Topics: Service delivery models

Pennsylvania Hospital Transitions HRSA-Funded Program to Online Services and Addresses COVID-19 Stress

Butler Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania received a HRSA Rural Health Care Services Outreach grant to develop a program for chronic disease patients. Partway through the grant cycle, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The hospital shares how it was able to transition its program services to an online format and develop new initiatives to address stress in the healthcare workforce and the larger community.

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.

Mountain Plains Mental Health Technology Transfer Center co-directors Thomasine Heitkamp and Dennis Mohatt discuss telehealth, economic insecurity, broadband, and mental health under COVID-19 and self-isolation.

In the past five years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has delivered two reports to Congress concerning traumatic brain injury. Concussions, or mild traumatic brain injuries, are common. With perspectives gained from their varied roles, five experts share information on concussions in rural America.

A Federally Qualified Health Center used grant support to provide primary care oral health assessment and fluoride varnishes in 12 school-based health centers in nine Louisiana parishes, hoping to provide thousands of children with better oral health in the present as well as into adulthood.

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.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute calculates that 3.5 million rural Americans have COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It’s also estimated that hundreds of thousands of rural Americans have the condition and don’t know it. Though it is a condition without a cure, it is a condition with hope. The COPD Foundation’s Chief Science Officer and a State Captain share how asking questions and doing spirometry can help diagnose the condition.

Chronic obstructive lung disease, or COPD, is a disease with a stronghold in rural America: almost double the prevalence and double the mortality rates compared to large urban areas. Though it is a condition with no cure, it’s a condition that has treatments — and hope — making proper diagnosis by spirometry imperative.

Translational science is a specialized research field bringing cutting-edge science to patients that need it. Making sure rural communities are also recipients of new research, the National Center for Advancing Translational Science is a federal agency that facilitates the steps and supports the investigators who want their findings to translate into better health.

To address rising ER readmissions, an Arizona healthcare system and network partners adapted an unconventional EMS telehealth service to help rural patients. Coupled with care coordination, mobile telehealth units are saving the healthcare system money while better meeting patients’ healthcare needs.

The Rural Monitor

Articles and resources on key rural health issues, from the Rural Health Information Hub

Topics: Service delivery models

Pennsylvania Hospital Transitions HRSA-Funded Program to Online Services and Addresses COVID-19 Stress

COVID-19’s Current Impact on Rural Healthcare Delivery: Q&A with Brock Slabach

Mental Health in a Pandemic: Q&A with Thomasine Heitkamp and Dennis Mohatt

Concussion in Rural America: Experts Detail Injury and Recovery of Traumatic Brain Injury

Making a Difference for Generations to Come: School-Based Oral Healthcare in Louisiana

Rural Health Predictions: Q&A with Alan Morgan

Diagnosing the Rural COPD Patient: Ask About Symptoms, Use Spirometry

Office-Based Spirometry: Key to Diagnosing Rural COPD Patients

Translational Science: Research with Results that Touch Rural Populations

Mobile Telehealth Units and Care Coordinators Improve Emergency Care Services for Rural Arizona Patients