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Rural Health Information Hub
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Pharmacy and Prescription Drugs – Models and Innovations

These stories feature model programs and successful rural projects that can serve as a source of ideas and provide lessons others have learned. Some of the projects or programs may no longer be active. Read about the criteria and evidence-base for programs included.

Effective Examples

Updated/reviewed May 2024

  • Need: To reduce overdose-related deaths among prescription opioid users in rural Wilkes County, North Carolina.
  • Intervention: Education and tools are provided for prescribers, patients and community members to lessen drug supply and demand, and to reduce harm in prescription opioid use.
  • Results: Opioid overdose death rates have decreased in Wilkes County.

Updated/reviewed May 2020

  • Need: Reduction in the number of emergency department dental patients abusing opioid prescriptions in rural southeastern Maine.
  • Intervention: Using a one-page opioid prescription guideline, opioid prescribing and emergency room visits for dental pain decreased.
  • Results: The rate of opioid prescription dropped nearly 20% after implementation, and in comparing the 12-month period before and after implementation, dental pain emergency department visits decreased from 26 to 21 per 1,000.

Other Project Examples

Updated/reviewed May 2025

  • Need: To connect patients to resources in order to reduce use of emergency services, emergency department visits, and hospital readmissions.
  • Intervention: Patients receive support (by in-person visit, phone call, or telehealth visit) from a paramedic, community health nurse, peer recovery specialist, and pharmacist.
  • Results: Between July 2016 and March 2024, the program made 1,098 patient contacts and continued to see a reduction in emergency department and inpatient visits and costs.
funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy

Updated/reviewed July 2019

  • Need: Meeting both advanced practice pharmacy student education needs and patient healthcare needs in a nearby rural/underserved area.
  • Intervention: With support from multiple organizations, students in the Ohio Northern University's College of Pharmacy program use a motor coach to deliver a wide range of healthcare services during scheduled outreach visits.
  • Results: In the program's first two years, point-of-care screening, immunizations, and chronic disease prevention and management education have been provided to 800+ Hardin County, Ohio, residents.
Last Reviewed: 1/7/2025