NRHA's Rural Health Voices blog offers informed commentary on the latest news in rural health care from NRHA staff and editorials from selected contributors.

Mammoth Hospital's journey to revolutionizing health care with population health

In 2020, Mammoth Hospital’s population health team hit a brick wall. While EHR and revenue cycle systems are core to clinical and administrative staff operations, Mammoth’s population health and quality teams relied on numerous Excel spreadsheets to support cumbersome manual processes. Juggling several quality programs and payment processes to meet specific timelines, Mammoth was at risk of falling short in performance goals and losing meaningful reimbursement dollars. Manual data...

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Small health system uses proactive digital outreach to triple vaccine performance

With cooler weather also comes the influenza season.  As any health care professional knows, flu can cause serious illness, driving up hospitalizations and even leading to death for vulnerable populations, especially older adults. Getting more patients vaccinated is critical to reducing the number of hospitalizations and deaths and is strongly tied to getting the word out on vaccination events, especially among seniors. In recent years, it’s estimated that 70 to 85 percent of...

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Diagnosing rural health with NRHA past president Beth O’Connor (part II)

Ken Misch, president of MEDHOST, recently had the opportunity to interview Beth O’Connor, executive director of the Virginia Rural Health Association and past president of NRHA. In this two-part series, Misch and O’Connor discuss the developing nature of rural health care, some of its most pressing challenges, and how MEDHOST collaborates with rural health systems to continue serving their needs.

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Diagnosing rural health with NRHA past president Beth O’Connor (part I)

Ken Misch, president of MEDHOST, recently had the opportunity to interview Beth O’Connor, executive director of the Virginia Rural Health Association and past president of NRHA. In this two-part series, Misch and O’Connor discuss the developing nature of rural health care, some of its most pressing challenges, and how MEDHOST collaborates with rural health systems to continue serving their needs.

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Five key findings: Gynecologic cancer care in rural communities

Rural health care providers can play a critical role in addressing the unique challenges in gynecologic cancer prevention, care, and survivorship in the communities they serve. The Foundation for Women's Cancer Patient Education Committee, which is comprised of gynecologic oncology providers from across the country, recently performed a literature review focused on gynecologic cancers in rural areas.  The committee’s goal was to determine the status of gynecologic cancer...

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We need more data on health in rural America

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a mass migration away from urban centers. While the new numbers are not in yet, we already know about 1 in 5 people live in rural areas. With remote working on the rise, this number could increase in years to come. This situation emphasizes the need to ensure health equity no matter where someone lives National Rural Health Day is just one day of the year, but we need quality health care all year everywhere.

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Is there a shortage of rural social workers?

Approximately 47 million adults 18 and older live in rural areas, along with 13.4 million children. A 2019 poll by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that one in every four people living in a rural area said they could not get the health care they needed – and this scarcity extends to lawyers, teachers, and social workers as well, with the social worker shortage likely concentrated in particular specialty fields.

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Real facts about the COVID-19 vaccine

You know better than anyone that vaccine hesitancy among rural Americans means COVID-19 will linger in rural communities for the foreseeable future – unless something more is done to increase vaccination rates. NRHA, in partnership with Legato Healthcare Marketing, has developed a grassroots initiative to help rural health stakeholders build vaccine confidence at the local level. We need rural health stakeholders to champion the initiative, inviting local business, nonprofit, and...

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We are winning the COVID-19 fight, not the war

In the struggle against COVID-19, vaccines are our best weapon. We must continue the push to increase vaccination rates. Many people wonder if they need a vaccine if they already had COVID or if the infection itself makes them immune. These are reasonable questions – but a definite answer is not known. Here is what we do know.

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NRHA joins HHS' COVID-19 Community Corps, more

To reinforce the association’s dedication to health equity in the midst of the pandemic, NRHA has recently joined several national coalitions aimed at communicating vaccine safety and efficacy. HHS’ COVID-19 Community Corps aims to establish a network of trusted voices to promote vaccines. The Made to Save Coalition is a public education and grassroots effort to increase vaccine access in communities of color. And the COVID-19 Vaccine Education and Equity Project includes...

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