JACKSON, Tenn. — Members of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign held a conference to help others understand their research regarding rural hospitals closing.

Hospital stakeholders across Tennessee were interviewed to find solutions to this problem.

One problem was some residents of these counties did not have certain health care that was accepted by the hospital.

“One federal policy change that comes to mind particularly for me is the expansion of Medicaid and finally quote ‘we do have TennCare but we still see a lot of people who are in the gap who don’t have health insurance,’” said Richard Henigman, President of THCC.

With the closing of some hospitals, residents who live in more rural areas are now forced to travel miles and hours away to receive care.

“What is missed often is not only critical access care but when you remove a hospital from a county its hard to get providers to go to that county in order to provide the primary care that keeps people out of hospitals,” said Mark Gaylord. a member of THCC.

Another problem is that these rural hospitals are losing doctors and nurses who can offer more help with delivering babies and other life changing care.

“That one-third of all counties in Tennessee are healthcare deserts for obstetrical prenatal care so there’s no place for babies to be born or mothers to be cared for. So this is a problem from West Tennessee to East Tennessee. From Chattanooga to Martin,” said Rice Randall, a volunteer for THCC.

One solution that they found in their research is community involvement.

“That a hospital CEO firmly believed that hospital management must be seen as an integral part of the community one CEO explained a big part of my job is not just being here in this office at this desk but is getting involved in this community,” said Henigman.

In this research they also learned that infant mortality rates, hypertension rates, cancer rates, and smoking rates were higher in more rural areas across Tennessee.

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