Rural Health Information Hub Latest News

Telemedicine and Pregnancy Care

This article explores the role telemedicine can play in providing prenatal and postpartum care to women in rural areas. It highlights the types of specialized care that can be delivered via telemedicine to support maternal care in rural areas. It also discusses some of the barriers to telemedicine implementation, including state-level Medicaid reimbursement policy. Read more here.

Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults: Opportunities for the Health Care System

This research examines how social isolation and loneliness affect health and quality of life in adults aged 50 and older, with a focus on vulnerable populations, including those living in rural areas. It makes recommendations for clinical settings on screening for negative health impacts related to social isolation and developing interventions to help address this issue. To read it online, click here.

Decade of Success for Latino Children’s Health Now in Jeopardy

A recent report from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families finds that Latino children are losing ground in health coverage nationwide. In Pennsylvania, while we appear to be heading in the right direction as the both the number and rate of Latino children with health coverage has improved, the percentage of Latino children who are uninsured is still higher than non-Latino children in the commonwealth. We must do more to connect Latino children in Pennsylvania with health coverage.

2020 State & County Home Visiting Fact Sheets Available 

Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children is happy to report our 2020 fact sheets are available for partners and advocates. These fact sheets we produce in our role as a proud partner of the Childhood Begins at Home coalition show unserved children by county, and the startlingly low number of children served by voluntary evidence-based home visiting programs statewide.

Use the map to see the number of children served in your county.

The national KIDS COUNT project allows us to produce these materials connecting data to home visiting initiatives. Learn more about Childhood Begins at Home.

Medicare: Information on Medicare-Dependent Hospitals

This resource provides an overview of the Medicare-dependent hospital (MDH) program, how the MDH designation differs from other rural hospital designations, and how MDH hospitals have changed over time. It discusses the decrease in the number of MDHs over time and examines a variety of operational and financial metrics across MDHs over time. Read the overview here.
For the full report: Full Report

Pennsylvania Wins Unprecedented Grant from the Pritzker Children’s Initiative

Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children is elated to announce that after nearly one year of work convening a comprehensive stakeholder table in the infant and toddler policy space – including both state officials and external advocates – Pennsylvania has received the Pritzker Children’s Initiative (PCI) Prenatal-to-Age-Three Implementation grant.

The overall goal of the project is to increase the number of children and families receiving high-quality services by 25 percent by 2023, and by 50 percent by 2025, and the award demonstrates Pennsylvania’s commitment to expanding access to high-quality programs designed to support children’s healthy development and build a strong foundation for future learning.

Learn more about this important work.

How HIEs are Promoting Interoperability for Rural Providers

Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) can allow health organizations to share patient medical records and increase efficiency of practice, but rural hospitals are less likely to participate. This article describes how HIEs could be useful to rural communities during natural disasters and discusses the importance of investing in rural areas so they can expand electronic health record utilization. Read more here.