Rural Health
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Workforce

Current Projects

  • Assessing Access to Medication Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in Rural Communities Influenced by the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP)
    This project will use national prescription claims data to compare access to buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder in rural counties with and without Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP) funding and urban counties. An accurate understanding of access to buprenorphine treatment is essential for determining the influence of RCORP funding on a critical strategy for curbing the opioid epidemic.
    Research center: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
    Topics: Health services, Healthcare access, Mental and behavioral health, Pharmacy and prescription drugs, Substance use and treatment, Workforce
  • Challenges to Implementing Recommended Cybersecurity Practices at Rural Hospitals
    This project seeks to identify and describe financial costs of adopting recommended cybersecurity practices at rural hospitals, differences in cybersecurity challenges faced by Critical Access Hospitals and other rurally-located hospitals, and workforce-related challenges such as recruitment and retention of qualified information technology and information security professionals.
    Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
    Topics: Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), Health information technology, Healthcare access, Hospitals and clinics, Workforce
  • Changes in Rural Health Insurance Coverage, 2019-2024
    This project uses secondary data sources to characterize changes in health insurance coverage during 2019-2024 for rural and urban people. The analysis will focus on changes associated with demographic, economic (particularly employment), and geographic characteristics, and will describe how exogenous changes (e.g., the economy, pandemic) as well as changes in federal policies impacted coverage.
    Research center: RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis
    Topics: Healthcare access, Healthcare financing, Medicaid and CHIP, Medicare, Private health insurance, Rural statistics and demographics, Social determinants of health, Uninsured and underinsured, Workforce
  • 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
  • Evaluating the Impact and Progress of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy's Rural Public Health Workforce Training Network Program
    HRSA established the Rural Public Health Workforce Training Network Program to expand health service capacity by supporting public health job development, training, and placement in rural and tribal communities. This project will examine how the program's 32 grantees implemented their activities and will assess the impact of their program activities.
    Research center: Southwest Rural Health Research Center
    Topics: Allied health professionals, Workforce
  • Evaluating the Variation in Rural and Urban Hospital Wages and Wage Index Pre- and Post-COVID-19 Pandemic
    The primary purpose of the wage index is to address the differences in labor costs that hospitals experience based on their geographical location.
    Research center: North Carolina Rural Health Research Center
    Topics: Healthcare financing, Hospitals and clinics, Medicare, Workforce
  • Geographic Misclassification of Cancer Care Physicians and Rural Cancer Care Service Delivery Patterns
    This study will examine the potential misclassification of rural cancer care capacity by quantifying the degree to which classification by primary practice location underestimates the availability of cancer care services in rural areas when urban-based physicians regularly cross geographic boundaries to serve rural populations.
    Research center: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
    Topics: Cancer, Health services, Healthcare access, Physicians, Rural statistics and demographics, Workforce
  • Health, Well-being, and Supportive Services for Caregivers by Rural-Urban Location
    Informal caregivers (sometimes called "unpaid" or "family" caregivers) make up the majority of all care provided in the U.S., yet their labor often goes unseen and undervalued. Such caregiving takes many forms, including caring for an older adult requiring long-term services and supports, caring for an adult with a long-term disability, or caring for children. This project will build on prior University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center research to further explore dimensions of rural and urban caregiver characteristics and access to services, and new and emerging models to support health of rural caregivers.
    Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
    Topics: Aging, Care management, Disabilities, Long-term care, Workforce
  • Marriage and Family Therapist and Mental Health Counselor Training Programs
    This study will examine the national geographic distribution of marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors training programs, characterize variation in state training requirements, and assess the extent to which programs incorporate rural-specific curricula or clinical rotations.
    Research center: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
    Topics: Healthcare access, Medicare, Mental and behavioral health, Workforce
  • Rural and Urban Medical School Programs that Demonstrate a Commitment to Producing Rural Physicians
    Studies of individual medical schools have identified characteristics associated with working in rural areas, but little is known about which organizational factors are the most significant predictors of rural practice. This project will examine characteristics of medical schools' missions and organizational commitments to promote physician practice in rural communities.
    Research center: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
    Topics: Health services, Healthcare access, Physicians, Workforce
  • Rural Dementia Spending and Workforce Supply
    This project will estimate the rural and urban supply of dementia care specialists in the U.S. and examine differences health care spending patterns for dementia across the rural-urban continuum using claims and facility records data.
    Research center: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
    Topics: Aging, Health services, Healthcare access, Medicaid and CHIP, Medicare, Nurses and nurse practitioners, Physicians, Workforce
  • Strengthening Interoperability for Rural Hospitals: The Role of TEFCA
    The digital divide between rural and urban hospitals (a gap in adoption and use of robust IT tools to support care delivery) has narrowed considerably in recent years. And yet, hospitals in rural communities are still struggling with access to and routine use of interoperable health information exchange (HIE) capabilities. The Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) is the federal policy solution to offering all health care organizations an on-ramp to interoperable HIE, particularly entities that lack other vendor-specific alternatives. This project seeks to describe rates of TEFCA participation among Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and other rurally-located hospitals, and characterize whether and how reported barriers to interoperability vary based on TEFCA participation.
    Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
    Topics: Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), Health information technology, Healthcare access, Hospitals and clinics, Telehealth, Workforce
  • The Emerging Landscape of Rural Family Medicine Residency Training: Defining Models and Assessing Their Value
    Rural residency training options for family physicians are growing, as is the evidence for rural training in promoting rural practice choice. This study aims to use a new classification of six residency program types to describe and quantify programs and positions by type and compare relative effectiveness in producing rural physicians.
    Research center: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
    Topics: Health services, Healthcare access, Physicians, Workforce
  • The Nursing Home and Skilled Nursing Facility Workforce in the Rural and Urban U.S.
    This project will describe the rural and urban distribution of nursing and non-nursing staff in U.S. long-term care facilities and investigate how the workforce varies by facility and community characteristics.
    Research center: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
    Topics: Aging, Healthcare access, Long-term care, Workforce
  • Variation in Scope of Practice and Services Provided by Rural vs Urban Primary Care Providers
    This project will examine differences in practice patterns between rural and urban primary care providers by analyzing insurance claims data to determine variations in the density and intensity of services provided directly by primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants across different geographic settings.
    Research center: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
    Topics: Health services, Healthcare access, Nurses and nurse practitioners, Physician assistants, Physicians, Workforce
  • Variation in Wages and Employment of Administrative Staff in Rural Hospitals and Nursing Homes
    This study examines employment levels and wages for administrative staff such as dietary, housekeeping, and maintenance workers across healthcare and non-healthcare settings in rural and urban areas.
    Research center: RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis
    Topics: Hospitals and clinics, Long-term care, Post-acute care, Rural statistics and demographics, Workforce