While there are a number of popular issues in healthcare that are frequently discussed and debated, one that gets less limelight — though it’s no less important and pressing — is the problem of rural healthcare. Namely, the fact that scores of people living in rural areas have far less access to the healthcare resources they need than their city-dwelling counterparts.
Thankfully, a number of new solutions are emerging as potential answers to the disheartening issue of rural healthcare. Becoming familiar with the concepts and technologies that have the potential to solve the issue of rural access to healthcare can give one a clearer idea of the trajectory of healthcare in the coming decade.
Here are some innovative solutions for addressing representation and access in rural healthcare.
Engaging In More Telehealth Practices
Telehealth is a form of healthcare that is steadily becoming a more and more utilized tool by healthcare institutions across the country — especially those serving residents of rural areas. Put simply, tele-health is the practice of providing remote healthcare through electronic means. Examples of tele-health include diagnosing a patient over a video call and allowing patients to renew their prescriptions online.
As one can imagine, taking physical proximity out of the equation for rural residents can greatly improve rural access to healthcare. Unfortunately, there are still some critical drawbacks to tele-health at this point in time. Particularly, that not all diagnoses, assessments, and treatments can be conducted remotely.
However, despite its limitations, an increased focus on tele-health can allow institutions to engage in better preventative treatments with rural patients, which can have a profoundly positive impact on their future health outcomes. So, while tele-health is not necessarily an end-all-be-all solution to this issue of rural residents lacking access to healthcare resources, it can help make some significant headway on the problem.
Prioritizing Health Literacy in Rural Areas
While lack of access to healthcare is one of the most glaring issues associated with rural healthcare, another significant issue is that of a lack of appropriate health literacy in many rural areas. In essence, health literacy is the ability to seek out and comprehend health-related information and use it to inform decisions that can impact one’s health.
In many rural areas, due to a number of critical factors such as culture, levels of education, and socio-economic status, a considerable amount of residents lack health literacy. This means that they have an inaccurate understanding of the ways that various actions impact their health. For example, many rural residents may smoke and drink excessively while never engaging in meaningful exercise without understanding the dramatically negative impact this has on their health.
In addition to increasing the number of unhealthy behaviors that rural residents engage in, a lack of health literacy also makes them less likely to seek out appropriate medical attention. This includes both routine check-ups and assessments as well as seeking help for more advanced or acute ailments.
Given the markedly devastating health outcomes that rural residents can experience as a result of undeveloped health literacy, focusing efforts on improving health literacy can greatly impact the lives of masses of individuals. By becoming more health literate, rural residents will be more likely to both engage in healthier behaviors and seek out routine medical attention. This being the case, health literacy is a critical aspect of the rural healthcare problem that can help transform the lives of many people in these areas.
Normalizing Mobile Health Care
As has been noted, one of the biggest obstacles standing between rural residents and healthcare is distance. To make matters worse, many rural areas experienced hospital closures as a result of COVID-19, further exacerbating the issue of rural healthcare access. Thankfully, one solution with incredible potential has been gaining steam and becoming more popular in the healthcare field. Namely, mobile health care practices in which healthcare institutions mobilize their practices and travel to patients rather than vice versa.
In its most effective form, mobile health care is performed by creating and utilizing mobile clinics that are equipped with the same appliances and medical equipment as physician’s offices, as well as Mobile Integrated Healthcare software which can provide assistance to 911 callers who may not need emergency care but still have real health needs. These clinics on wheels then travel routinely to rural areas to provide health assessments and treatments to residents of the areas.
The potential of mobile health clinics can’t be understated as they have the potential to address the healthcare needs of rural residents in several keyways. Firstly, they are able to solve the issue of transportation and distance. Secondly, mobile health clinics can play a key role in helping rural residents develop better health literacy and cause a shift in rural culture to put more value on being healthy and receiving medical care consistently.
The more that healthcare institutions invest in mobile health care efforts, the more normalized it will become in rural areas. As a result, residents will become more acclimatized to living in a culture in which routine healthcare is normalized and will likely put more effort into seeking out health resources even when mobile ones aren’t available.
Investing in Rural Healthcare Infrastructure
One of the most glaringly obvious issues in the rural healthcare problem is a lack of healthcare infrastructure in rural areas. Due to this lack, there are fewer networks of healthcare organizations that rural residents have access to. To remedy this critical problem facing the marginalized individuals living in rural areas, government institutions and healthcare organizations must invest in rural healthcare structures.
To effectively build rural healthcare infrastructure, a number of crucial factors must be invested in. These include:
- Increasing the number of hospitals and healthcare facilities in rural areas
- Increasing the number of skilled healthcare professionals in rural areas
- Addressing the transportation needs of rural residents
- Expanding specialized care in rural areas
Once better healthcare infrastructure is developed in rural areas, the issue of rural residents not having access to healthcare will be greatly lessened. This being the case, it makes sense that governments and healthcare organizations should prioritize bolstering this type of infrastructure in rural areas to help tackle the issue of rural healthcare.
Rural Residents Deserve Access to Healthcare
Rural residents have been unjustly forgotten by healthcare for decades. As a result, scores of rural residents are currently finding themselves with a number of health ailments that could have been avoided if they were afforded the same access to healthcare as those in urban environments.
Thankfully, this is beginning to change in consequential ways. A number of effective solutions, ranging from telemedicine to increased healthcare infrastructure in rural areas, are providing rural residents with a path to having appropriate healthcare access. Hopefully, as we delve deeper into the future, these solutions will become a normalized part of rural healthcare and the lives of masses of rural residents will be transformed in incredibly positive ways.
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