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Rural Hospitals – Resources

Selected recent or important resources focusing on Rural Hospitals.

Rx for the Rural Healthcare Workforce and Access to Care
Podcast with Tom Morris of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy about trends related to the rural healthcare workforce and efforts to overcome challenges. Discusses the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, rural hospital closures, telehealth, graduate medical education in rural areas, community health workers and community paramedics, funding opportunities to promote healthcare access in rural areas, the opioid crisis, and more.
Author(s): Jessica Nicholson
Date: 05/2022
Sponsoring organization: The Conference Board
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Trends in Revenue Sources among Rural Hospitals
Examines outpatient care as a revenue source for rural hospitals between 2011 and 2019 by analyzing Healthcare Cost Report Information System data from 1,866 rural hospitals. Includes data broken down by rural versus urban, inpatient/outpatient revenue, and hospital payment classification, such as Critical Access Hospital, Medicare-Dependent Hospital, Prospective Payment System, Rural Referral Center, and Sole Community Hospital, among other things.
Author(s): Randall John, Tyler Malone, George Pink
Date: 05/2022
Sponsoring organization: North Carolina Rural Health Research Program
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Predictors of Hospital Choice among Rural Patients Seeking Elective Surgery: A Scoping Review
Identifies literature describing determinants of hospital choice among rural patients seeking elective surgery and summarizes data and findings from these studies. Includes considerations for future research on rural hospital bypass.
Author(s): Yuqi Zhang, Tyler Malone, Sarah Cantrell, et al.
Date: 04/2022
Sponsoring organization: North Carolina Rural Health Research Program
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"It's the Relationships": Q&A with Peggy Broussard Wheeler
An interview with Peggy Broussard Wheeler, Vice President of Policy at the California Hospital Association. Covers the challenges rural hospitals face during the pandemic, workforce issues, and more. Discusses how rural hospitals work together to address concerns.
Author(s): Allee Mead
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 01/2022
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Rural Hospitals that Closed between 2017‐20: Profitability and Liquidity in the Year Before Closure
Examines the pre-closure profitability and liquidity performance of 56 rural hospitals that closed between January 2017 and August 2020. Compares this data to the median performance of rural hospitals that remained open each year.
Author(s): Andrew S. Osgood, George H. Pink
Date: 01/2022
Sponsoring organization: North Carolina Rural Health Research Program
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Ending Surprise Medical Bills
Offers resources for healthcare providers and consumers regarding surprise billing regulations and policies. Includes information on payment dispute resolution between patients and providers, and between providers and out-of-network health plans.
Date: 2022
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
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Emergency Department Visits for Suicidal Ideation and Self-Harm in Rural and Urban Youth
Presents a study comparing rates of emergency room visits among youth aged 5 to 19 for suicidal ideation and/or self-harm in rural and urban areas. Breaks down data by age, household income, and rural-urban hospital status, among other measures.
Author(s): Jennifer A. Hoffmann, Matt Hall, Doug Lorenz, Jay Berry
Citation: The Journal of Pediatrics, 238, 282-289
Date: 11/2021
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Association of Rural and Critical Access Hospital Status With Patient Outcomes After Emergency Department Visits Among Medicare Beneficiaries
Compares 30-day outcomes for 473,152 Medicare patients after emergency department (ED) visits in rural or urban settings and in Critical Access Hospitals. Features statistics on mortality, ED revisits, hospitalization and transfer patterns by commonly encountered ED conditions, and characteristics of patients and of hospitals studied, with breakdowns by urban or rural location.
Author(s): Margaret Greenwood-Ericksen, Neil Kamdar, Paul Lin, et al.
Citation: JAMA Network Open, 4(11)
Date: 11/2021
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Examining Rural Hospital Bypass for Outpatient Services
Explores the drivers of rural hospital bypass for outpatient services and the relationship between hospital outpatient services and inpatient utilization. Examines demographic and market characteristics associated with bypass for outpatient services before and after inpatient admissions. Also analyzes how utilization for common outpatient services differs between Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and rural prospective payment system (PPS) hospitals.
Date: 11/2021
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
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Keeping the Doors Open: Vulnerable Rural Hospitals Benefit from Federally Funded Technical Assistance
Features the work of Texas A&M's Center for Optimizing Rural Health (CORH), which provides technical assistance through a federally funded program for vulnerable hospitals. Highlights the experiences of a participating Oklahoma hospital.
Author(s): Kay Miller Temple
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 09/2021
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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