Exemplary quotes on strategies of rural hospitals to improve community health
| Themes | Quotes |
| 1. Building capacity | |
| Healthcare professionals | We just brought on a new psychologist and two social workers. We are creating an integrated behavioral health model in our clinic to integrate mental wellness more closely with physical wellness and address those issues simultaneously (Marketing Coordinator, Hospital D). |
| Space | We have a gym, and we have an aerobics studio where we teach classes. We are actually expanding that service right now, so the gym will get a little bit larger. We will have a new aerobics studio that'll allow for more significant activities to take place there (CEO, Hospital A). |
| 2. Building relationships | |
| Public agencies | We collaborate with the schools. Once a month, our psychologist will go to the school and work with their counselors and administration. They talk about what the school is facing regarding mental health issues. She does not see kids there, does not see patients, or does not treat anything but she is a consulting resource (CAO, Hospital D). |
| Community businesses | We helped two restaurants in the community change up their menus and did some nutritional analysis and things like that. We switched out many vending machines in the community (Wellness Coordinator, Hospital B). |
| Cross-sector partnership | The hospital organized the wellness committee a year ago. We probably met with the local stakeholders four or five times to understand and drill into everyone’s top concern. Was it a lack of education in the community around health and prevention? Was it access? Was it the need for more services, et cetera? We just spent a lot of time brainstorming, drilling into the different categories (CEO, Hospital B). |
| 3. Building programmes | |
| Raising health awareness | I do a health column for the newspaper every week that reaches out to all of our local newspapers. It is also in local newsletters and in the hospital one (Wellness Coordinator, Hospital A). |
| Fundraising, grants and sponsorship | We help sponsor and fund an annual suicide awareness walk to raise awareness of behavioral health issues. That comes through our community health relations department (CAO, Hospital D). |
| Disease management and health promotion | We have two individuals in our primary care clinics who are now really focused on chronic disease management. They will be working to ensure that patients are not missing their appointments and that we are doing good coordination of care between our specialists and our primary care providers and working through that. We also have a stroke support group to show that living better after stroke is possible (Outreach Coordinator, Hospital C). |
CAO, Chief Administrative Officer; CEO, Chief Executive Officer.