Question: How to find good health care in rural areas without having to drive hours to a big city?
From: Julie T. of Warner, OK
Answer: Access to healthcare for people living in rural areas is a major concern. I would like to share a few statistics with my readers. According to the American Hospital Association, 54 million Americans (including 9 million Medicare recipients) live in rural areas. For many, travel to community or urban hospitals is limiting. Additionally, rural hospitals face the pressure of decreased government payment and limited assets. Rural areas tend to have higher poverty rates and a higher percentage of elderly, that segment of the population which is in poorer health. Although approximately 20% of the U.S. population lives in rural areas, only 9% of the country’s physicians practice there (from U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality). The federal government is aware of this imbalance and has made efforts to improve the situation. Government designated Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) are often found in rural areas and are paid by the government on a cost basis rather than the prospective payment system (paid on cost rather than diagnosis basis). Some medical schools are trying to do more to rotate medical students into rural areas. Currently, the federal government reimburses Nurse Practitioners in Federally designated rural areas but legislation is pending for all areas. Nurse Practitioners are registered nurses with advanced degrees and can treat common ailments, do physical exams, prescribe medicine, manage chronic health problems, and do medical screenings.
In your state of Oklahoma, there are 124 hospitals, 70 of which are in rural areas. 33 are designated CAHs. There are 42 Rural Health Clinics, and 9 Federally Qualified Health Centers providing services at 28 sites. According to the State Office of Rural Health and the Rural Assistance Center website (www.raconline.org/state/oklahoma), there has been an initiative for a traveling telemedicine bus. This mobile clinic is equipped with satellite communication and has exam rooms. Physicians, medical residents, and medical students from OSU man the bus. Also, some medical schools are requiring 3rd year medical students to spend 2 thirty day rotations with a rural provider. 4th year medical students are to spend 2 thirty rotations in rural hospitals.
For anyone living in a rural area and has limited access to providers or finds them to be at a distance, please check www.raconline.org for your state’s list of clinics and health centers. If physicians are few and distant, check whether for a nurse practitioner in your area. I actually googled “finding a nurse practitioner” and found several sites for consumers.
Ruthann Russo, PhD, JD, MPH, RHIT, is a healthcare expert with more than 20 years of experience working in and advising healthcare organizations.
