Tackling Rural Health Disparities: The AHA's Rural Health Care Outcomes Accelerator

People in rural communities live an average of three years fewer and have a 40% higher likelihood of developing heart disease (14.2%) compared with their counterparts in small metropolitan (11.2%) and urban (9.9%) areas, a gap that has grown over the past decade. Rural communities face the added challenge of a critical shortage of health care professionals, including public health workers, leaving many people vulnerable to increased morbidity and mortality that could be prevented with appropriate identification and treatment.

A three-year initiative by the American Heart Association®, the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on heart and brain health for all, will work to ensure Americans living in rural areas have the best possible chance of survival and the highest quality of life attainable by promoting consistent, timely, and appropriate evidence-based care.

The Rural Health Care Outcomes Accelerator, launched in 2022, will achieve that aim by providing up to 700 rural hospitals with no-cost access to Get With The Guidelines® quality programs for coronary artery disease, heart failure and stroke. These programs allow hospitals to measure compliance of evidence-based guidelines, benchmark with peers, and improve on quality of patient care, while simultaneously bringing up-to-date information to inform healthcare guidelines.

“The American Heart Association is committed to bringing equitable care to all, regardless of where they live,” said Mindy Cook, national senior director, rural health care quality for the American Heart Association. “This project will address the unique challenges rural patients and health care professionals face, as well as leverage their unique opportunities and strengths.” 

Over three years, the Association will convene rural clinical experts and leaders to develop and publish rural quality and outcomes research. Participating hospitals also will have access to professional education, an online rural community network that encourages peer-to-peer connection and provides resources to support model practice sharing, and collaborative innovation. 

To maximize impact, rural eligible hospitals will be prioritized based on their potential to impact the largest number of patients in geographic areas with the highest cardiovascular disease mortality. Participating hospitals must be either a federally designated critical access hospital or a short-term acute care facility or rural hospital in Rural Urban Commuting Area Codes indicating rural and isolated geographic locations.

“Innovative approaches like this are key to improving rural health across the country,” said Cook. “The American Heart Association is uniquely positioned to help close the gap between rural and urban hospital care.”

Addressing the unique health needs of people in rural America is critical to achieving the American Heart Association’s 2024 impact goal for equitably increasing healthy life expectancy nationwide. Innovative approaches like this are key to improving rural health across the nation.

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