Montana Health Network’s Regional Care Coordination program uses registered nurses to check in with adult patients with chronic conditions and connect them with any needed referrals or community resources. The program serves 8 counties in eastern Montana.
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Aaron Wernham and Scott Malloy of the Montana Healthcare Foundation share how their foundation responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by providing technical assistance, organizing webinars to clarify emergency declaration orders, and creating a grant application assistance initiative.
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Nurses are an integral part of the rural healthcare workforce. Registered nurses from across the country share their stories about their path to nursing, their accomplishments, and how they provide healthcare in their rural communities.
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COVID-19 physical distancing measures impact vulnerable populations, including rural children experiencing maltreatment and those living in situations of intimate partner violence. Clinicians and other experts said community awareness, frank discussions, and changing service delivery approaches can make a difference.
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Wildfires. Child abuse. Sexual assault. The negative and ongoing effects of these experiences are the reason communities and medical providers are using an approach called trauma-informed care. This article features ways trauma is understood and treated in a rural community, a Wyoming pediatrician’s clinic, and for nurses providing assault exams.
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As more federal dollars are directed toward the opioid crisis, three communities use grant funds for treatment and recovery care coordination in court, prisons, and the homes of new moms.
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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.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2017 MMWR Rural Series has featured several reports highlighting rural unintentional injuries as one of the top 5 leading causes of death. What are these “unintentional injuries”? How often are rural residents killed by them? Here’s a look at the three leading causes of rural unintentional injuries.
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Teens in Kentucky, Montana, and Vermont are raising awareness in their schools and communities about the dangers of tobacco. Their efforts have led to policy changes at the local and state levels.
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From over-the-counter medication use, to decisions about personal or family disease treatments, health literacy impacts the most everyday of health decisions. But, distance and internet connectivity challenges make it difficult for rural residents to get health information. To navigate health information gaps, school nurses, newspapers, public libraries, churches, public health departments, and hub-and-spoke academic institutions are working in creative ways.
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