Instructions: Prepare a 4–5-page summary report of a rural health care problem and potential solutions. Note: Complete the assessments in this course in the order in which they are presented. Turning barriers into bridges is a skill you will want to develop as a care coordination expert. Today, care coordination is required often in rural areas where there are limited resources and the need to work creatively with interprofessional team members who may reside outside of the local area. The use of telehealth becomes a bridge to care coordination as a collaborative tool for health care providers as a team of specialist.
Summary Report on Rural Health Care and Affordable Solutions
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Summary Report on Rural Health Care and Affordable Solutions
Rural healthcare plays a significant role in their communities. Apart from enhancing the rural population’s health and well-being, rural hospitals provide employment opportunities to community residents and attract other business ventures that boost living standards (Rogan & Lewis, 2020). Despite these benefits, rural healthcare facilities struggle financially, and a significant number of them have shut down. America has closed 121 hospitals since 2010 forcing rural residents to travel to urban areas to access healthcare services, which undermines rural patients’ access to necessary services (Rogan & Lewis, 2020). Identifying long-term solutions to rural healthcare is necessary to enhance rural facilities’ operational and financial flexibility.
Rural Population and Needs
A rural community is a community that is less densely populated compared to the urban population. The community is characterized by high unemployment rates, poverty, underinsured and uninsured populations, and underemployed than urban areas. Rural communities face multiple patients’ issues. They include healthcare workers shortage, limited rural health training opportunities, and delaying care. According to Nielsen, D’Agostino, & Gregory (2017), approximately 20% of Americans reside in rural areas. However, less than a tenth of physicians practice in these areas. By 2025, rural areas will experience a shortage of about 20,000 primary care physicians per federal government estimates (Nielsen, D’Agostino, & Gregory, 2017). The problem is worsened by limited health training opportunities in rural areas. Most residencies and medical schools in the United States are in suburban and urban areas, leading to fewer physicians willing to practice in rural settings.
Additionally, students in remote areas have limited opportunities to obtain prerequisite science and math courses required by medical schools (Nielsen, D’Agostino, & Gregory, 2017). Rural residents are forced to travel long distances to access care. Most rural residents are a self-employed farming community. The need to care for their crops and livestock are given priority over traveling long distances to access care. Thus, rural population delays seeking care, leading to sicker patients with complex illness. The One population I can assist with this plan is Hispanic group residing in the rural community.
Care Coordinators should have a thorough comprehension of the community they serve. The trust they develop with the community allows them to act as intermediary and liaisons between the community and social/health services. However, the care coordinator should be aware of the diversity of the rural population. For instance, some of them are low-wage laborers; some are framers, while others are self-employed. Therefore, the healthcare coordinator should address the challenges that these individuals face while seeking healthcare services.
Current Available Interprofessional Team Providers and Resources
Inter-professional team providers involve healthcare workers from distinct disciplines collaborating to provide patients with complementary and integrated services. According to Morley and Cashell (2017), inter-professional teams results in improved health outcomes, innovative and patient-focused care, and clinically excellent services. In the rural community, social workers, physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and other healthcare workers collaborate to improve patient outcomes. However, rural healthcare features like staff shortages, distance, and service centralization threaten effective inter-professional practice. Despite these challenges, inter-professional team providers can collaborate with telehealth partners and other stakeholders in the region to provide quality and safe care to the rural population. Telehealth uses audio technology and video to connect specialists and care providers in large and small hospitals, respectively (Harrison, 2019). The use of this technology reduces the burdens and challenges encountered by rural patients while seeking specialty care, such as transportation issues. Therefore, telehealth will promote inter-professional teamwork between rural and urban hospitals to enhance service delivery.
Areas of Cultural Competency the Team must address
Hispanic/Latino population is culturally diverse because of their distinct origins. For instance, some of this population came from the Caribbean while others came