Strengthen Your Mobile Healthcare Program with the RHI Hub Toolkit

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The Rural Health Information Hub (RHI Hub) and the NORC Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis have created the Rural Mobile Healthcare Toolkit to help organizations start mobile healthcare programs in rural areas.

The toolkit highlights model programs and contains resources for program development, implementation, evaluation, and more.

Let’s take a closer look at the toolkit and why support for rural healthcare is important.

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RHI Hub’s Rural Mobile Healthcare Toolkit

The Rural Mobile Healthcare Toolkit includes considerations and challenges that organizations may face when developing, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining mobile healthcare programs in rural communities.

Additionally, the toolkit shares benefits and barriers of mobile healthcare, practical resources and models, and examples of successful mobile healthcare programs from rural communities across the United States.

The toolkit includes 7 modules that programs and individuals can engage with.

Get the toolkit!

What is Rural Health?

The Health Resources and Services Administration defines rural areas as:

• Non-metropolitan counties
• Outlying metropolitan counties with no population from an urban area of 50,000 or more people
• Census tracts with RUCA codes 4-10 in metropolitan counties
• Census tracts of at least 400 square miles in areas with population density of 35 or fewer people per square mile with RUCA codes 2-3 in metropolitan counties
• Census tracts with RRS 5 and RUCA codes 2-3 that are at least 20 square miles in area in metropolitan counties

Rural areas can face many challenges to health care.

“Economic factors, cultural and social differences, educational shortcomings, lack of recognition by legislators and the sheer isolation of living in remote areas all conspire to create health care disparities and impede rural Americans in their struggle to lead normal, healthy lives,” according to the National Rural Health Association.

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The Need for Rural Health Programs

Rural areas often need rural health programs to help meet the needs of residents.

Rural health programs and organizations work to ensure that essential and preventative health services are made available in rural communities.

Rural emergency hospitals, community health workers, telehealth, and other forms of rural health care are crucial for these residents with less access and more health issues.

“To meet local need, rural providers work hard to keep up with change, adding new services, improving quality, exploring new payment models, and using technology to reach more people,” the National Rural Health Resource Center states.

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Improve Health in Your Community

Healthcare should be available to all, no matter where you live.

Have you ever considered the health of your community?

Find out by downloading a Salud America! Health Report Card for your town!

Enter your county name and get auto-generated local data with interactive maps and comparative gauges on several health indicators. This can help you visualize and explore local issues in education, housing, transportation, food, health, and more.

See how your county stacks up compared to the rest of your state and nation.

Then email the Report Card to local leaders to raise awareness, include the data in a presentation or grant proposal, or share it on social media to drive healthy change in your community!

Get your health report card!