AHA's Rural Podcast Series

Winona Health and the Winona Wellbeing Collaborative have addressed the fragmentation and silos between local agencies and providers. Hear from Rachelle Schultz, Ed.D., CEO, Winona Health and community leaders how the Pathways Community HUB model was used as a framework in designing the Winona Community HUB to serve the unique needs of the region. A community connector from Live Well Winona tracks the progress of clients through the HUB model, which is sustained by commercial payments for completed pathways.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital solutions, including mobile health apps, patient portals and telehealth serve as a critical access point for health care providers to reach patients. However, many individuals have not been able to benefit from these digital solutions. In this podcast, Julia Resnick, director of AHA’s Strategic Initiatives is joined by Priya Bathija, vice president of AHA’s Strategic Initiatives and Sarah Swank, Counsel at Nixon Peabody. Priya and Sarah will discuss their upcoming article on digital health equity in a special edition of the American Health Law Association Journal of Health and Life Sciences Law. Here, they discuss barriers to access digital solutions and the role of health care leaders, including attorneys, in improving digital health equity.

Rural hospitals are community strongholds, serving as the key point of care for nearly 20 percent of Americans. Beyond providing healing and hope, rural hospitals nationwide are pillars of their local economies, creating essential jobs that support families and community vitality. Access to behavioral health services has been a chronic need across rural America for decades. Driven largely by shortages of clinical professionals, the demand for care has only grown during the COVID-19 pandemic. While tele-behavioral health has shown promise, much more must be done to eliminate the disparity and access to care and treatment to those who live in rural communities. On this podcast we hear from 3 leaders from across rural America who found a way, tele-health, outpatient, and inpatient, to deliver essential behavioral health services to the residents of their communities.

A confluence of economic factors have skyrocketed the cost of caring for patients and communities. In this podcast that highlights a new report from the AHA detailing these factors, Philip Pandolph, president and CEO, Meadville (PA) Medical Center and Chair of the AHA Rural Health Services Committee, explains how rising costs for supplies and equipment, drugs, and labor, along with inflation and razor thin margins has left his hospital vulnerable.

Local leaders responded to findings from the RWJF County Health Rankings and their Community Health Assessment and organized a broad-based community effort to improve the health and well-being of their population. On this episode we hear from leaders of Sky Lakes Medical Center, Healthy Klamath and Klamath Works how they combined their resources to help reverse the community’s health trajectory and become a certified Blue Zone designed to make healthy choices easier through permanent changes to a town’s environment, policy, and social networks.

In recognition of National Rural Health Day, John Supplitt, Sr. Director, AHA Rural Health Services is joined by four colleagues from AHA each of whom has a unique perspective on pathways to recovery and solutions to the challenges confronting rural health care providers and the communities they serve. Workforce, behavioral health, and maternal health are among the highest priorities of rural communities. Experts offer their insights and solutions with a special focus on the role of the hospital board in leading the effort.

On this podcast AHA offers part two of two podcasts on rebuilding maternity services at a critical access hospital. Cristen Page, M.D., executive dean of UNC School of Medicine and Jeff Strickler, CEO of Chatham Hospital UNC Health Care, Siler City discuss the business case and how the plan was fulfilled to reintroduce safe and sustainable maternity services. You may listen to Part 1 here.

In this podcast marking Mental Health Awareness Month, Shane McGuire, CEO of Columbia County Health System in Dayton, Wash., discusses the hospital district’s collaborative work with the University of Washington’s psychiatry program and its Advancing Integrated Mental Health Center, which focuses on creating care models between primary care providers and their mental health care counterparts. Listen to learn how well-conceived partnerships helped expand mental health care to this rural community by integrating physical and mental health.

On this podcast AHA offers part one of two podcasts on rebuilding maternity services at a critical access hospital. Cristen Page, M.D., executive dean of UNC School of Medicine and Jeff Strickler, CEO of Chatham Hospital UNC Health Care, Siler City discuss the strategic need and clinical case for maternity services at this small, rural community.

In this Members in Action podcast featuring maternal and child health efforts, Aisha Syeda, program manager at the AHA speaks with Kelsey Kyle, a RN care manager at St. Peter’s Health and her community partner, Brie MacLaurin, a nurse and the executive director of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, the Montana Coalition, Inc. Together, they discuss St. Peter’s Health Taking Care of You program, a parental support approach for treating perinatal mood and anxiety disorders in a rural communities of Montana.