8
doc • Summer 2014
Kentucky
Rural Hospitals Serve as
Community Resource
The challenge is preparing doctors for their special role
By Tanya J. Tyler,
Staff Writer
Rural county hospitals play
an important role in their
communities. Often located
in areas that have limited
access to physicians and other health-care
professionals, these facilities serve as the
center of health care for residents. They
offer primary and preventive care as well as
dental care and pharmacy services. They are
staffed by general practitioners, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and certified
nurse midwives. They strive to reduce the
burden on hospital emergency rooms and
provide free immunizations for uninsured
children.
According to the Rural Assistance Center,
rural hospitals are smaller in size than city
hospitals, have limited assets and financial
reserves and a higher amount of Medicare
patients. While rural hospitals offer a broad
range of services to meet the needs of their
communities, they are often limited in areas
such as cardiac care, alcohol and drug addiction care, psychiatric care and assistance and
neonatal care.
This may explain why many rural residents
head for larger city hospitals when they have
a serious illness.
“People in rural areas generally have a lovehate relationship with their [local] hospital,”
said Dr. Anthony Weaver, assistant dean
of the University of Kentucky College of
Medicine’s Rural Physician Leadership
Program based at St. Claire Regional
Medical Center in Morehead. “They know
all the people that work there. They believe
those people do a good job, but they are
convinced that for many of their problems,
they need a higher degree of sophistication.
So they automatically turn, especially the
ones that can drive, to larger communities,
larger city hospitals and their health-care
systems.”
Rural Kentucky has a unique set of
health-care needs and characteristics. The
University of Kentucky Center of Excellence
in Rural Health says it is important to link
small rural communities with local, state
and federal resources while working toward
long-term solutions to rural health issues