Healthcare in Rural Communities

By: Hamza Ali

Main Concerns of Rural Communities

• Low population size as a result of people not wanting to

live in these areas
• Lower incomes as a result of lower opportunities of
education
• Longer travel distances as a result of there being a low
population density
• A lack of basic resources
Introduction

• Rural areas are considered anything outside of the

metropolitan area (city with over 50000 residents).
• 19.3% of the United States Population lives in rural areas
• Rural communities receive less attention when compared
to urban areas
• Because of the concerns listed previously, a reform in
the system of healthcare is necessary to provide the best
quality life
Example of Rural Landscape
Leading Causes of Disease

• Rural communities have a higher rate of:

• Smoking
• Obesity
• Inactivity in times of leisure
• These conditions result in an overall higher rate of death
Leading Causes of Death

• Urban and rural communities have the same top 5 causes

of death, but those in rural communities have a
significantly higher death rate
• Heart Disease
• Cancer
• Unintentional injury
• Chronic lower respiratory disease
• stroke
Healthcare Issues in Rural Communities

• The main healthcare issues people in rural communities

face are:
• A lack of funding for more healthcare facilities
• Poor response times for EMS
• The major issues in rural healthcare stems from:
• A lack of health literacy
• A low amount of physicians working in rural areas
Rural Physician Recruitment and Retention

• Only 9% of the nation’s physicians work in rural areas

• There are far fewer specialists who work in rural areas
• Many physicians working in rural areas live in places directly adjacent to
metropolitan areas
• Results in healthcare facilities being generally far away from
people in rural areas
• With healthcare facilities being so far from people, many people choose not
to go to hospitals for regular checkups and screenings
Solution for Physician Recruitment

• Medical schools have decided to help rural communities

by making it their mission to take in students who will
serve the underserved communities in the surrounding
area
• Ex) North East Ohio Medical University
Health Literacy

• Many issues in healthcare stem from a lack of understanding in patients

• “studies have linked limited health literacy to misunderstanding
instructions about prescription medication, medication errors, poor
comprehension of nutrition labels, and mortality” (“National Action
Plan”, 2010)
• Examples of health literacy
• Wearing a seatbelt
• The rate of people in rural communities wearing seatbelts is lower.
An increase would result in fewer people dying from accidents.
• Importance of routine screening
• Can catch illnesses early before they become something very hard
Solutions for Rural Health

• There has been an increase in instilling health literacy in youth

• Bills have been trying to get passed which make CPR training a requirement
for students to graduate high school
• Currently 39 states in which these bills have been passed
• The passage of these bills would prove to be very important for rural
communities
• With rural communities have wait times for EMS double on average when
compared to urban areas, they have a higher rate of dying from
emergency situations of heart failure and stroke
• If CPR was administered, many people could be kept alive long enough for
EMS to arrive
Conclusion

• People in rural areas face barriers which people in urban areas

don’t often have to deal with
• Lower and more spread out population
• Financial issues
• Lower income
• Lack of funding for construction projects
• Inability to retain and recruit physicians
• Decreased health literacy
• These factors result in a lower quality of care provided to rural
communities
Conclusion (Cont.)

• Attempts have been made to fix the needs people in rural

areas have
• Programs and bills which promote growth of infrastructure
• Programs which promote healthy learning
• There is much work to be done in order to improve
healthcare in rural communities, and with time will come
more advancements in the treatment of people in rural
communities
References

• Alexander, B. (2018, January 9). America's Rural Hospitals Are Dangerously Fragile.
• Retrieved
• April 18, 2018, from https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/01/rural-hospitals/549050/
• 
• Coutre, L. (2017, September 1). Cleveland Clinic operating income soars for first half of
• 2017.
• Retrieved April 18, 2018, from http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20170901/NEWS/170909993
•  
• Flex Program. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2018, from https://www.ruralcenter.org/tasc/flex
• 
• Moy, E. (2017, January 13). Leading Causes of Death in Nonmetropolitan and Metropolitan
• Areas — United States, 1999–2014. Retrieved April 18, 2018, from https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/ss/ss6601a1.htm?
s_cid=ss6601a1_w
• 
• New Census Data Show Differences Between Urban and Rural Populations. (2016,
• December
• 8). Retrieved April 18, 2018, from https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2016/cb16-210.html
References (Cont.)

• Phillips, S. (2015). Data Shows Rural Hospitals At Risk Without Special Attention from
• Lawmakers. Retrieved April 18, 2018, from https://hcmpllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2017-6-28-CORRECTED-Rev.-HMP-Study-AHCA-
Imperils-Rural-Hospitals.pdf
•  
• Rosenblatt, R. (2000). Physicians and rural America. Western Journal of Medicine,348-351.
• Retrieved April 18, 2018, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1071163/.
•  
• States where CPR Training is Mandatory for High School Graduation. (2017). Retrieved
• April
• 18, 2018, from https://schoolcpr.com/about/states-where-cpr-training-is-mandatory-for-high-school-graduation/
•  
• Temple, K. (2017, April 19). Rural Health Literacy: Understanding Skills and Demands is
• Key
• to Improvement. Retrieved April 18, 2018, from https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/rural-monitor/rural-health-literacy/
•  
• What is Rural? (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2018, from https://www.nal.usda.gov/ric/what-is-
• rural