rural health

To solve for doctor shortages, states ease licensing for foreign-trained physicians

6:00am March 03, 2025

Some states are trying to make it easier for doctors trained in other countries to work in the U.S. Skeptics say other licensing and hiring barriers could hamper this effort.

Health & Safety

As a baby bust hits rural areas, hospital labor and delivery wards are closing down

5:01am July 15, 2024

by Tony Leys

In some rural areas, births have dropped by three-quarters since the late 1950s, and hospitals are shuttering labor and delivery units, leaving mothers little access to care when they need it.

The Match Day ceremony at the University of California, Irvine, on March 15. Match Day is the day when medical students seeking residency and fellowship training positions find out their options. Increasingly, medical students are choosing to go to states that don't restrict abortion.

Health & Safety

Medical residents are starting to avoid states with abortion bans, data shows

5:19pm May 09, 2024

A new analysis shows that students graduating from U.S. medical schools this year were less likely to apply for residencies across specialties in states with restrictions on abortion.

Health & Safety

Medicaid expansion will boost rural hospitals and communities, NCDHHS Secretary Kinsley says

2:14pm December 01, 2023

by Paul Garber

North Carolina’s Medicaid Expansion began Friday, adding an estimated 600,000 people to the rolls. North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley spoke to WFDD’s Paul Garber about what the expansion will mean for rural hospitals.

Queue Listen Now

Osteopathic physician Kevin de Regnier of Winterset, Iowa, checks Chris Bourne, who came in for an adjustment of his anxiety medication on May 9, 2023.

With few MDs practicing in rural areas, a different type of doctor is filling the gap

5:00am June 05, 2023

by Tony Leys

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.

Students help run the Circle C Market in rural Cody, Neb., as part of classwork. As rural areas struggle to keep traditional grocery stores, some communities are finding innovative ways to keep the stores running.

Rural grocery stores are dying. Here's how some small towns are trying to save them

12:48pm April 19, 2023

by Aaron Bonderson

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.

Tourists still stop by to see the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers in the city of Cairo, Ill., where commercial ships dock on the banks. A long history of racial tension dating to the Civil War still stings in Cairo. And like many rural towns

Why A Hard-Sell Pitch For COVID Vaccines Won't Work In This Rural Illinois Town

7:00am August 15, 2021

by Cara Anthony

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.

A Teton County emergency medical services volunteer outside the Benefis Teton Medical Center in Choteau, Mont.

Rural Ambulance Services At Risk As Volunteers Age And Expenses Mount

6:48am July 05, 2021

by Aaron Bolton

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.

Poverty and disability are linked to lower vaccination rates in some rural communities. The Vaccination Transportation Initiative sponsored van helps rural residents get the COVID-19 vaccine in rural Mississippi. The effort works to overcome the lack of t

Rural Communities Fall Further Behind In COVID-19 Vaccination Rates

12:48pm June 11, 2021

by Austin Fast

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.

Delta Health Center, in rural northwest Mississippi, was founded in the 1960s and is one of the country's first community health centers. Delta's leaders say community health centers all over the U.S. are trusted institutions which can help distribute COV

Health & Safety

With Roots In Civil Rights, Community Health Centers Push For Equity In The Pandemic

5:00am June 03, 2021

by Shalina Chatlani

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.