Rural Health

State Offices of Rural Health

INTRODUCTION

The measures are used to assess the performance of the Office’s investment in the 50 State Offices of Rural Health.  The program provides matching grants to each of the 50 States to support the ongoing efforts of creating a single point of contact within the State for rural health issues.  The performance measures focus on two key activities of the grantees.  The first looks at how many communities receive technical assistance from the grantee.  The second looks at how many States have identified a focal point for the recruitment and retention of health professionals in rural areas which has long been an important need for rural communities.  The program uses an annual grantee meeting to focus attention on performance expectations and to provide a forum for grantees to share approaches used to improve performance.

These measures support HRSA’s Strategic Plan Goal V of improving the public health and health care systems by increasing the collaborative efforts to improve the capacity and efficiency of the public health and health care systems.  The measures also support HHS Strategic Goal 1 of improving the safety, quality, affordability and accessibility of health care, including behavioral health care and long-term care.

DISCUSSION OF RESULTS AND TARGETS

Long-Term Objective:  Increase collaborative efforts to improve the capacity and efficiency of the public health and health care systems.

31.V.B.1.  Increase the number of communities receiving technical assistance from a State Office of Rural Health.

This measure is important because rural communities and providers are often isolated and have unique technical assistance needs.  By providing this technical assistance, a State Office of Rural Health (SORH) is equipping rural communities with the tools and resources needed to coordinate rural health at the local level.  The SORH enables a community to create localized solutions to problems which in turn strengthens the rural health delivery system one community at a time.  This goal reflects one of the program’s core functions.  The program established a baseline of 4,120 communities in FY 2003.  In FY 2006, the State Offices of Rural Health provided technical assistance to 4,699 rural communities exceeding the target of 4,450.  In FY 2007, the program again exceeded its goal of 4,700 communities served by working with 5,823 communities.  The FY 2009 target for the number of communities receiving technical assistance is 4,775.  

31.V.B.2.  Increase the number of States that have an identified focal point for rural recruitment with a national source of applicants.

This measure was chosen because rural communities experience greater challenges in recruitment of health professionals.  With at least 20 percent of the population living in rural areas and less than 11 percent of the nation’s physicians practicing in non-metropolitan areas, the goal of fostering rural recruitment activities is a key component to many activities of the State Offices.  Workforce shortages hamper attempts to address other pressing health care problems in rural America.  A strategy that many State Offices use to meet this goal is to participate in a national rural recruitment program, such as the National Rural Recruitment and Retention Network (3RNET).  The program established a baseline with FY 2003 data that indicated 41 States having identified a focal point for rural recruitment.  The number increased to 46 in FY 2006, exceeding the target and to 49 in FY 2007, also exceeding the target.  The FY 2009 target is 49, reflecting the likely upper limit of this measure.