Rural Ohio faces tough healthcare challenges

People who live in rural communities can face barriers to healthcare. It’s an issue hospital systems are trying to overcome.

Some of those challenges include transportation (distance,) workforce shortages and being under-insured or uninsured.

According to the 2021 Ohio Rural Health Improvement Plan, those surveyed from “rural and Appalachian counties in Ohio are less likely to believe there are adequate services in their counties.”

The survey also said, “those who live in rural areas travel further distances and for longer times for primary care services than those who do not live in rural areas.” Also, respondents “in rural and Appalachian counties are slightly more likely to use emergency rooms for conditions that could be treated by regular doctors.”

University Hospitals is making more investments in the rural communities it serves.

Anita Housel

New this spring, the treatment area at UH Conneaut Medical Center in Ashtabula County has been renovated and now has the well-known UH Seideman Cancer Center name that gives patients access to more specialized care. This location and UH Geneva are classified as Critical Access Hospitals.

According to Rural Health Information Hub , the federal designation "is designed to reduce the financial vulnerability of rural hospitals and improve access to healthcare by keeping essential services in rural communities. To accomplish this goal, CAHs receive certain benefits, such as cost-based reimbursement for Medicare services."

Anita Housel lives in Conneaut. She’s grateful she doesn’t have to travel far for breast cancer treatments.

“If you don’t feel good, you’re close to home or if I have an emergency, because there’s side effects they said to watch out for, they say go to the emergency room, boom, I’m here,” Housel said.

Dr. Kevin Andryc is the Chief Medical Officer of UH in Conneaut and Geneva. He said rural communities are growing, but getting physicians there is challenging.

“The reason being that it’s not the big city, you’ve got to have a special physician to work out here, and we do have physicians that grew up out here and they want to come back, which is great and we’re very blessed when that does happen, but it doesn’t happen too often,” he said.

Andryc said 46% of Ashtabula County must travel outside of the county to get care.

“As an ER physician, I’ll take care of patients in the ER and they’ll come through the [emergency department] just to be transported downtown because they don’t have a ride to get there,” he said.

The system is working with the state to recruit international doctors. It’s a long process, but Andryc said they’re looking to get more physicians next year.

“We are a smaller community, we are a smaller hospital, but we are top notch in our care,” he said. “We are guided, we have metrics, we do everything that the main campus does.”

Resources for those who need assistance in rural communities in Ohio:

Ohio Office of Rural Health

Ohio Rural Health Association

Community Care Ambulance Service

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