In New Hampshire’s rural communities, our thirteen critical access hospitals provide vital access to health care services, improving the health status of residents who face significant barriers to accessing the health care they need. These hospitals face unique funding challenges that can threaten the care and services they provide to the state’s most vulnerable populations. Protecting rural hospitals and their ability to provide access to quality care is more critical now than ever.
Critical access hospitals also serve as economic anchors within their communities and play a vital role in the overall health of New Hampshire. Without them, New Hampshire would suffer a critical loss of health services and an economic crisis in the loss of highly skilled and devoted employees.
The New Hampshire Hospital Association supports a strong health care delivery system in which the state’s most vulnerable populations have access to care and New Hampshire remains competitive in recruiting and retaining a healthy workforce.
The Foundation for Healthy Communities’ Rural Health Quality Improvement Network (R-QIN) engages with New Hampshire’s critical access hospitals in efforts to enhance access to care, financial viability, patient safety and continuous improvement in the quality of patient care services in the rural areas of the state to better meet the needs of our state’s most vulnerable patient populations.
Working with state and federal policy makers, NHHA supports policies and regulations that reflect the challenging needs of our rural communities through adequate reimbursement, bolstering the workforce, enhancing connected and coordinated care delivery, and lowering prescription drug prices.
