By Tim Marema
In the Adirondacks of New York, the loss of young people and working families has hollowed out the economy and local institutions. A report from a regional nonprofit suggests how communities can begin to reverse that process. Public-lands communities around the U.S. will recognize the questions the report seeks to address.
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New research from the HRSA-funded RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis shows that a higher percentage of nursing homes closed in nonmetropolitan counties in the U.S.
The report shows that between 2008 and 2018, 1,255 nursing homes closed across the country. As of 2018, almost 8 percent of U.S. counties had no nursing home, with 10 percent of nonmetro counties and less than 4 percent of metro counties lacking nursing homes. Of the 243 counties with no nursing homes, 44 were newly created “nursing home deserts” (counties with no nursing home) because of nursing home closures between 2008 and 2018; about 91 percent of these new nursing home deserts were in nonmetropolitan counties.
HRSA has published a new report on the education and training of the U.S. nursing workforce based on data from the 2018 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses (NSSRN). Did you know that the proportion of nurses who graduated with a bachelor’s degree rose to 54.5 percent in the years between 2012 and 2016, compared to only 22.9 percent before 1971? Check out other highlights from the report (PDF – 524 KB).
Using data from 245 health centers that completed the voluntary weekly Health Center COVID-19 Survey, a new CDC article reviews trends in telehealth use, including by U.S. Census region and urban/rural classification, during a 20-week period. Study results underscore the need to sustain expanded telehealth use among health centers and to continue to address barriers to telehealth adoption, particularly in the south and rural areas.
For more information about survey results—including links to dashboards—visit our Health Center COVID-19 Survey page.
This study from the Maine Rural Health Research Center identifies states potentially at risk for an HIV outbreak among persons who inject drugs in order to examine rural-urban differences in surveillance, prevention, and response to outbreak. Related to this project, Maine researchers also created a chartbook of rural HIV prevalence and service availability, and a report on rural-urban differences in rates of maternal infection with hepatitis C virus.
In its latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention report that more than 47,000 deaths were attributed to suicide in 2019. For the first time in a decade, the overall suicide rate from 2018 to 2019 declined. The lowest rate was found in large central metropolitan areas, and the highest in nonmetropolitan areas. Firearms were the most common mechanism of suicide in all county urbanization levels.
The Economic Research Service (ERS) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that, among all rural residents aged 25 years or older, the percentage who had completed a bachelor’s degree or higher rose from 15 percent in 2000 to 21 percent in 2019. Ethnic disparities persist in what is considered a leading social determinant of health, with Whites completing high school and bachelor’s degrees at much higher rates than those who are Black, American Indian, or Hispanic.
The Pennsylvania Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS), with support from the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP), released the OMHSAS Telehealth Survey Report. This telehealth survey was conducted in the Spring of 2020, during the initial onset of COVID-19. The results of the Telehealth Survey have allowed OMHSAS to hear directly from stakeholders and to better understand their experiences with and access to telehealth during these tumultuous and difficult times. Here is a link to the OMHSAS Telehealth Survey Report on OMHSAS’s Telehealth webpage. If you would like to contact OMHSAS about this report, please send an email to RA-PWTBHS@pa.gov.
On Feb. 25, Pennie released its first Annual Report. The 29-page report highlights core areas of the state-based exchange and provides details and data on the Pennie program and open enrollment statistics. View specific consumer and county level data as well as the outreach and marketing highlights. Prior to Pennsylvania moving to a state-based marketplace, this kind of data was not available. Read the full report.
House Resolution 515 of 2019 directed the Legislative, Budget and Finance Committee (LBFC) of the state legislature to conduct a broad-based study of Pennsylvania’s county administered, community-based mental health (MH) services. The resolution required LBFC to collect and present information on ten comprehensive and complex data points. In response to HR 515, LBFC modified the objectives and scope and focused on creating observational summaries of data that was collected from various state agencies, including the Department of Human Services (DHS), the Department of Health (DOH), the Department of Corrections (DOC) and the Health Care Cost Containment Council PHC4). LBFC also surveyed all county mental health administrators. Here is access to the Full Report, Report Highlights and Committee Presentation.
