- Senator Baldwin Introduces HSHS Act to Protect Communities from Hospital Closures
- What to Know about Smoke, Heat and Health
- Tribal Partnership With UW-Madison Combines Ag Research With Indigenous Food Knowledge
- The Rewards of Working as Rural Docs
- Request for Information (RFI): Evolving the Network of the National Library of Medicine
- Dental Therapists, Who Can Fill Cavities and Check Teeth, Get the OK in More States
- Colorectal Cancer Is Rising among Younger Adults. Some States Want to Boost Awareness.
- Rural Hospitals Built During Baby Boom Now Face Baby Bust
- Food Stamps Go Further in Rural Areas — Until You Add Transportation Costs
- CMS Announces Resources and Flexibilities to Assist with the Public Health Emergency in the State of Texas
- CMS Proposes New Payments for Digital Health Under CY2025 PFS Draft Rule
- Improving Public Health by Strengthening Community Infrastructure
- Biden Harris Administration Proposes Policies to Reduce Maternal Mortality, Advance Health Equity, and Support Underserved Communities
- Nearly Half of U.S. Counties Don't Have a Single Cardiologist
- Randolph County, Ill. Turns Unused Part of Nursing Home Into State-Of-The-Art Behavioral Health Center
New from the CDC: Rural Cardiovascular Disease Mortality Data
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has shared a new resource from the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention. The Local Trends in Heart Disease and Stroke Mortality report provides detailed maps and graphics documenting county-level heart disease and stroke mortality and trends within each state. The report includes data for most counties in all states, including the most rural. This report can be used to enhance and inform cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment programs and policies.
For each state, the Local Trends in Heart Disease and Stroke Mortality report includes:
- County-level maps of death rates for coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke
- County-level maps of trends in CHD and stroke death rates
- Figures depicting comparisons of county-level death rates and historical trends for CHD & stroke
- All graphics are presented by age group (ages 35-64; ages 65 and older)
- A CSV file containing all data used to make the report.
The Local Trends in Heart Disease and Stroke Mortality report for each state, along with the underlying dataset, is available by request. To get the report, please contact Adam Vaughan at avaughan@cdc.gov. Additionally, the data are available on chronicdata.cdc.gov.
Insights from Experts: COVID-19 Case Rates in Rural and Urban Pennsylvania
When the COVID-19 pandemic became widespread in the United States, much of the discussion and attention centered on urban epicenters with rapid spread due to the high population density. While rural areas are less populous, other characteristics of rural America make those individuals living there far more vulnerable than their urban counterparts.
In this post, Penn State researchers Raeven Chandler, Katrina Alford and Leif Jensen describe the unique dynamics making rural residents more vulnerable, provide a comparison of COVID-19 trends in rural and urban areas in Pennsylvania, and offer insight as to why the COVID-19 pandemic highlights and magnifies the longstanding factors contributing to rural-urban health disparities.
For more, visit the Insights from Experts website — a partnership of Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute and the Center for Health Care and Policy Research.
Rural Initiatives Resources
Resources to help your state Flex Program implement research and best practices.
Read the Brief: Rural Initiatives Addressing Community Social Needs
The Technical Assistance and Services Center (TASC), a program of the National Rural Health Resource Center (The Center), is excited to share with you resources that support the “Rural Initiatives Addressing Community Social Needs” brief provided by the Flex Monitoring Team.
The brief follows two Critical Access Hospital (CAH)-based initiatives out of Staples, Minnesota, and St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Included in this e-mail are links to TASC resources that can support your ongoing efforts for CAH initiatives in your state.
VIDEO: Population Health for Rural Hospitals: What the experts are saying
Hear from rural health care experts as they identify key initiatives that leaders and providers should take to develop a local infrastructure further to best deliver and manage population health in the future.
Building Trust in Collaborative Partnerships
Collaboration is one of the keys to sustainability in our changing health care environment. This webinar, along with the accompanying worksheet, is designed to help rural health network leaders improve their skills and build capacity for meaningful and impactful collaborations.
Population Health Learning Collab
TASC partnered with multiple subject matter experts to facilitate discussions and provide education through a web-based learning collaborative for Flex Program personnel to gain knowledge about population health and how Flex Programs can help support CAHs, rural health clinics, and rural communities in through population health initiatives.
Put Data to Use in Your Communities
Learn how to effectively conduct population health analytics with access to a web-based database for acquiring health data specific to your location. This tool also consists of educational modules offering step-by-step instructions of common population health analytical procedures.
Population Health Readiness Assessment
The goal of this assessment is to connect users with tools and resources targeted towards their rural health organizations’ unique strengths and needs for transitioning towards population health through each milestone of Getting Motivated, Getting Informed and Getting Going.
This toolkit compiles evidence-based and promising models and resources to support organizations implementing food access programs in rural communities across the United States.
The toolkit compiles evidence-based and promising models and resources to support organizations implementing mental health programs in rural communities across the United States, with a primary focus on adult mental health.
All Hands on Deck: The Pandemic Through Nurses’ Eyes
This recording and transcript of a podcast from the Commonwealth Fund features experiences of nurses at rural hospitals and clinics discussing shortages of personal protective equipment, workforce challenges, and solutions to support nurses in the future.
COVID-19 Rural Epidemiology
An infographic from the AgriSafe Network explains higher risk and greater impact in rural areas, as well as effect on farm workers.
The Effect of Medicare Payment Standardization Methods on the Perceived Cost of Post-Acute Swing Bed Care in Critical Access Hospitals
Researchers at the North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center describe the effects of current Medicare payment standardization methods on the perceived cost of Critical Access Hospital swing bed care as it relates to the Medicare Spending per Beneficiary measure.
The Distribution of the General Surgery Workforce in Rural and Urban America in 2019
This paper from the WWAMI Rural Health Research Center explores regional, rural-urban, and intra-rural differences in the general surgeon workforce.
Online Resource for Licensure of Health Professionals
Created by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards, the site provides up-to-date information on emergency regulation and licensing in each state for psychologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists assistants, and social workers.
Mobilizing Health Care Workforce via Telehealth
ProviderBridge.org was created by the Federation of State Medical Boards through the CARES Act and the FORHP-supported Licensure Portability Program. The site provides up-to-date information on emergency regulation and licensing by state as well as a provider portal to connect volunteer health care professionals to state agencies and health care entities.
SAMHSA Training and Technical Assistance Related to COVID-19
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) created this list of resources, tools, and trainings for behavioral health and recovery providers.