NC Rural Health Research Program

 

     

The North Carolina Rural Health Research Program (NC RHRP) at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research seeks to address problems in rural health care delivery through basic research, policy-relevant analyses, geographic and graphical presentation of data, and the dissemination of information to organizations and individuals who can use the information for policy or administrative purposes to address complex social issues affecting rural populations.

NC RHRP’s research involves primary data collection, analysis of large secondary data sets, and in-depth policy analysis. The program’s diverse, multidisciplinary team includes multidisciplinary health care professionals, along with experts in biostatistics, geography, epidemiology, sociology, anthropology, and political science. Our active dissemination component emphasizes the use of geographic methods in research.

NC RHRP is built upon a more than 40-year history of rural health research at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and draws on the experience of a wide variety of scholars and researchers, analysts, managers, and health service providers associated with the Center.

These projects are funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Federal Office of Rural Health Policy.

Recent Publications

  • Rural Population Health in the United States: A Chartbook Randy K. Randolph, MRP, G. Mark Holmes, PhD, Kristie Thompson, MA, Sharita Thomas, MPP, Julie Perry, Randall John, BSPH, Susie Gurzenda, MS, Katharine Ricks, PhD, Andrew Maxwell, BSPH. February, 2023.
  • Characteristics of Rural Hospitals Eligible for Conversion to Rural Emergency Hospitals and Three Rural Hospitals Considering Conversion George H. Pink, PhD, Susie Gurzenda, MS, Kristie Thompson, MA, H. Ann Howard, BS. December, 2022.
  • Factors Predicting Swing Bed Versus Skilled Nursing Facility Use Tyler Malone, MS, Mark Holmes, PhD. October, 2022.
  • Key Considerations for a Rural Hospital Assessing Conversion to Rural Emergency Hospital Kristin L. Reiter, PhD, TJ Grant, MHA, Susie Gurzenda, MS, Angelina Budko, MBA, Margaret Greenwood-Ericksen, MD, MSc, George Pink, PhD. October, 2022.
  • Small Rural Hospitals with Low-Volume Emergency Departments that May Convert to a Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) Margaret Greenwood-Ericksen, MD, MSc, TJ Grant, MHA, Susie Gurzenda, MS, Tyler Malone, MS, Angelina Budko, MBA, Kristin L. Reiter, PhD, George H. Pink, PhD. October, 2022.

In the News