Ground Level

Rural health care under pressure

The pressure on Minnesota's rural health care system is unrelenting. National health care reform, shifting demographics and the overall desire to do something about costs have combined to change the look of rural care. So we've updated a Ground Level exploration published in 2011by adding a package of stories on where the state is on the hospital consolidation front.

All the stories we generated last year are still here, a deep dive into rural health care in Minnesota. But we've added new material as large health care companies get larger and more communities wrestle with new trends.

And, as always, the Ground Level blog maintains steady coverage as the issue unfolds.

Let's make a deal: Lessons learned from hospital mergers

Let's make a deal:
Lessons learned from hospital mergers

Communities that want or need to find a larger hospital partner can improve their bargaining efforts, say some who have been through it.
 Rural Minnesota retools health care in wave of hospital mergers

Rural Minnesota retools health care in wave of hospital mergers

a new round of consolidations that can add services to communities and let patients stay closer to home but that inevitably lead to the loss of local control.
Trying to go it alone in rural healthcare

Trying to go it alone in rural healthcare

In an environment that increasingly rewards mergers, some hospitals and doctors are taking steps to maintain their independence.
Rural health care in Minnesota
Babbitt's pharmacy victimized by fire, then the times

Babbitt's pharmacy victimized by fire,
then the times

A fire last fall destroyed the small town's pharmacy. The trend toward big retailers and mail-order drugs is making it difficult to replace.
Small town docs: The search for someone who does it all

Small town docs:
The search for someone to do it all

Outstate communities are finding it increasingly difficult to land doctors who can do it all, like Heidi Korstad does in Bigfork.
Can a small, independent hospital survive? A tale of two northern Minn. hospitals

Can a small, independent hospital survive?

The hospitals in Bigfork and Virginia in northern Minnesota offer a good contrast of how independent hospitals are facing the future.
Electronic records mandate strains rural hospitals

Electronic records mandate strains rural hospitals

The push to increase health care efficiency by creating more electronic records is squeezing rural hospitals' already thin margins.
Telemedicine, midlevel practitioners start to fill physician gap

Telemedicine, midlevel practitioners fill gap

A lack of physicians in rural Minnesota is leading to new ways to deliver health care, including use of midlevel practitioners and innovative ways to deliver care remotely.
from the Ground Level Blog
Mapping Health Care
Hospital Mapping

Hospitals and their affiliations

Affiliated and independent hospitals support the health infrastructure across Minnesota.

Ground Level Video

Minnesota's rural hospital crunch

Renegade Doctor

Renegade Doctor

Dr. Susan Wasson in Osakis takes cash, checks but no insurance. She represents dissatisfaction with the health care system.

Primer
Uninsured graphic

How is the pressure on rural health care providers more intense than that on urban providers?

Rural areas long have had difficulty maintaining hospitals and attracting doctors, but political, economic and demographic changes are adding to the burden. Learn more »

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