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| Summary of rural hospital advantages and related policy recommendations (Health Affairs chart; click the image to enlarge it) |
Rural hospitals have had a difficult time with staffing during the pandemic: fewer staff to begin with, losing staff to lucrative traveling nurse jobs, and overworked, stressed-out staff overall.
But, "Despite the many challenges rural hospitals experienced during the pandemic, our interviews revealed that rural hospitals’ small size and connectedness with their workforce and community gave them distinct advantages with respect to the speed of decision making and action, communication with their workforce, and flexibility," Health Affairs reports. "Interestingly, staff issues relating to flexibility, quality of relationships, and organizational culture were all seen as particular strengths of the rural setting."
Recent research funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found through extensive interviews with rural hospital employees that such advantages can help mitigate staffing challenges, and recommend policy actions (see chart above) to help leverage those advantages.
In short, they found, rural hospitals' smaller size meant staff are more likely to wear many hats in their everyday work, the researchers found. That makes them more flexible and adaptable in an emergency such as the pandemic when staff may need to fill in for others. Rural hospitals can also have outsized influence in leading and shaping emergency response systems in their overall communities.
Rural hospitals' smaller size can lead to a close-knit staff that trusts each other, where people are more likely to help in a crisis, regardless of job title. Also, the more intimate setting can make for better communication, the surveys found.
from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/bHVEjk3 Study: rural hospitals have advantages in a pandemic - Entrepreneur Generations
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