New Rural Health Resource

The use of health IT enables better care coordination and instant access to patient information, which can improve health care quality and patient outcomes in rural communities. Follow this link to see some of the ways Health IT will be especially beneficial to rural America where distances between…

Rural Health Resources | Providers & Professionals | HealthIT.gov

http://www.healthit.gov/ruralhealth

Challenges and Opportunities for Improving Mental Health Services in Rural Long-Term Care

• Policy Brief

• Full Report

Despite high levels of need, individuals in long-term care often fail to receive appropriate mental health services, especially in rural areas. In this brief and accompanying working paper, we consider challenges and opportunities for improving mental health treatment delivered to long-term care recipients in rural settings. As background, we note the prevalence of mental health problems in long-term care populations, describe deficiencies in the mental health care afforded to long-term care recipients, and identify barriers that hinder the remediation of these deficiencies in rural settings. We also outline a rationale for enhancing mental health services in long-term care. We then discuss new approaches that have been implemented or could be used to effect positive transformations in the delivery of mental health services to rural long-term care populations. We underscore the potential for synergies between these innovations and provisions introduced under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010. Finally, we delineate policy considerations for promoting new mental health service models in rural long-term care settings.

Contact information:

Jean A. Talbot, PhD, MPH

Maine Rural Health Research Center

Phone: 207-671-5724

jatalbot@usm.maine.edu

Community Benefit Report Tool

TASC is please to share the below resources on Community Benefit Reporting developed by the Rural Hospital Performance Improvement (RHPI) Project, a project funded by the Office of Rural Health Policy, Health Resources and Services Administration. Flex Program personnel can distribute the information to their critical access hospitals and rural health colleagues as they feel fit.

 

 The Rural Hospital Performance Improvement (RHPI) Project has supported the creation of instructional PowerPoint presentations and associated tools to assist hospitals to create their own Community Benefit Report. Each individual resource can be accessed as needed by clicking on its title. 

 

You may access the entire page of options at https://secure.ruralcenter.org/help-registration/content/community-benefit-reporting-tool

 

The first list in the attached document includes a four-part PowerPoint series that presents information for different aspects of creating a Community Benefit Report. The title of each is self-explanatory of the content. Next to each title you will find the exercises or tools associated with that PowerPoint. Exercises were developed in the areas of: community health improvement services; health professions education; subsidized health services; research; cash and in-kind contributions; community building activities; and, community benefit operations activities. Community benefit reporting templates were also developed. Links for each exercise and template can be found in this document. For your convenience, a description of each exercise, tool, worksheet or template is also included. Lastly, links are provided to webinar playbacks on two topics: Community Health Needs Assessment – IRS Proposed Rule; and Justifying Your Hospital’s Tax Exempt Status and Performance Management Group (PMG) call playback on IRS Compliance: Community Benefits Reporting.