General Rural Health Workforce Publications
CMS Cross Cutting Initiative Rural Health |
Few rural hospitals have signed up for Federal program for funding. |
CMS is committed to addressing rural health disparities in pursuit of its mission to improve quality, equity, and outcomes across the health care system. Guided by the agency’s Strategic Plan and the CMS Framework for Advancing Health Care in Rural, Tribal, and Geographically Isolated Communities, the CMS Rural Health Cross-Cutting Initiative (CCI) works across the agency to enhance focus on geographically isolated communities in CMS programs and policies and created a fact sheet outlining its work.
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NPR reports on the rural hospitals that have converted to the new Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) model. Just 18 of the more than 1,700 eligible rural hospitals nationwide have applied for and received the new designation. Many hospitals are reluctant to give up inpatient services entirely, and some are concerned about how other payment streams could be affected. NRHA’s Chief Policy Officer, Carrie Cochran-McClain, discusses several legislative changes to the designation that could make it more appealing and feasible for some rural hospitals
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Explaining Health Inequities — The Enduring Legacy of Historical Biases
This article is part of an invited series by independent historians, focused on biases and injustice that the Journal has historically helped to perpetuate. We hope it will enable us to learn from our mistakes and prevent new ones.
Regulate Artificial Intelligence in Health Care by Prioritizing Patient Outcomes |
Fast Facts: U.S. Rural Hospitals 2023 |
Artificial intelligence (AI) holds great promise to enhance the quality of health care.1 Despite the aim of health care regulations to ensure high-quality care, there are few regulations governing the use of AI in health care. This dearth will soon change because a White House executive order instructed the Department of Health and Human Services to develop new AI-specific regulatory strategies addressing equity, safety, privacy, and quality for AI in health care before April 27, 2024.2 Although we agree all these regulatory targets are noble and may themselves improve patient outcomes, the executive order did not address the latter. Here, we argue for a regulatory refocus on patient outcomes.
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This infographic presents data on rural hospitals using the American Hospital Association's Annual Survey Database for fiscal years 2017 through 2021. It includes information on the declining number of community hospitals nationwide and data on rural community hospitals by ownership type and number of beds.
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2023 Health Workforce Research Symposium: Addressing Health Workforce Shortages Now & In the Future
On October 11th, HWTAC hosted the 2023 Health Workforce Research Symposium at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The streaming component—which included Sessions 1 and 2—is now available to watch on demand.
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Rural Care Coordination Toolkit
The toolkit is designed to help rural communities identify and implement a care coordination program. It also provides links to resources and best practices.
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Rural-Urban disparities in Medicare
A new report from CMS explores rural-urban disparities in health care in Medicare. The analysis relied upon data from the Medicare Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys and the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS). Overall, the report states that people with Medicare living in rural areas had results that were below the national average for the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Provider and Systems (CAHPS) survey scores for about 20 percent of all clinical care measures examined with rural residents. The analysis also explores variations in racial and ethnic differences in bot rural and urban areas.
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Critical Access Hospital-Local Health Department Partnerships to Address Rural Community NeedsThe Flex Monitoring Team (FMT) has released a brief on the operation of Critical Access Hospital (CAH) and local health department (LDH) partnerships, an important area of activity to improve population health and address the needs of rural communities. The brief is based on data from the American Hospital Association’s Annual Survey of Hospitals and qualitative interviews with four pairs of CAH/LDH partners. It compares the collaborative and community focused activities of CAHs compared to rural and urban perspective payment system (PPS) hospitals, identifies the challenges and opportunities to improve community collaboration to address community needs.
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A Population Health Workforce to Meet 21st Century Challenges and Opportunities
The National Academies Roundtable on Population Health Improvement hosted a workshop in February 2022, A Population Health Workforce to Meet 21st Century Challenges and Opportunities. The event, building upon the proceedings from their March 2019 workshop, Dialogue about the Workforce for Population Health Improvement, was further informed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the effects of climate change, and recent attention to and expenditure on the public health workforce. Workshop discussions explored the scope of work and work settings for public health and population health workers; the state of the workforce including attrition and gaps in specific roles and disciplines; and challenges to training, recruiting, and retaining workers. This Proceedings of a Workshop summarizes the presentations and discussions held during the workshop.
Lessons in Rural Leadership |
Impacts of Transit on Health in Rural and Small Urban Areas
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Provides guidance on cultivating leadership among a rural behavioral health workforce. Highlights some challenges for building mental health workforce leadership curriculum and discusses local barriers faced by a rural behavioral health workforce, such as insurance coverage, transportation, and housing, among others.
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This research examines the many ways that public transportation affects health, with a focus on rural and small urban areas.
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2023 March Of Dimes Report Card Shows Modest Improvement in U.S. Preterm Birth Rate, Which Remains at Decade-Long High, Earning Nation D+ GradeThe 2023 March of Dimes Report Card on the state of maternal and infant health, released yesterday, showed persistent racial disparities across key maternal and infant health indicators.
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How History Has Shaped Racial and Ethnic Health DisparitiesThis timeline offers a historical view of significant U.S. federal policies and events spanning the early 1800s to today that have influenced present-day health disparities. It covers policies that directly impacted health coverage and access to care, relevant events in medicine, social and economic policies and developments that influence health, and efforts to tackle inequalities.
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What rural health providers want from Washington
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Ensuring Age-Friendly Public Health in Rural Communities: Challenges, Opportunities, and Model Programs
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NRHA recently sent a letter outlining actions Congress can take to shore up rural health care, ranging from enhanced support for staff retention at the poorest facilities to carveouts from some controversial policies strongly opposed by the broader hospital industry.
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The Age-Friendly Ecosystem originated from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) efforts to develop Age-Friendly Communities. The WHO identified eight “Domains of Livability” that enhance the experience of individuals across the life course.
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Access & Affordability The state of the U.S. health system in 2022 and the outlook for 2023
In this brief, Peterson-KFF Health System presents a dashboard showing health spending in the US that far exceeds what peer countries spend and growing out-of-pocket costs. Besides assessing the current state of the US health system, there is a discussion of 2023 in the context of the ending of the public health emergency, depletion of federal COVID funds, and strain on the healthcare workforce.
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Health Care Capsule Accessing Health Care in Rural America
This capsule draws from a number of GAO reports to describe examples of health care access challenges faced by people living in rural areas and federal efforts to help address those challenges.
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Rural Healthy People 2030: Common Challenges, Rural Nuances |
Warning signs for the U.S. health system are piling up |
This study reports the findings of Rural Healthy People 2030, a companion piece to the Healthy People 2030 initiative with a focus on health priorities of rural populations. Data was collected from a survey given to rural stakeholders and identified the top 20 Healthy People priorities for rural America.
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Staffing shortages, more dangerous workplaces, aging physicians and the increasing politicization of medicine: The warning signs for America's burned-out health care workforce are all there.
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National Plan for Health Workforce Well-Being |
The state of rural healthcare. Research report and outlook for 2023
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Strengthening the
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Rural Population Health in the United States: A Chartbook
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Interim CMS Rural Health Clinic (RHC) Rural Location Determinations due to Census Bureau (CB) Regulatory Changes |
Geographic Variation in Health Insurance Coverage: United States, 2022
This report presents state, regional, and national estimates of the percentage of people who were uninsured, had private health insurance coverage, and had public health insurance coverage at the time of the interview.
2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Findings Brief |
Understanding the impacts of rural hospital closures: A scoping review |
The BRFSS is an annual, state-based survey system that collects data on health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, health care access, and use of preventive services from the adult (≥ 18 years) population in Iowa using telephone interviews.
To learn more about the Iowa BRFSS program, visit https://hhs.iowa.gov/brfss where you can find additional program information, additional publications, copies of questionnaires, and more. |
Rural hospitals are closing at unprecedented rates, with hundreds more at risk of closure in the coming 2 years. Multiple federal policies are being developed and implemented without a salient understanding of the emerging literature evaluating rural hospital closures and its impacts.
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Iowa Nursing Demand Survey ReportThe Iowa Center for Nursing Workforce, a program under the Iowa Board of Nursing, released the Iowa Nursing Demand Survey Report (April 2021). The purpose of the survey was to gauge what the demand is for nurses in Iowa, potential shortages, and barriers in the recruitment and retention of the nursing workforce. The report providers information about the top reasons employers are having difficulty filling nursing openings, and the degree to which the difficulty exists.
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Future of Nursing 2020-2030 ReportThe National Academy of Medicine released the Future of Nursing 2020-2030 report - The Future of Nursing: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity. Access report highlights, the full report, and an interactive report here.
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Partners in Action: Health Improvement Strategies Throughout Iowa
Developed as a companion document to the 2023-2027 State Health Improvement Plan, this publication offers you a chance to explore national evidence-based strategies, learn more about efforts underway in Iowa, and establish new partnerships.
How to Use It
Partners in Action: Health Improvement Strategies Throughout Iowa was created to amplify the hard work of our partners. Additionally, we hope this publication will serve as a resource to provide access to national evidence-based strategies and local efforts all in one place. In reading this document, we hope you draw inspiration from the work of others and potentially establish new partnerships based on common goals.
How to Be Included
Moving forward, the Healthy Iowans Team plans to update this document twice a year. If you would like your organization's efforts to be included in a future update, please fill out the Strategies Survey.
How to Use It
Partners in Action: Health Improvement Strategies Throughout Iowa was created to amplify the hard work of our partners. Additionally, we hope this publication will serve as a resource to provide access to national evidence-based strategies and local efforts all in one place. In reading this document, we hope you draw inspiration from the work of others and potentially establish new partnerships based on common goals.
How to Be Included
Moving forward, the Healthy Iowans Team plans to update this document twice a year. If you would like your organization's efforts to be included in a future update, please fill out the Strategies Survey.
Hospital Data Trends
The following are Iowa hospital trends for January through July 2023, compared to the same time in 2022, as reported to the IHA DATABANK Program. 99 Iowa hospitals are included in this report.
Iowa Health Professional Shortage Area Maps
A Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) is an area, population group, or facility designated by the Health Resources and Services Administration, as having an acute shortage of primary health care professionals. An HPSA may be obtained for primary medical care, dental health care, and/or mental health care. Programs, such as the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program, Primary Care Provider Loan Repayment Program, and J-1 Visa Waiver Program use HPSA designations as eligibility criteria.
Iowa Population Change by County 2010-2020
Statewide Leaders Economic Outlook Survey Report
The 2023 Envision Iowa Statewide Leaders Economic Outlook Survey was released at a Business Record event held on Oct. 4, and showed that while leaders continue to believe a thriving Iowa is possible, it will require significant changes to the status quo in a variety of key areas.
The results of the survey revealed three key findings:
The results of the survey revealed three key findings:
- Leaders are cautiously optimistic about business opportunities, driven by a strong belief in the economic power of the state’s key industries.
- Leaders are growing more concerned about population growth and meeting workforce needs across the state of Iowa, affecting their outlook and driving concerns on potential future declines to quality of life for Iowans.
- Heavy investments in communications infrastructure in 2021 and 2022 are reflected in leaders’ optimistic outlook, also reflecting their concern for the need for heavy investment across social, energy and transportation infrastructure.
Faces of Rural: Defining Who We Are
Leveraging Career Pathway Programs: State Strategies to Combat Health Care Workforce Shortages
The National Conference of State Legislatures provides an overview of programs states have implemented to address or mitigate workforce shortages. The report describes programs across various stages of education, including K-12, community college, and undergraduate programs.
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University of Iowa Office of Statewide Clinical Education Programs (OSCEP) Annual Reports
OSCEP annually reports benchmarks, geographic distributions, access summaries, trends, and comparisons for Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners, Dentists, Pharmacists, Physician Assistants, and Physicians.