Unique Challenges Faced in the Rural Areas

Healthcare Challenges in Rural Areas

Health care providers are struggling to keep quality health care services accessible. In rural locations, challenges such as extreme poverty, economic stagnation, and a shortage of available physicians are encountered. Spade and Strickland (2015) agree that the high proportion of chronic illness, the uninsured population, and the ever-increasing population in rural areas all contribute to the difficulties that healthcare practitioners face. The situation of rural hospitals has piqued the interest of researchers, policymakers, and even politicians due to the poor quality of services provided to patients. Hospitals in the rural areas are affected by lagging revenues due to the high rates of poverty and underfunding from the government. These healthcare providers have to bear with the hard financial times, and the instabilities in the rural areas have seen the closure of many rural hospitals. Spade and Strickland (2015) allude rural hospitals have continued to struggle with rising cost of care.

Understaffed Rural Hospitals

The rural hospitals are understaffed, and therefore the available health care providers face a challenge of dealing with many patients. People in the rural areas also suffer some chronic illness such as cancers resulting from exposure to the chemicals that are used in farming. Lack of adequate facilities for use in chronic illness inhibit sufficient care from the care providers in the diagnosis and treatment of the patients. Adapting to the dramatic changes that occur in the healthcare system culminate from the poor technology that is used in the rural areas. Many of these hospitals have a maximum of three computers that serve the entire healthcare system. For this reason, initiatives to improve health delivery and development of patient-centered outcomes by the healthcare providers are greatly undermined.

Health Conditions that Require Monitoring and Reporting

It is vitally significant to carry out monitoring and reporting of chronic clinical conditions to inform the required interventions in the management process. These conditions include cancer (colorectal, breast, prostate and lung), heart diseases, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension. Additionally, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and osteoporosis require close monitoring. Compliance with monitoring protocols is fundamental in detecting patient deterioration and enacting integrative measures for diagnosis and treatment.

Technology and Specialists

The use of new forms of technology transforms health care particularly in hospitals found in rural areas. Installing new technology requires skilled personnel to handle the machinery. Medical specialists such as a cardiologist, gynecologists, obstetrics, and radiologists require new forms of technology. Similarly, oncologists, nephrologists, and neonatologists are specialists that a hospital gets access to when it incorporates advanced technologies. The benefits of having accessibility to specialist make the patients have extraordinary expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses. Specialists improve patient outcomes through reducing medical complications, improving productivity and functionality. A hospital will have high-quality staff that is experienced which provides specialized long term support to patients (Wang, 2016). However, the cost of recruiting and maintain these specialists is a great limitation. They require high payment for the unique services provided and the hospital could fail to afford. Additionally, clinical nurse specialists are not readily available, and therefore maintaining them is a problem.

Barriers to Adopting New Technologies

Recent developments in the healthcare system are directed towards the widespread technology to meet the growing concerns of patient care and safety. Embracing new forms of technology is undermined by various factors, including lack of skilled personnel, reluctant of physicians and complexities that come with the use of the machines. The healthcare world has recently become enthralled with technological wearable devices, and an overwhelming challenge emanates from the lack of trained manpower (Abdi & Ravaghi, 2016). Perhaps, a significant barrier to the adoption is evident in the reluctance of physicians to incorporate new technology to meet the unique medical requirements. Whereas these technologies prove the ability to transform the healthcare system, many of these providers are not able to overcome the fear of change concerning new forms of technology. In most cases, healthcare providers are uneasy with changes that affect documentation, workflow, and patient care (Wang, 2016). The high costs involved in the adoption process are a huge discouragement. The complexities that come with the use of new technologies affect the adoption process. The highlighted factors continue to make the provision of healthcare lag behind, and the benefits of new technologies are never realized.

Time and Budget in Allowances in Implementation of New Technologies

Adoption of new technology will be aided by providing time and budget allowances. Adequate time has to be created for training of the workers to integrate them into the new technology. The training has to be directed towards eliminating fear in physicians and attest to the benefits of using novel technology (Abdi & Ravaghi, 2016). Budget allowances include offering subsidy on these technologies to help in reducing the high cost that is incurred by the hospitals. Competency and in-service will be realized through setting aside enough time for education as well as giving better pay to the employees.

References

Abdi, Z., & Ravaghi, H. (2016). Implementing root cause analysis in Iranian hospitals: challenges and benefits. The International Journal Of Health Planning And Management, 32(2), 147-162. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hpm.2335

Spade, J., & Strickland, S. (2015). Rural Hospitals Face Many Challenges in Transitioning to Value-Based Care. North Carolina Medical Journal, 76(1), 38-39. http://dx.doi.org/10.18043/ncm.76.1.38

Wang, Y. (2016). Competition and Multilevel Technology Adoption: A Dynamic Analysis of Electronic Medical Records Adoption in U.S. Hospitals. SSRN Electronic Journal. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2804271