The future requires significant change for rural hospitals, but might not be quite as bleak as forecast. Maintaining their strengths, such as caring, well-trained staff that produce reduced infection rates and safe patient experiences, along with high scores in Medicare’s value-based purchasing program, should be combined with planning for smaller facilities and incorporating new technologies. These combinations may be the prescription needed for the long-term survival of rural hospitals.
About the author: Thom Wellington is the CEO and a stockholder in Infection Control University.
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