Colorado Resources

Enhancing Services for Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deafblind Patients in Rural America
Discusses the barriers to care that rural patients who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deafblind face, including lack of accommodations and inadequate clinician training. Features a Michigan clinic with American Sign Language-fluent staff, a New Jersey state division providing deaf sensitivity training, and a Colorado program that brings interpreters to rural communities.
Author(s): Allee Mead
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 10/2019
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Traumatic Injury and Access to Care in Rural Areas: Leveraging Linked Data and Geographic Information Systems for Planning and Advocacy
Analyzes county-level data representing traumatic injury rates in rural Colorado. Discusses challenges to trauma care in rural areas, including distance to trauma centers, rates of injury, prevention resources, EMS response times, and limited EMS capacity. Includes county-level maps showing transportation time to trauma centers, mortality rates, and hospitalization rates for traumatic injury.
Author(s): Paula Yuma, Rebecca Orsi, Julie Dunn, et al.
Citation: Rural Remote Health, 19(3), 5089
Date: 09/2019
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Home Equity: A Vision of Housing Security, Health and Opportunity
Provides data demonstrating the interrelationship between housing insecurity and health equity. Examines how policies and racism have impacted housing stability in Colorado's rural, urban, and suburban communities. Looks at the challenges to housing security faced by communities of color, undocumented immigrants, people with disabilities, families with children, low income households, rural communities, and homelessness populations. Suggests housing policies that may impact communities and improve housing security.
Date: 08/2019
Sponsoring organization: Colorado Health Institute
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2019 Medicaid and Commercial Access to Care Index: How Payer Type Influences Coloradans' Access to Needed Health Care
Provides information on healthcare access through both Medicaid and private insurers, as well as several other factors to determine whether the health needs of Colorado residents are being met. Measures improvement in healthcare access based on three components of access: potential access, barriers to care, and realized access. Features data breakdown by county.
Date: 07/2019
Sponsoring organization: Colorado Health Institute
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Veteran Suicide: A Growing Problem in Colorado
A suicide prevention brief demonstrating how rural veterans and active duty service members in Colorado are disproportionally affected by suicide. Discusses the mental health status of veterans and barriers to accessing mental health services. Describes several strategies and prevention programs to help prevent veteran suicide.
Author(s): Karam Ahmad, Jaclyn Zubrzycki, Ashlie Brown, et al.
Date: 07/2019
Sponsoring organization: Colorado Health Institute
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The Competition Conundrum
Reports on an analysis of hospital and health insurance carrier market competition in Colorado and offers county-level data. Assesses the relationship between market competition and health insurance premiums. Includes discussion on health insurance market challenges specific to rural areas. Offers suggestions to improve market competition and conditions.
Date: 05/2019
Sponsoring organization: Colorado Health Institute
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Promising Practice: Innovative Program Teaches Colorado Providers to Be Rural Leaders
Highlights the Colorado Rural Health Center's (CRHC) Rural Colorado Primary Care Leaders (RCPCL) Program that works to educate rural primary care providers to become advocates for their rural patients and communities. Discusses program funding, and RCPCL training and education requirements. Provides details on the RCPCL Capstone project involving meetings at the state capital with local representatives and the state health committee.
Author(s): Beth Blevins
Date: 05/2019
Sponsoring organization: National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health
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Mobile Coaching: Innovation and Small Scale Experimentation to Better Engage Program Participants in Rural Colorado
Examines mobile coaching as a strategy targeted at Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) participants in rural La Plata County, Colorado to improve access to transportation. Discusses the efficacy of case managers transporting clients to their health and human services appointments and utilizing the commuting time for mentorship. Discusses program results, staff insights, and client experiences.
Author(s): Jonathan McCay, Marcia France, Loretta Lujan, Vicki Maestas, Alix Whittaker
Date: 04/2019
Sponsoring organization: Mathematica Policy Research
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A Community Moves Beyond the Boom and Bust
Profiles Lake County, Colorado, a winner of the 2019 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Prize. Highlights some of Lake County's efforts to actively promote health and wellness throughout the rural county.
Date: 2019
Sponsoring organization: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
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Healthy Clinic Assessments (HCAs)
Describes promising practices and the benefits of healthy clinic assessments (HCAs). Lists the goals of HCAs, and identifies emerging trends and needs based on the 98 HCAs completed at rural and frontier clinics in Colorado since 2009. Covers a Critical Access Hospital case study example.
Date: 10/2018
Sponsoring organization: Colorado Rural Health Center
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