The importance of delivering healthcare to rural residents has long been overlooked. As a result, many people living in low population-density areas are underserved. Mobile Integrated Healthcare-Community Paramedicine (MIH-CP) is changing that. After reading this guide, you’ll understand how MIH-CP changes rural healthcare.
MIH-CP helps transform rural healthcare by recognizing that just because an area has a low population density doesn’t mean it has no population at all. Community paramedics can reach those living in rural areas by traveling to patients’ homes, offering health education, providing vaccinations and health screenings, and much more.
As we embark on this journey, we’ll discuss the nuances of rural healthcare, the failures of our current system, and why MIH-CP is a beacon of hope.
How Mobile Integrated Health-Community Paramedicine Helps Rural Healthcare
Rural health has recently come into more focus with the announcement of the rural healthcare transformation program, which will allocate $50 billion dollars to improving the health of people in rural areas. This presents a unique opportunity for MIH-CP.
To understand why MIH-CP can provide so much value to people living in rural areas, we need to understand why rural healthcare presents such a challenge. The first step in understanding the problem is to avoid the inclination to say, “Well, of course there are no health services in rural areas – there aren’t any people!” While this is an easy mistake to make, the problem lies in understanding the difference between low population and low population density.
Let’s look at a specific rural area to understand this principle. Take Clare County, Michigan. This county is in a relatively rural area in the mid to northern region of Michigan’s lower peninsula. The largest city in the county has a population of a little over 3000 people. This is a small city. It might be easy to say, “There aren’t very many people in that area.”
However, if you look at Clare County as a whole, you’ll find that it has a population of over 30,000! As you can see, this creates a statistical illusion, making it easy for these areas to go overlooked. This is a case of low population density – not low population (or no population), as it might be easy to assume.
The problem is that there are many, many areas like this around the country, all with thousands of people who go overlooked when it comes to healthcare. And while it might be easy to dismiss it as someone else’s problem, when it comes to matters of public health and the overall well-being of the community, those rural areas with “small” population sizes and 30,000 “hidden” people make a huge difference.
The value of MIH-CP in rural healthcare:
- Access for Specific Underserved Populations (Older Adults, Infants, Mothers)
- Overcoming the Burden of Travel
- Achieving Public Health Goals (Safety Education, Vaccination, Screenings, etc.)
- Bringing Specialists into Rural Areas via Telehealth
Note: The great thing about MIH-CP is that it’s malleable. This means that it can shift and adapt to meet the needs of a given community. Even if you don’t see a pressing need of your rural community on this list, don’t think that MIH-CP can’t handle it. Take some time and browse hundreds of our other articles full of MIH-CP topics.
How MIH-CP Changes Rural Healthcare: Access for Specific Underserved Populations
The first way that MIH-CP transforms rural health concerns in underserved populations. We should mention that being a resident of a rural area can, under certain definitions, qualify a person as living in an underserved area. However, for the purposes of this section, we’re going to be more specific.
Here’s a list of a few underserved populations that exist in rural areas:
- Older adults: Many live in rural areas. Some of them moved to these locations in their retirement years to find peace and quiet after a long career. Other folks have been there for generations. Regardless, many require care as they age, and being in a rural environment can be a barrier. MIH-CP teams can travel directly to these patient groups to provide a range of medical screenings, checkups, and care.
- Mothers and newborns: In especially rural environments, there may not be enough pediatricians or OB/GYNs to go around. In these cases, MIH-CP teams can partner with providers and bridge the gap. Sometimes this means a community paramedic will visit the home after a birth to ensure the parents have everything they need to safely care for their newborn. Other times, this might mean monthly check-ups, bringing a physician into the home via telehealth.
- Children: Just as infants and mothers require special care, children do too as they grow. Community paramedics can partner with qualified pediatricians to provide care to children living in rural areas. This could mean providing a checkup, administering a vaccination, or consulting with the child’s family physician when the child falls ill.
Think of the MIH-CP team as the physician extending their reach a little further. With modern technology (video calls, long-distance telehealth, etc.), the physician can virtually visit these patients while the community paramedic serves as the real-world mediator.
MIH-CP Helps Overcome the Burden of Travel for Rural Residents
Another reason MIH-CP is so valuable for rural health patients is the ability to travel. When you’re dealing with people who are sometimes hours away from a hospital (or even an outpatient clinic), the ability to physically drive into a city for an appointment is a real hurdle.
Even for someone who is normally healthy, these long drives can take a toll. But when someone is struggling with a chronic disease, mobility issues, or an inability to pay for reliable transportation, the distance becomes insurmountable. Thankfully, the “Mobile” part of MIH-CP means that many people in rural areas can have a community paramedic visit them directly at home.
Just like Amazon Prime or USPS, MIH-CP can leverage geographic logistics to regularly deliver care to people in their homes. Not only does removing the need to physically travel allow the person to receive the care they want, but it also gives them the opportunity to agree to preventative care that they might otherwise have avoided.
While delivering care directly to patients makes a lot of sense in rural environments, it’s also proven incredibly effective for people who live in larger population areas.
Mobile Integrated Health Can Help Rural Areas Achieve Public Health Goals (Safety Education, Vaccination, Screenings, etc.)
Living in a rural area has its benefits; however, when it comes to public health, there can be downsides. For example, when a city runs a program raising awareness of the danger posed by a spreading influenza virus, the signal may or may not reach those who live outside the city limits.
Likewise, if a vaccine becomes available that could prevent the spread of disease, rural residents may not be among the first to receive it. This also holds true with education. Those who live in and work in larger population areas might frequently have emergency drills, but those living in more rural environments may not have the same access.
Furthermore, those living in poverty in rural areas might not be able to access the resources available to those in more populated areas. Thankfully, MIH-CP can help balance the scales. They can offer health screenings, education, and even vaccinations when needed.
Community Paramedicine and MIH Can Bring Specialists into Rural Areas via Telehealth
We touched on this in an earlier section, but it’s an incredibly powerful aspect of MIH-CP. In rural areas, people face many of the same health conditions as those in higher-population areas. However, these people don’t always have access to the specialists they need to treat their conditions.
For example, someone with a severe heart condition may find it difficult to maintain contact with a cardiologist after surgery. If they’re living in a particularly rural area, they may find that making follow-up appointments is nearly impossible.
However, when MIH-CP is using the right tools, a partnership can be established among the cardiologist, the community paramedic, and the patient. In this way, the MIH-CP can deliver the care required to the rural-living patient who has just had heart surgery, giving them the best chance of lasting recovery.
Last Words: Why Mobile Integrated Health-Community Paramedicine is Vital to Rural Healthcare
Finally, MIH-CP teams can bring rural patients into the great healthcare system. They do this by establishing strong connections with health professionals and having the tools to maintain those connections.
That’s where Julota comes into play. Julota’s platform enables rural MIH-CP teams to collect patient data, collaborate with physicians at a distance, and safely manage care. Good communication is the solid foundation upon which any MIH program stands, but this is especially important for people who live in rural areas – where maintaining a connection is so much more difficult.
Contact Julota now for more information on how their software tools can help your rural MIH-CP team achieve success in low-population-density areas.
