The American Hospital Association (AHA) has released its highly-anticipated Task Force on Ensuring Access in Vulnerable Communities Report. The report is the culmination of nearly 18 months of work by a task force appointed by the AHA Board of Trustees to provide a path forward for the preservation of health care services in our nation’s vulnerable rural and urban areas.

Task force members spent considerable time gathering information and speaking with hospital and community leaders across the country. Their focus was to identify ways in which hospitals and health systems can partner with their communities to best adjust to and meet patient and community needs. The report includes a menu of specific options and strategies that will allow communities and hospitals to protect access to essential health care services.

Click here to learn more about the report.

In September, SDAHO convened a similar task force that focused on ensuring access for the vulnerable rural/frontier communities in South Dakota. Their findings were released in a report and executive summary, capping off a yearlong effort to identify the characteristics and parameters of related vulnerable communities and examine innovative delivery and reimbursement models and other strategies targeted at ensuring access to essential health care services.