While rural residents can do much to improve their health, such as getting more exercise, having more regular examinations, stopping smoking and eating better foods, there are some things residents can’t do. Chief among them is having adequate healthcare access. In the vast majority of cases, there is limited access to hospitals, clinics and care providers. Many areas lack pharmacies or sufficient options for buying healthy groceries.
New programs like Hospital-at-Home and Acute-Care-at-Home are giving health systems an opportunity to reduce inpatient traffic and give patients the care they need in their own homes.
...
Recent CMS and CDC rulings offer hope that health systems will show more love for innovative treatments like digital therapeutics and virtual platforms.
...
The Rhode Island School of Design's Center for Complexity has developed a new tool that helps non-English patients accurately describe their pain for emergency care providers.
...