Dr. Clint MacKinney explains the challenges rural hospitals face with current payment systems and the potential that value-based payment holds for meeting rural communities’ needs.
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Topics: Healthcare business and finance
The Codes of Care: How Words and Numbers Have Transformative Power for Rural Healthcare
The greatest opportunity to tell the rural healthcare delivery story is an opportunity often missed — and that opportunity involves translating clinical documentation into medical codes. In addition to describing how the story and quality of clinical care gets translated from words into alphanumeric numbers, medical coding experts also pointed to aligned efforts to familiarize those in graduate medical education settings with the impact of their clinical documentation.
Read MoreUnderstanding the “Tool-ish-ness” of Telehealth: Q&A with Dr. Jonathan Neufeld
Clinical psychologist and program director for the Great Plains Telehealth Resource & Assistance Center, Dr. Jonathan Neufeld, clarifies telehealth as an “enabler” of healthcare delivery. Emphasizing that telehealth is only a set of telecommunication tools, he details how the unique use and flexibility of these tools by skilled providers can bring quality care and impact rural health equity.
Read MoreKeeping the Doors Open: Vulnerable Rural Hospitals Benefit from Federally Funded Technical Assistance
It’s a crisis: rural hospital closures. Helping at-risk hospitals thrive in order to continue to serve their communities, Texas A&M’s Center for Optimizing Rural Health (CORH) offers technical assistance through a federally funded program for vulnerable hospitals. The CORH team and an Oklahoma program participant share specifics on just how the program’s assistance can help keep doors open.
Read MoreUnderstanding the Rural Swing Bed: More than Just a Reimbursement Policy
“Swing bed” is that oft-heard phrase describing not a physical hospital bed, but post-acute care for the rural patient who is well enough to leave the acute care hospital but not well enough to be safe at home. In this 2-part story, experts and hospital administrators review the swing bed program’s historical implementation and provide stories and examples of the value this over 40-year-old healthcare delivery and reimbursement model brings to patients, to the hospitals providing their care, and ultimately to rural communities.
Read MoreHistory of the Swing Bed: A Look Through the Rural Rearview Mirror
The healthcare delivery model known as the swing bed program has allowed rural and Critical Access Hospitals to serve patients by keeping them in their rural communities for post-acute care. Reviewing the history of this program, experts describe early implementation and key program elements that have sustained its success for over 40 years.
Read MoreAdvance Care Planning: New Realities in Times of COVID-19
Advance care planning — planning for decision-making in times of medical crisis — has always been intended for all people, all ages, with or without a chronic disease. Clinicians talk about the challenges of these conversations now that COVID-19 has nudged planning from the realm of the theoretical future to current reality.
Read MoreCOVID-19’s Current Impact on Rural Healthcare Delivery: Q&A with Brock Slabach
Brock Slabach, the National Rural Health Association’s Senior Vice President for Member Services, discusses the impact of COVID-19 on rural America’s healthcare organizations.
Read MoreRural Health Predictions: Q&A with Alan Morgan
National Rural Health Association CEO Alan Morgan discusses his organization’s work on the national and global stages and shares his rural health predictions for 2020.
Read MoreHealthcare Professionals’ Mental Health Needs: Where Can They Go?
Recent research has found that not only are nearly 40% of surveyed physicians burned out, but 40% are also experiencing depression. For many reasons — stigma among them — these professionals are not getting mental health support. Physician health programs, in collaboration with professional societies, are trying to change that by working with state licensure boards and other groups.
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