Health Information Technology in California's Rural Practices: Assessing the Benefits and Barriers
National Opinion Research Center
December 2009
The delivery of health care in rural America has faced significant challenges for many years. Compared with urban and suburban areas, rural areas have fewer health care providers per capita and people must travel longer distances to reach them. In addition, rural residents are more likely to be hospitalized for medical conditions that might have been avoidable had they received better ambulatory care, and their adherence to guidelines for screening exams is lower than in urban and suburban areas. They also are older, suffer more chronic illness, and are more likely to be poor.
Research shows that effective use of health information technology (IT) can improve the efficiency and quality of health care, and can help address chronic illness and other health care disparities. However, most of the research has focused on urban and suburban settings; it has not systematically identified the benefits of health IT in rural settings.
This report explains how innovative use of IT in rural areas can improve the health and health care of rural populations, and discusses the challenges and barriers to implementation. It also presents three case studies of IT initiatives in rural California that illustrate the related issues, trends, and opportunities.
The complete report is available under Document Downloads below.