Across the rural West, an awareness of the health impacts of poor air quality – and how to minimize those impacts – is growing.
Read MoreFacing Unique Challenges, Rural Communities Find Unique Solutions to Protect Against Wildfire Smoke Exposure
Topics: Idaho
Staving Off One’s Mortality: Rural Kidney Health and Its Disparities
For the 240,000 rural Americans with complete kidney failure, it’s likely that very few knew they even had kidney disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, kidney disease is usually silent; 90% of people with kidney disease don’t know they have it. With research pointing to the high costs of kidney disease for pediatric and adult patients alike — mostly covered by Medicare — experts and researchers discuss rural disparities around access to disease-stabilizing treatment and to renal replacement therapies.
Read MoreViolence Against Hospital Workers: Growing Awareness, Rural Interventions, and Why It Still Goes Unreported
Healthcare workers are four times more likely to be seriously injured on the job than other professionals. Research, tools, and campaigns are equipping rural hospital leaders to better protect their employees and develop a culture of safety.
Read MoreRelationships and Partnerships: How ACOs Are Improving Treatments for Super-Utilizers
Super-utilizers are those patients who are hospitalized multiple times each year and, due to circumstances outside their control, are unable to make the changes needed to keep them out of the ER. Three rural Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are working on reducing these readmissions and improving their super-utilizers’ health.
Read MoreYoung Rural Healthcare Leaders Series: Q&A with Stephanie Orr
Stephanie Orr, the CNO of an 18-bed CAH in Idaho, shares what it’s like to become a leader much sooner than planned and emphasizes the importance of working the front lines.
Read MoreRural Health Care Services Outreach Program Supports Sustainable Change
In rural communities, a little bit can go a long way. Learn how three Federal Office of Rural Health Policy awardees have used their funds to enhance healthcare access and create sustainable change.
Read More“Doing Something Exceptional”: Rural Communities and Colorectal Cancer Screening
Colorectal cancer stands out as a cancer with increased incidence and mortality rates in rural areas – rates that are likely influenced by lack of screening. Using different approaches, two rural healthcare organizations in Idaho and Kentucky show how they are saving lives by improving colorectal cancer screening rates in their communities.
Read MoreStrategies for Superbugs: Antibiotic Stewardship for Rural Hospitals
Resistant bacteria, or “superbugs,” are a cause of major medical illness and death. Government and accreditation agencies, as well as infectious disease experts, believe hospital antibiotic stewardship programs are the answer to blunting the impact and development of these germs. Despite limited resources, rural and Critical Access Hospitals are activating their stewardship programs.
Read MoreSmall Idaho Hospital Achieves “Most Wired” Status
Syringa Hospital, a Critical Access Hospital in Idaho’s frontier region, has twice been recognized as one of the nation’s “Most Wired Hospitals.”
Read MoreRural Telehealth Capabilities and Outreach Continue to Grow
Telehealth is being used more widely in rural areas, improving patient care for schoolchildren, seniors and every age group in-between.
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