Now this was a research project. We got the help of OnBoard LLC—the research firm that helps us compile our Best Places to Live in Rural America list each year—to take a comprehensive look at how rural counties stack up. We looked at access to hospitals and clinics, ailments reported by their citizens, and even what households pay for everything from cigarettes to health insurance. You can see those stats and more on our web site at www.progressivefarmer.com/bestplaces.
The result—after wading through an ocean of numbers—was a list of five counties that are getting a lot of things right when it comes to being healthy. Maybe you can pick up an idea or two for your own county.
1. Geary County, Kansas
Deanna Munson knew her local hospital was a jewel after the experience with her dad. Her husband, Charles, is also thankful for it.
The Angus cattle breeder and farmer had heat stroke in a wheat field. After a trip to the emergency room, he was back on the combine the next day. "We certainly have a lot better community where we live because of the hospital. I feel more comfortable with it being there," Charles says.
The 92-bed Geary Community Hospital also reaches the rural population with skin cancer screenings at health and 4-H fairs. That kind of targeted preventative measure helps them reach a sometimes hard-to-reach segment of the population.
"Some of the farmers had not been to the doctor for years," says Cyndy Platt, director of medical staff development and public relations. The hospital also has a rural training track program for recruitment and retention of physicians.
Besides the hospital, the Junction City Youth Center provides health care ranging from sports physicals to counseling for residents under the age of 21.
That kind of all-around care has an impact. That's why the county ranked No. 1 overall in our survey and No. 1 for the population's general health.
2. Ward County, North Dakota
Ward County's Hospital, Trinity Health, has been rated No. 1 among its peers in care measures for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia.
Located in the county seat of Minot, the hospital has a level II trauma unit, neonatal intensive care unit and 102 physicians in 30 specialties. Trinity's 292-bed, long-term care facility is the largest in North Dakota.
Ward County attacks health issues. A 1997 survey resulted in a task force focusing on access to health care, cancer, substance abuse, physical activity and nutrition, mental health, and children and family. Eight counties, including Ward, comprise the Healthy 8 Communities Network, with 35 coordinating entities ranging from police departments to a local monastery.
The Mid-Dakota chapter of Farm Safety 4 Just Kids offers off-highway vehicle safety helmets free to children attending ATV safety seminars. The chapter obtained funding from organizations ranging from hospital foundations to Farm Bureau. Chairperson Allie Sagness and her husband, Ron, have a cow/calf herd and grow wheat, canola, sunflowers and flax near Kenmare, 60 miles from Minot and 20 miles from Saskatchewan.
"Our goal is to reach as many kids as we can 80 miles around Minot," Sagness says. Reaching out is how Ward County makes the top five.
3. Decatur County, Indiana
Decatur County Memorial Hospital (DCMH) rises above many metro facilities and has received the "Top 25 Connected Health Care Facilities" award two years in a row. That theme of connection is consistent with the kind of care the hospital provides.
CEO Bill Alloy says almost all the hospital's radiological exams are digital and available 24/7 to the referring physician via direct connection at their office or home. A new telemedicine cart will enable physicians to transmit data remotely from stethoscopes.
Connecting to women also keeps the hospital competing. DCMH is a member of Spirit of Women, a wellness network with more than 150 hospitals nationwide. Local membership has sprouted from 100 women a few years ago to more than 400 today. For a $10 one-time fee, women receive newsletters, a magazine and free or reduced-cost seminars on exercise and health.
Barbara Eddelman, a former DCMH board member, says, "Women do most of the doctoring within the family and are the ones mostly likely to get family members to go to the hospital." Eddelman and her mother own a 260-acre farm near Westport, Ind. "We have some dynamite doctors," Eddelman says about the county with 25,000 residents.
4. Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska
Resident and registered nurse Jackie Delatour found children in rural Nebraska were not receiving immunizations, so she started a clinic offering free shots—regardless of income. Delatour and her family raise 7,000 head of cattle yearly on more than 30,000 acres near Harrison, Neb.
Immunizations are just one challenge facing the Nebraska panhandle, with less than four people per square mile in many locales. Regional West Medical Center in Scotts Bluff helps meet the challenge with more than 70 staff physicians representing 23 specialties from neurosurgery to pathology.
That makes the county the hub of medical care in the panhandle. "We have medical facilities and capabilities and services not found in a town of 25,000. But we serve an area the size of West Virginia," says Stuart Fulks, vice president of planning and marketing.
Regional West is one of 137 Rural Referral Centers nationwide. The facility serves six other critical access hospitals with a goal of primary care within an hour's drive. The 279-bed hospital is also a trauma center.
The trauma center staff addresses causes of injury and prevention. "We have a lot of injuries from livestock—what we call one-horse rollovers," says Jim McHugh, a Regional West vice president. Livestock injuries are common in the state with 4 million cattle and 1 million people.
Survival depends on cooperation and coordination. In the outlying hospitals, emergency room TV cameras enable the critical access hospitals' physicians to link live to Regional West's doctors. The revolutionary telemedicine tool places all the caregivers in the same room.
5. Craven County, North Carolina
Craven Regional Medical Center advertises a $20,000 sign-on bonus plus a $3,000 relocation provision for physicians. The New Bern, N.C., hospital's open-heart surgery unit is the only one serving the central coast region and was the first in eastern North Carolina to offer outpatient cardiac rehabilitation.
North Carolina Cooperative Extension Agent Mike Carroll is thankful to have cardiac care close by. His teenage son was born with a condition that requires a pediatric cardiologist's testing and monitoring. "I have lived in many eastern North Carolina counties where medical services like this are not available," Carroll says.
The county's ag products include tobacco, corn, cotton, soybeans, blueberries, peanuts, swine, poultry, cattle, turf and aquaculture. "One end of the county is predominantly ag and the other new homes, retirement communities and golf courses. Both of these together is what makes it work," Carroll says.
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