Legislation and regulation

Current Projects

• Characterizing the Current Landscape of Freestanding Emergency Departments in Rural Areas
  This descriptive study will combine a 50-state legal scan with national facility mapping to describe where freestanding emergency departments operate, how they are defined, and whether their locations suggest they are expanding emergency access in rural communities or overlapping with existing rural emergency care infrastructure.
  Research center: ETSU/NORC Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Emergency medical services (EMS) and trauma, Health services, Healthcare access, Hospitals and clinics, Legislation and regulation, Rural Emergency Hospitals (REHs)
  
• Community Health Worker Practice: Jurisdictional Differences and Rural Health Impact
  This project aims to estimate the relationship between state-level community health worker policy provisions and rural health outcomes.
  Research center: Southwest Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Allied health professionals, Health promotion and disease prevention, Legislation and regulation, Public health, Workforce
  
• Nurse Practitioner Scope of Practice Laws and Their Effect on Pediatric Ambulatory Care Sensitive Condition (ACSC)-Related Emergency Department Visits
  This project aims to identify trends and predictors of pediatric ambulatory care sensitive conditions as they relate to patients in urban and rural settings whose nurse practitioners are allowed full practice under the license authority of the state board of nursing. Trends will be compared to those in jurisdictions that do not allow full practice of nurse practitioners.
  Research center: Southwest Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Healthcare access, Legislation and regulation, Nurses and nurse practitioners