On today’s episode, hosts JJ and Rachel talk with Bruce Caswell, former Michigan state senator, former Michigan state representative and former Hillsdale County commissioner, about the ways rural hospitals can engage with elected officials in their state and community.

Telehealth was brought to the forefront of healthcare delivery models during the COVID-19 pandemic as patients were hesitant to leave their homes and the need for isolation and social distancing required more virtual care.

As rural hospitals work to serve their patients locally, accessing state-of-the-art, cutting-edge or advanced imaging technologies can be a barrier, meaning patients either leave town for care or don’t get care at all. So, how do rural hospitals expand their offerings to give patients the care they need at home?

In celebration of National Rural Health Day and the two-year anniversary of Rural Health Rising, hosts JJ and Rachel discuss what “The Power of Rural” means to them.

On today’s episode, hosts JJ and Rachel talk with Mike Shirkey, State Senate Majority Leader, about ensuring rural hospitals are heard at the state legislative level.

On today’s episode, hosts JJ and Rachel talk with John Gadwood, CRNA at Hillsdale Hospital, about managing an advanced practice provider group in rural America.

On today’s episode, hosts JJ and Rachel talk with Jacob Dozier from Community Infusion Solutions about how partners can make specialty services possible for rural hospitals.

Rural hospitals and healthcare providers are constantly facing new challenges as the healthcare industry changes and as regulations shift.

While much of the funding for rural hospitals comes through the federal government, state legislatures also play a key role in funding, supporting and safeguarding their rural hospitals. So, how do rural hospitals ensure their needs are prioritized in the state budget and through state law?

Rural hospitals are often praised for their personalized approach of neighbors caring for neighbors, but along with the rest of the healthcare industry, rural providers are not immune to the increasingly less human-centered care that we sometimes see today.

Rural hospitals have faced significant financial strain to the point of closure for more than 140 hospitals since 2010. Additionally, we are seeing many others facing a high and/or immediate risk of closing in the near future.

This week, JJ and Rachel continue their discussion on how the pandemic impacted individuals with disabilities with Michigan Supreme Court Justice, Richard Bernstein.

COVID-19 has had significant impacts on all sectors of the population for the past three years, but has created particular challenges for those with disabilities who use hearing and touch as communication.

In rural healthcare, it is essential to have support advocating for your needs and developing policies that are helpful to rural hospitals while influencing policies that could be hurtful instead.

Connections between rural hospitals and state wide advocacy organizations that can represent them is crucial to hospital success, and even at times, their survival.

Rural hospitals are often overshadowed or misjudged due to data collection techniques, metric designs that automatically disadvantage rural hospitals with smaller numbers, and the lack of concern for the subsequent misleading results.

Today, we zero in on how rural hospitals can deal with the growing complexity of the regulatory environment.

Gaining community support through fundraising can be difficult for rural hospitals thanks to limited time, resources, and personnel dedicated to this effort.

This week, JJ and Rachel continue in part 2. of our discussion about the importance of strategic planning.

This week in part 1, JJ and Rachel sit down to talk about the importance of strategic planning.

This week, we continue the discussion on the value rural hospitals bring when partnering with larger systems and organizations.

We've talked before about how healthcare partnerships are critical to rural hospitals, but these partnerships are also beneficial to the organizations that we are joining forces with.

This week, we get into the challenges rural hospitals face as they implement their own infection control programs, and how those programs have changed and adapted in response to the pandemic as well as preparing for future outbreaks.