health
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Measuring Access to Care in National Surveys: Implications for Rural Health
Policy position brief reviewing access measures used in major national surveys and discussing implications for rural research on access to care. Features tables showing surveys, populations studied, and geographic measures; example survey questions for each access domain; and access to care measures in nationally-representative surveys.
Author(s): Carrie Henning-Smith, Ashley M. Hernandez, Hannah Neprash, Megan Lahr
Date: 06/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
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Idaho Community Paramedic Toolkit
Toolkit providing step-by-step instructions on how to develop, operate, and evaluate a Community Paramedic program. Includes tools, resources, guidelines, and recommendations.
Author(s): Anne Montera, Christopher Montera, Pat Songer, Mikaela Greene
Date: 05/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Idaho Department of Health and Welfare
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