Research Hot Topics
Rural Healthcare: Serving the Underserved

There are many obstacles that face the rural healthcare system in the United States.  Economic factors, cultural and social differences, educational deficiencies and geography combine to impede the delivery of adequate healthcare in many rural areas. 

A few statistics on the current state of the rural healthcare system, provided by National Rural Health Association:

• Only about ten percent of physicians practice in rural America despite the fact that nearly one-fourth of the population lives in these areas.
• There are 2,157 Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA’s) in rural and frontier areas of all states and US territories compared to 910 in urban areas.
• Anywhere from 57 to 90 percent of first responders in rural areas are volunteers.
• There are 60 dentists per 100,000 population in urban areas versus 4 per 100,000 in rural areas.
• Twenty-five percent of non-metropolitan counties lack mental health services versus five percent of metropolitan counties. 
• More than 470 rural hospitals have closed in the past 25 years.

Medical schools across the country are attempting to answer these challenges with a variety of solutions.  In Georgia, the area surrounding Gainesville is severely underserved due to an influx in retirees.  To increase the access to healthcare, North Georgia College and State University plans to open a 2,700 square foot clinic in their Health and Natural Resources Building.  This clinic, funded by a five year $1.3 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration, will service seven counties.  The main goal of the clinic is to provide continuity of care, something the mountain communities in the region are currently lacking. 

Since 1971, University of California Davis Medical School has been accepting exactly 93 students each year.  With the Association of American Medical Colleges recommending a 30 percent enrollment increase in the next decade to stem the predicted nationwide doctor shortage, UC Davis’s move to increase enrollment is an action being repeated around the country.   Each of the University of California medical schools is focusing on attracting potential doctors to work in underserved areas.  UC Davis’s program will boost enrollment through a program to train doctors who want to live and work in rural communities.  They hope to increase enrollment by ten to twelve students in 2007. 

The University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford began 35 years ago in a defunct tuberculosis sanitarium.  Today, it is a world-renowned center for rural medicine preparing for a $32 million expansion of its National Center for Rural Health Professions.  The college has built a reputation for sending graduates into underserved small towns, graduating about 15 from the Rural Medical Education Program each year.  These students are highly sought.  Dr. Matt Hunsaker, director of the program, receives two or three calls a day from rural hospitals and offices looking to recruit his students.  The Center expansion will boost the college’s specialty training capabilities, including training for physicians, dentists, pharmacists, nurses and public health officials.