The recently signed Rural Health Transformation Plan will provide many states with funding to improve their rural health systems. While we are excited to see this increased focus, it’s important to recognize that the roots of this initiative lie in the MIH-CP programs, which have been fighting for improved rural health systems for decades.
How Has Mobile Integrated Healthcare Improved Rural Healthcare Access?
Mobile integrated healthcare improved rural healthcare access by sending community paramedics to patients instead of asking patients to travel, long before the Rural Health Transformation Program existed. MIH-CP teams bring check-ups, telehealth with the paramedic in the room, blood draws, IV medications, and specialist connections into rural homes, and they use shared software to keep every partner working from the same record. The 1996 EMS Agenda set that outreach mission in motion.
Key Takeaways
- MIH-CP has served rural communities for almost three decades; RHTP funding builds on that work.
- Community paramedics close the distance gap in person and the digital gap through facilitated telehealth.
- Under physician authorization, MIH-CP delivers advanced care in the field: labs, ultrasound, IV medications, transfusions.
- Home visits and local resource connections reduce social isolation.
- A shared care-management framework is what lets a rural MIH-CP program scale.
What Is the MIH-CP Mission in Rural Health?
MIH-CP has been serving people in rural areas for many years. Their mission? Improved access to care, equity in preventive treatment, and support for underserved people. MIH-CP has also committed to embracing new technologies that can transform how healthcare is delivered.
With a recent shift toward improving the rural health system in the United States, MIH-CP programs should play a key role in how these resources are used.
Here’s how MIH-CP impacts rural health:
- Bringing awareness to the gap in rural healthcare
- Improving access to people with trouble traveling
- Connecting physicians to underserved populations
- Bringing advanced medical care to the field
- Reducing social isolation
- Embracing transformative technologies
Below, you’ll find more nuance on each of these points.
How Does MIH-CP Bring Awareness to the Gap in Rural Healthcare?
Rural healthcare has long been overlooked. In many instances, advanced healthcare doesn’t extend much beyond major metropolitan areas. Sure, if you live near a major urban hub, you might have access to many fields of healthcare, but for the millions living in rural areas, it can be difficult to find the same quality of care.
While progress has been made, there is still a lot of work to do to get rural healthcare where it needs to be. MIH-CP programs have been advancing this effort in a big way for almost three decades.
As the world begins to recognize the importance of bringing healthcare to rural communities, it’s critical that we not forget the key role MIH-CP has played in raising awareness.
The 1996 EMS agenda called for more outreach from EMS systems. This meant that, instead of simply responding to 911 emergencies, ambulance services should begin providing other services to the community.
These other services have included home-health calls, outreach to the homeless, care for infants and new mothers, and a renewed focus on reaching people in rural areas. Today, in many rural counties across the country, MIH-CP teams continue this mission.
MIH-CP hasn’t only “raised awareness”; they’ve also put their boots on and done the difficult work required to deliver care to underserved populations.
Let’s look at some of the practical ways MIH-CP has impacted people in rural areas.
How Is Mobile Integrated Health Improving Rural Healthcare Access?
When we think about a rural area, what comes to mind? Distance. Those who live in rural areas often have significant distance between them and advanced healthcare systems. The goal of MIH-CP is to close that distance as much as possible.
There are a few key ways MIH-CP makes this possible. First, there is the literal closing of the gap. MIH-CP teams travel to patients in vehicles equipped with the necessary tools to provide care.
This method works especially well for people who need regular check-ups. The community paramedic can visit the patient, document their findings, and then report back to the primary care physician. Overall, this is an effective approach to preventive care.
Second, MIH-CP teams use technology to close the digital gap. This means they can use something like satellite video chat to connect a patient with their provider in the patient’s own home. Some of you reading this may have heard about “telehealth.” This is quite similar, but MIH-CP takes it one step further.
Instead of simply telling the patient to video call a doctor at a set time, the community paramedic is often present, facilitating the virtual consult themselves. This has significant advantages, as it allows the physician to objectively verify information such as vital signs, giving them more freedom (and greater scope) in what they can prescribe for the patient at a distance.
Finally, MIH-CP teams close this gap through integration. This is a term we hear often, but what does it mean? For MIH-CP, integration means seamless teamwork across different agencies.
For example, a patient living in a rural area might not be able to have their blood drawn at a local clinic because it isn’t “under the same system” as their specialist in a larger city. The result? The patient has to travel much farther to have the procedure done, all because their local clinic and specialist aren’t integrated.
MIH seeks to change this by integrating different healthcare resources, thereby reducing the burden on the patient.
How Do Community Paramedics Connect Physicians to Underserved Populations?
Another way that community paramedics improve access for rural patients is by connecting them with physicians that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Yes, in certain rural areas, a primary care physician may manage a person’s health.
But what if that person needs to see a cardiologist? In this case, the patient often has to travel long distances to see the specialist. Often, this burdens the patient, or worse, leads them to ignore connecting with the specialist altogether.
Using video calls and remote monitoring tools, MIH-CP helps facilitate this relationship between the cardiologist and the rural-living patient. The community paramedic acts as a go-between, ensuring that both the specialist and the patient have what they need.
How Does Mobile Integrated Health Bring Advanced Medical Care to the Field?
Another way MIH-CP works to improve the health of rural residents is by implementing advanced health care and tools in the field. What does this look like?
In many cases, home health calls are simply an opportunity for a professional to assess a patient’s living situation, take a few vital signs, and answer questions. This is great, and we need more of it! That said, highly trained MIH-CP providers seek to take things a step further.
Under the authorization and training of a physician, community paramedics can provide more advanced care and use diagnostic tools, such as performing blood draws, using ultrasound, assessing lab values, and even administering IV medications and blood transfusions.
All these methods close the gap between rural residents and the care they need to live full, healthy lives.
How Does MIH-CP Reduce Social Isolation for Rural Residents?
Social isolation and loneliness are easy to overlook. MIH-CP recognizes that patients who experience extreme loneliness are less likely to thrive on their health journey.
Beyond visiting patients in their homes (and, hopefully, directly reducing the isolation they feel), MIH professionals can also take the time to connect patients with local resources that help them feel more supported. For some, this could mean senior services that organize meal drop-offs.
For others, it might mean helping them coordinate safe transportation to community centers where they can focus on improving their health while being around people just like them.
How Does Mobile Integrated Health Use Transformative Technologies?
While there are many more we could discuss, we’ll wrap up by focusing on how MIH teams leverage technology to improve their patients’ lives. If you look at the points we mentioned earlier, you may notice they all require one thing: a framework to operate within.
What do we mean by framework? We mean a place to manage patient care, document health trends, organize important data, and create cross-agency relationships. Think of this like a map. Without a framework, it’s difficult to really get your rural MIH-CP program where you want to go.
Julota has supported MIH-CP providers for many years, offering cutting-edge software tools that give growing rural MIH teams a foundation on which to build.
Key Takeaway: The Rich History of MIH-CP in Rural Healthcare Access
While rural health may be receiving more attention, MIH-CP has been around since the genesis of rural outreach. Trained MIH-CP teams have raised awareness of rural health needs, closed the gap between people and hospitals, connected physicians with patients, and embraced the technologies that help these programs succeed.
As we look to the future of rural healthcare, we expect MIH-CP to remain at the forefront, continuing to strategize, innovate, and implement cutting-edge healthcare systems.
If you’re curious about building a strong framework for your rural MIH-CP program, contact Julota for more information on how their tools can help you achieve your goals.
Planning a Rural Health Transformation Program proposal? Julota’s RHTP Resource Hub for MIH-CP programs tracks each state’s plan and funding, and its guide on how to propose as an MIH-CP program for RHTP funding walks through the five steps.
