Rural Health
Resources by Type: Document

As the South Grows: Weathering the Storm
Discusses the impact of environmental change on the social and economic systems of the South and how climate change may disproportionately harm the South's already struggling communities. Presents opportunities and supporting information for foundations, hoping to encourage climate-related philanthropy throughout the South.
Additional links: Executive Summary
Author(s): Ryan Schlegel, Stephanie Peng
Date: 11/2017
Sponsoring organization: National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy
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Catalyzing Medicaid-Public Health Collaboration to Reduce Childhood Obesity
Explains cross-sector interventions tested by 5 states - Arizona, Maryland, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas - participating in the Center for Health Care Strategies' Innovations in Childhood Obesity Initiative. Each state profile highlights how Medicaid and public health agencies are using innovative approaches to address childhood obesity in their high-risk communities. The Texas initiative focuses on childhood obesity in the rural, low-income population along the U.S./Mexico border.
Author(s): Alexandra Maul, Stephen A. Somers
Date: 11/2017
Sponsoring organization: Center for Health Care Strategies
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State Flex Program Rural Emergency Medical Services Assessment Strategies
Policy brief describing the emergency medical service (EMS) assessment projects and tools implemented by five State Flex Programs in Arizona, California, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Wisconsin to improve the integration of EMS into rural systems of care. Identifies differences in EMS focused State Flex activities and collaborations to improve local and regional EMS capacity and performance.
Author(s): Karen Pearson, John Gale, Sara Kahn-Troster, Andrew Coburn
Date: 11/2017
Sponsoring organization: Flex Monitoring Team
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Rural Unintentional Injuries: They're Not Accidents – They're Preventable
Examines the three leading causes of rural unintentional injuries: transportation injuries, poisonings, and falls. Discusses how rural areas compare to urban areas for these concerns, and identifies successful rural prevention strategies related to motor vehicle fatalities, non-drug poisonings, and falls.
Author(s): Kay Miller Temple
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 11/2017
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Emerging Strategies to Ensure Access to Health Care Services: Virtual Care Strategies
Discusses opportunities to use telehealth to improve healthcare access and delivery to vulnerable rural and urban communities. Includes recommendations from the American Hospital Association Task Force on Ensuring Access in Vulnerable Communities and details the benefits of telehealth services and potential policy solutions such as reimbursement, interaction of state and federal laws, broadband access, and federal research.
Date: 11/2017
Sponsoring organization: American Hospital Association
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Staff Sharing Arrangements for Local Public Health
Describes several case studies of local public health organizations' arrangements for sharing health directors, physicians, nurses, inspectors, social workers, or administration staff. Includes descriptions of such arrangements in public health agencies in rural areas of Webster County, Iowa and in 3 adjacent northwestern Oregon counties with a mixture of urban, suburban, and rural areas.
Author(s): Gerald Young, Joshua Franzel
Date: 11/2017
Sponsoring organizations: Center for State & Local Government Excellence, Public Health Accreditation Board
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Independent Grocery Stores in the Changing Landscape of the U.S. Food Retail Industry
Examines the performance of independent U.S. grocery stores in 2015 and reports on changes in the prevalence and performance of these stores between 2005 and 2015. Highlights the important role of rural independent grocery stores as employers, tax generators, and sources of healthy and specialty foods.
Author(s): Clare Cho, Richard Volpe
Date: 11/2017
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
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Comparing the Affordable Care Act's Financial Impact on Safety-Net Hospitals in States That Expanded Medicaid and Those That Did Not
Examines how Medicaid expansion affected the financial health of safety-net hospitals, and compares hospitals in expansion states with hospitals in non-expansion states. Addresses changes in operating margins, Medicaid inpatient days, Medicaid revenues and costs, and uncompensated care costs. Findings are based on data from Medicare's fiscal year 2012-2015 hospital cost reports.
Author(s): Allen Dobson, Joan E. DaVanzo, Randy Haught, Phap-Hoa Luu
Date: 11/2017
Sponsoring organization: Commonwealth Fund
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Concentrated Poverty Increased in Both Rural and Urban Areas Since 2000, Reversing Declines in the 1990s
Reports on trends in poverty rates between the 2000 Decennial Census and 2011-2015 American Community Survey (ACS). Examines spatially concentrated poverty, with a map showing county-level poverty rates for nonmetropolitan counties. Compares metropolitan and nonmetropolitan poverty rates by race/ethnicity.
Author(s): Brian C. Thiede, Hyojung Kim, Matthew Valasik
Date: 11/2017
Sponsoring organization: Carsey School of Public Policy
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Ensuring Access with a Hospital's Conversion to a Freestanding Emergency Department
Outlines Ellijay, Georgia-based North Georgia Medical Center's transition from a traditional community hospital to a freestanding emergency department (ED). Shares administrative, legal, and logistical challenges that, once overcome, resulted in Piedmont Mountainside Hospital Emergency Services - a successful, community-focused, freestanding ED.
Date: 11/2017
Sponsoring organization: American Hospital Association Rural Health Services
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