Rural Health Today

Rural hospitals often transfer patients for higher levels of care, both from the emergency room and their inpatient units. But sending them to another facility can be detrimental to the hospital, not to mention the hardship it creates for families and loved ones to visit during the patient’s hospitalization out of town. So, how do rural hospitals take care of their patients locally as often as pos...

Rural hospitals need support from their state legislatures to operate in a way that not only allows them to best serve their communities, but to survive in an increasingly challenging environment. Fighting for critical funding is often an uphill battle, especially when that means supporting programs that are unpopular in their community or with their elected officials. So, how do rural hospitals e...

Recruiting specialty and advanced practice providers to rural communities is a challenge for many small hospitals, especially in today’s environment. Retaining enough staff to provide needed coverage is no small feat, especially for critical services like anesthesia that keep other service lines in operation. So, how do rural hospitals recruit and keep excellent providers in their challenging and...

Specialty outpatient services like infusion can be a risky business for rural hospitals. Such a service requires drugs that come at a very high cost and a challenging reimbursement process that can leave hospitals holding the bag and unable to sustain infusion care for their communities. So, how do rural hospitals find a way to provide specialty services like this without facing financial woes? On...

Rural hospitals and healthcare providers are constantly facing new challenges as the healthcare industry changes and as regulations shift. At the same time, legislators and federal agencies need to hear from rural hospitals if any new action needs to be taken for their benefit or if coming changes will impact them. Our guest today is Carrie Cochran-McClain, Chief Policy Officer for the National Ru...

While much of the funding for rural hospitals comes through the federal government, state legislatures also play a key role in funding, supporting and safeguarding their rural hospitals. So, how do rural hospitals ensure their needs are prioritized in the state budget and through state law? On today’s episode, hosts JJ and Rachel talk with Michigan State Rep. Andrew Fink about funding and represen...

Rural hospitals are often praised for their personalized approach of neighbors caring for neighbors, but along with the rest of the healthcare industry, rural providers are not immune to the increasingly less human-centered care that we sometimes see today. To help us understand the importance of more personable and less mechanical care, we welcome Dr. Charles Vear, retired Chief of Staff at our v...

Rural hospitals face significant financial strain to the point of closure for more than 140 hospitals since 2010. Additionally, we are seeing many others facing a high and/or immediate risk of closing in the near future. Today, we dive back into this very important topic with our guest, David Usher, Chief Financial Officer at Ray County Memorial Hospital.

This week, JJ and Rachel continue their discussion on how the pandemic impacted individuals with disabilities with Michigan Supreme Court Justice, Richard Bernstein.

COVID-19 has had significant impacts on all sectors of the population for the past three years, but has created particular challenges for those with disabilities who use hearing and touch as communication. To help us understand how the critical institutions in our community and state need to support those with disabilities in todays COVID-19 affected world and in case of future pandemics, we welco...

In rural healthcare, it is essential to have support advocating for your needs and developing policies that are helpful to rural hospitals while influencing policies that could be hurtful instead. In order to find out how rural hospitals ensure that issues important to them are addressed through effective policies, we welcome Lauren LaPine, Director of Small & Rural Hospitals & Policy Programs at...

Connections between rural hospitals and state wide advocacy organizations that can represent them is crucial to hospital success, and even at times, their survival. These partnerships assist hospitals in providing affordable healthcare to their community, focusing on quality initiatives and even advocating for them with their local legislatures. Our guests this week are Lindsay Peters, Senior Dire...

There are many entities that rate and evaluate hospitals for quality, safety and more. However, rural hospitals are often overshadowed or misjudged due to data collection techniques, metric designs that automatically disadvantage rural hospitals with smaller numbers, and the lack of concern for the subsequent misleading results. This week, we welcome someone who specializes in data collection and...

Healthcare is one of the most regulated industries that exist today, and the maze of regulations continues to expand. Today, we zero in on how rural hospitals can deal with the growing complexity of the regulatory environment. Our guest this week is Martie Ross, Office Managing Principal at PYA, and Director of the Center for Rural Health Advancement.

Gaining community support through fundraising can be difficult for rural hospitals thanks to limited time, resources, and personnel dedicated to this effort. A strong development program however, can bolster the bottom line and more importantly, build affinity towards the hospital among members of the community. Our guest this week is Lisa Alexander, President of CoxHealth Foundation.

When it comes to a rural hospital becoming more financially sustainable, having a strategy is critical. This week, JJ and Rachel continue in part 2. of our discussion about the importance of strategic planning.

When it comes to a rural hospital becoming more financially sustainable, having a strategy is critical. This week in part 1, JJ and Rachel sit down to talk about the importance of strategic planning.

This week, we continue the discussion on the value rural hospitals bring when partnering with larger systems and organizations. Our guest today is Jeff Sommer, Managing Director at Stroudwater Associates.

We've talked before about how healthcare partnerships are critical to rural hospitals, but these partnerships are also beneficial to the organizations that we are joining forces with. Today, we look into the value rural hospitals bring to their partner organizations, and how to use that value to leverage more relationships with increased returns. Our guest this week is Eric Shell, Chairman of Stro...

Infection control is a term that is now well understood even outside of healthcare thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. This week, we get into the challenges rural hospitals face as they implement their own infection control programs, and how those programs have changed and adapted in response to the pandemic as well as preparing for future outbreaks. Our guest today is Randy Holland, Director of Anci...

Access to prenatal care in rural communities is critical to the health and well-being of mothers and their children, but its often difficult to access, limited in scope, or worse, non existent. To help us take a deeper look into this topic, we welcome Brittany Page, Registered Nurse, at the Bediako Birthing Center here at Hillsdale Hospital.

Connecting with federal government decision makers is an important t part of rural hospital advocacy efforts. But without a Washington DC base, it's not easy to cultivate those relationships. This week, we welcome someone who has partnered with Hillsdale Hospital to help cultivate political relationships. Our guest is Mark Mcintyre, Co-founder and Principal of Merchant Mcintyre Associates.

As rural hospitals work to provide the best quality of care for their patients, while maintaining financial solvency, programs like 340B can help make drugs more affordable. 340B and other programs can make or break a hospitals ability to remain financially solvent. But 340B is currently under threat from the pharmaceutical industry and others who would like to see it discontinued or scaled back....

Last week we discussed the myriad of headlines relating to financial losses hospitals are facing across the country. Since then we've seen even more headlines on hospitals posting significant financial losses. JJ and Rachel sit down to discuss possible solutions for hospitals as well as what the public can do to advocate for their hospitals, especially rural. National Rural Health Association: rur...

This week, JJ and Rachel sit down to talk about the healthcare industry's aftershocks coming on after the pandemic. We also look into some of the factors contributing to the financial situation rural hospitals find themselves in today.