rural health

While outsiders blame low rural vaccination rates on vaccine hesitancy, local health officials say the state’s distribution system has made providing shots difficult.

The casual attitude toward the dangers of COVID worries health care leaders in Fort Scott, Kansas.

Most of the patients who are turned away are from rural areas with no mask mandates, said Dr. Heather Harris, Hays Medical Center's medical director.

Missouri tops 4,000 deaths Tuesday as University of Kansas Health System officials say further restrictions may need to be enacted.

As hospital beds fill up in rural parts of the state and nearby cities, some doctors say southwestern Kansas is running out of options.

Earlier this month, Misty Traver of Willow Springs, Missouri, heard a sound she won't likely forget.

Wallace was one of the last two counties in Kansas to see positive COVID-19 cases. Even so, life hasn't changed much, right down to the low unemployment rate.

College students infuse college towns with energy and money. But now the institutions enlivening college towns threaten to bring death. College classes, dorms and sporting events can spread the pandemic. But unless small colleges can open this fall, dozens, maybe hundreds, will likely go under, taking the lifeblood of small towns with them.

The indictment alleges Jorge Perez and others exploited federal regulations that allow some rural hospitals to charge substantially higher rates for laboratory testing than other providers.

Rural hospitals have been planning for the arrival of the coronavirus, but the preparations are putting some of these hospitals in financial danger.

The closure of small and rural hospitals will escalate as they confront COVID-19 and a provision in Trump’s tax act.

The COVID crisis comes as rural hospitals have been closing — 10 in Missouri since 2014.