Question

Health care services vary given a geographical location of an organization. All services are may not be provided in one area, furthermore, patients often must travel to obtain services whom live in rural areas. For example, according to Spasojevic, Vasilj, Hrabac, & Celik (2015), rural residents are more likely to travel more than 15 minutes to see their health facilities compared with urban residents. Based on the course readings and your own research discuss/answer the following:

1. How does ancillary services offered in rural and urban areas differ?
2. Regarding ancillary services, what are some disadvantages to consumers (patients) living in rural populated areas?
3. What recommendations would you provide as a health care leader to lessen these disadvantages.

Answer 1

Urban people have broad health care services along with specialized care. Mostly, they are insured and have easy access to care. They are more knowledgeable about health care services and concentrates more on preventive services. Comparing to urban, the rural population are at high risk for chronic health diseases. They are mostly uninsured and have limitations in health care services. Rural people are more family oriented and cultural. They mostly believed in traditional medicines. Rural people have lack to access care and need to travel a long distance for lab test and other facilities. This limited the services in elderly, low -income and disabled persons.

Some of the disadvantages to the consumers in rural areas are

• Generally, the rural population has poor physical and mental health compared to the urban population.
• Some of the chronic diseases are more common in rural areas but has limited access to care.
• Rural people have the unhealthy behavior of smoking, alcohol consumption, use of tobacco which increases the risk of the diseases.
• Intake of vaccination is less in rural areas and screening programs are not implemented fully.
• Health care cost keeps on increasing but rural people still on uninsured.
• Specialized care like dental services, mental health services are up to the level.

Health care leader takes steps to minimize these barriers and promote the quality of life of rural people. Health leader should mingle with a community leader for the arrangements of public transportation to reach the health care centre. Implement of telehealth medicine to get specialized care for rural people. Make awareness of healthy behaviors and implement a quit smoking program and non-tobacco program. Health educates about the importance of immunizations schedule. Implement a screening program for the early identification of diseases. Encourage them for insurance coverage for optimum utilization of services.