{"title":"Critical Access Hospital Leaders Beat Challenges to Support Their Communities and Staffs.","authors":"Patricia M Schou","doi":"10.1097/HAP.0000000000000119","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Summary: </strong>Critical access hospitals (CAHs) serve their rural communities as the main access points and communication centers for healthcare, typically with very limited financial, staffing, and support resources. Local residents rely on their CAHs as the only providers for many miles around. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, CAH leaders had to rethink operations and priorities, both internally with staffs and externally with community leaders and organizations. Few critical care beds were available when the need was greatest. Testing was problematic, and cultural barriers complicated care. Now, as virus variants strike where vaccination numbers are low, CAH leaders remain wary of financial hits to elective procedure income, limited resources, and added stress for their staffs. Working with community service organizations and larger regional healthcare centers is a crucial strategy for CAHs as they address care delivery issues and ensure that their caregivers can do their jobs now and in the future.</p>","PeriodicalId":39916,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers of Health Services Management","volume":"38 1","pages":"27-31"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Frontiers of Health Services Management","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1097/HAP.0000000000000119","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"Medicine","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Summary: Critical access hospitals (CAHs) serve their rural communities as the main access points and communication centers for healthcare, typically with very limited financial, staffing, and support resources. Local residents rely on their CAHs as the only providers for many miles around. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, CAH leaders had to rethink operations and priorities, both internally with staffs and externally with community leaders and organizations. Few critical care beds were available when the need was greatest. Testing was problematic, and cultural barriers complicated care. Now, as virus variants strike where vaccination numbers are low, CAH leaders remain wary of financial hits to elective procedure income, limited resources, and added stress for their staffs. Working with community service organizations and larger regional healthcare centers is a crucial strategy for CAHs as they address care delivery issues and ensure that their caregivers can do their jobs now and in the future.
期刊介绍:
Disaster preparedness. The future of health professions. Workforce shortages. Alternative medicine. You want to understand the latest trends, but you don"t always have time for books. Magazines don"t give you quite enough information. Keeping up doesn"t have to be difficult. Frontiers can bring you up to speed quickly. Frontiers" unique "bookazine" format gives you the deep understanding gained from books but in a shorter format, like a magazine. Each issue focuses on one healthcare management topic, providing you with the knowledge you need to understand and react to evolving trends. Frontiers is written by experts on the topic and includes commentary from the field.