Despite the many challenges of the pandemic, the small teams and close knit communities of rural hospitals helped those organizations overcome challenges of the pandemic in ways large, urban hospitals couldn't, according to a March 22 report in Health Affairs.
The authors of the report spoke to emergency management leaders at 12 rural hospitals to understand the unique challenges and responses they took throughout the pandemic. Here are four key advantages that rural hospitals have during crises:
- Flexible, adaptable staff helped hospitals react fast to the crisis. Given the everyday staffing challenges that rural hospitals face, their staff are accustomed to filling a variety of roles daily, the workforce challenges brought by the pandemic weren't that different to what they were used to.
- Rural hospitals tend to have stronger ties with their communities, with local residents feeling a higher level of responsibility to hospitals. Many rural hospital leaders mentioned they had leveraged support of communities to run their operations, enlisting fire departments, local government and business owners.
- Being in a small hospital means a sense of family among staff can be more easily fostered. Several hospital leaders reported a strong sense of resilience due to close relationships between staff, making the work environment more supportive.
- The small size of rural hospitals allowed leaders to invest more time in individualized communication with staff, spotting people that needed extra support and talking with staff while making rounds. This helped reduce miscommunication and pinpointed support where it was needed.