The Rural Health category recognizes organizations that have made outstanding contributions to rural health care.
Category Winner
The REACH Partnership, which serves Caswell County, North Carolina and Danville City and Pittsylvania County in Virginia, convenes organizations focused on improving community health to leverage collective resources and amplify impact. Coordinated REACH teams include cross-agency community health workers, care coordinators and community paramedics who serve as a link between healthcare, social services and community members. The REACH teams also serve as liaisons between this rural micropolitan community and available resources to address social drivers of health. Since 2021, the REACH teams have connected 350 clients to 3,592 resources, reduced emergency room visits for 45% of clients, connected 53% of their clients to primary care, and 63% to food and housing resources.
First Runner-Up
Buchanan General Hospital, which serves a rural, underserved community in Virginia, partnered with the local pharmacy school and local pharmacies to make necessary medications more affordable to low-income and self-pay patients. The hospital identified 91 patients who did not have insurance to cover medication costs upon discharge from its emergency department. Of these 91 patients, they successfully connected 60 to receive assistance through the following programs: Mountain Care Meds (through Appalachian College of Pharmacy), local pharmacy discount programs, discount prescription card (such as GoodRX), and/or connection with the local Health Wagon.
Second Runner-Up
By implementing a hospital readmission reduction strategy, which included participating in the Health Quality Innovation Network’s monthly quality improvement sharing meetings, Texas County Memorial Hospital (TCMH) in southern Missouri, achieved a 31% readmission reduction average across its patient portfolio for 2022. The hospital’s readmission rate at the end of 2021 reflected 20.1%, and by the end of 2022, the readmission rate was reduced to 13.7%. Actions that TCMH performed to achieve this success included: follow-up phone calls by case managers for discharged patients, including those discharged to skilled nursing facilities; implementing charge nurses to perform discharges to ensure standardization; readmission interviews; using electronic health records to determine readmission risk levels; and holding an “effective listening” training course for staff.
2023 Nominees
This year’s outstanding nominees represent a wide range of organizations throughout the United States including acute care hospitals, community-based organizations, health collaboratives, long-term care facilities, public health, rural health clinics and voluntary health organizations.
