Differential Access to Quality Rural Healthcare

Abstract

Using a national dataset, the influence of the community and individual provider characteristics on the availability of healthcare resources in rural areas was evaluated. Disparities continue to exist in the availability of providers including organizational types of providers such as Community Health Centers and Community Mental Health Centers. A lower percentage of nonmetropolitan counties have such centers, and more rural counties within the general grouping of nonmetropolitan counties have fewer of these organizational resources. A case study on the Southwestern region of Virginia is presented to highlight the impact on health outcomes and an innovative community response to the lack of availability of needed healthcare services.

Explaining rural/non-rural disparities in physical health-related quality of life: a study of United Methodist clergy in North Carolina

“…First, most measures rely on 2000 Census data which are likely not reflective of community characteristics in 2008. Second, many Census-based definitions measure rurality at the county or zip code level, which imposes artificial geographic boundaries that may not accurately reflect the immediate vicinity of the churches [2,8,9,15]. This self-report measure addresses these challenges by capturing the surroundings of each church at the time of the survey, albeit subjectively.…”

“…Several dichotomous measures of access to healthcare are included that correspond to methods typically used to assess healthcare accessibility [8,9,11]. …”

“…Explanations of this type often focus on limited availability of resources in rural areas (e.g. healthcare access, home care services) [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Contextual explanations logically suggest that rural living should have negative effects on the HRQL of rural residents regardless of their prior health or cultural orientation.…”

Clinical Management and Patient Outcomes Among Children and Adolescents Receiving Telemedicine Consultations for Obesity

“…Rural populations have poorer access to healthcare and face significant health disparities compared to urban populations. [11][12][13][14][15][16] Rural residents report less access to pediatric and specialty care, greater travel time to healthcare providers, lack of insurance, lower likelihood of exercising, and higher rates of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes compared to their urban counterparts. [17][18][19][20] Unique challenges faced by rural healthcare providers include professional isolation, reduced access to medical information and continuing eduClinical Management and Patient Outcomes Among Children and Adolescents Receiving Telemedicine Consultations for Obesity O cation, and lack of communication with subspecialists and ancillary support services.…”

Call Center and its Significance for Sexual and Reproductive Health

“…Various research studies internationally and nationally also highlighted the impeding factors that account for access of multidisciplinary approach for providing care to client which are lack of continuing education, professional development and availability of resources hinders the physicians and nurses to move into isolated settings for practice [14] may lead to poor health outcomes and unmet health care needs [15].…”