The number of doctors of osteopathy is surging, and more than half of them practice in primary care, including in rural areas hit hard by doctor shortages.
When a town loses its grocery store, it also loses a local source of healthy food and a place for neighbors to gather and connect. But some communities are finding innovative ways to keep shops open.
Researchers across Georgia are trying to address mental health in the agriculture community, but the stigma associated with the topic is a major obstacle.
The sponsor of 4-H clubs nationally is tapping its respected roots in rural communities to promote COVID-19 vaccines. But it won't be easy, locals say. Start with trusted local voices — and listen.
To keep emergency services afloat in rural areas, communities will have to go beyond volunteer-based programs to get people to distant hospitals, experts say. Meanwhile, some 911 calls go unanswered.
Cities are leaving rural areas behind in the race to vaccinate against COVID-19, but some states' suburbs are struggling, too. To close the gap experts say, outreach needs to be hyperlocal.
A federally-funded clinic in rural Mississippi embodies the history of community health centers in the U.S., and shows how these safety-net clinics can help minority patients during the pandemic.
Just because you are eligible to get vaccinated doesn’t mean it’s easy. In rural areas and in cities, there are still obvious, and not so obvious, barriers to vaccine access. So what about taking vaccines on the road?
Medical services in small Northwest towns are stretched to the limit with shortages of qualified workers and PPE, CARES Act funds running out and hospitals at or near capacity.
Eleven states let school districts decide whether students and staff must wear masks. One Georgia middle school where masks were optional became the center of an outbreak.
As COVID-19 cases increase, many rural communities, places which were largely spared during the early months of the pandemic, are now contending with a spike in infections and hospitalizations.
USA Today found that many counties with the highest COVID death rates nationally have a majority of their populations being people of color. In Hancock County, three in four residents are in that demographic.
The federal loans were meant to help hospitals survive the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet they're coming due now — at a time when many rural hospitals are still desperate for help.
