BACKGROUND This study analyses the association between rurality and local rate of avoidable hospitalizations in a Spanish region with high population dispersion. METHODS Ecological study using a municipality in the region of Castile and Leon (Spain) as the spatial unit of analysis. The variables used to operationalize rurality included the following: distance to hospital, population density, ...

VHA Office of Rural Health • Fact Sheet • Volume 3 Issue 4 IN THIS ISSUE:  Rural mental health care and redesigned primary care  Did You Know?  Mental Health Pathway Mental Health and Mental Health Care in Rural America: the Hope of Redesigned Primary Care “In the United States, most people with mental health issues or disorders remain untreated.” Rural populations have a greater portion ...

The aim of the Greek healthcare system is stated to be universal coverage and provision of equal services to all citizens 1 . This ambitious aim can hardly be said to have been realised. Primary healthcare in Greece remains poorly organised and highly fractured, as it is delivered by a variety of providers that differ in quantity, quality, effectiveness and efficiency of care provision. As a co...

Alternative model rural hospitals are designed to address problems faced by small, isolated rural hospitals. Typically, hospital regulations are reduced in exchange for a limit on the services that alternative models may offer. The most common service limitation is a limit on length of stay (LOS), a method with little empirical or conceptual support. The purpose of this article is to present a ...

OBJECTIVES China is facing the unprecedented challenge of rapidly increasing rural-to-urban migration. Migrants are in a vulnerable state when they attempt to access to primary care services. This study was designed to explore rural-to-urban migrants' experiences in primary care, comparing their quality of primary care experiences under different types of medical institutions in Guangzhou, Chin...

Primary care is the foundation of the rural U.S. health care system. Thus, the willingness of rural primary care physicians to accept new Medicare patients is critically important to the Medicare program and to rural America's elderly. But universally consistent access to primary care physicians for Medicare beneficiaries may be in jeopardy. The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) repo...