Rural Spotlight

MRHA Webinar: Nurse Call and Wander Management Systems for Rural Healthcare, July 16

June 8, 2026

MRHA Webinar: Nurse Call and Wander Management Systems for Rural Healthcare, July 16

Join this webinar for an in-depth look at modern nurse call and wander management solutions designed to meet the unique needs of rural healthcare facilities. This session will showcase the latest Tek-CARE technologies, including Tek-CARE 400 GEN3 nurse call, Tek-CARE700 Wander Management, and the expanding Tek-CARE ecosystem of workflow and alerting tools.

Participants will learn how fully integrated wireless pendants, wired audio-visual nurse call systems, resident wander management, and alert integration can operate simultaneously on a single platform. The presentation will highlight how these solutions help rural facilities improve staff efficiency, enhance resident satisfaction, and modernize infrastructure in a cost-effective and scalable way.

Designed for a wide range of care environments – from small care homes to large hospitals – TekTone nurse call systems are UL® listed and customizable to meet regulatory and operational requirements across multiple settings.

Cost: Free

When: Thursday, July 16, 12: p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

Whitepaper: Beyond Hiring: How 3 Health Systems are Rebuilding the Care Workforce

June 8, 2026

Whitepaper: Beyond Hiring: How 3 Health Systems are Rebuilding the Care Workforce

Over the next five to 10 years, the U.S. will face a shortage of 300,000 physicians and nurses. At the same time, nearly 80% of older adults are managing multiple chronic conditions.

Recruiting alone will not solve this. Leading organizations are shifting strategy – investing in workforce development, productivity technology and retention-first benefits to stabilize operations and reduce long-term labor costs.

UAB Medicine reduced turnover by 32% and cut reliance on travelers in half by investing in structured career development and retirement benefits. Johns Hopkins Medicine used AI documentation tools to reclaim clinician time without adding staff. Futuro Health built local training pipelines to credential 2,000 allied health workers, without adding debt.

This whitepaper examines how these organizations are:

  • Building internal career pathways that lower vacancy rates,
  • Using AI to increase productivity without increasing burnout, and
  • Leveraging benefits strategies to strengthen long-term retention.

Click Here to Download this Whitepaper

Whitepaper: How Henry Ford Health is Turning Diagnostics into a Strategic Advantage

June 8, 2026

Whitepaper: How Henry Ford Health is Turning Diagnostics into a Strategic Advantage

For many health system leaders, diagnostics still sit outside the strategic conversation, viewed mainly as a clinical necessity and a cost center.

This report makes the case for a different approach. It shows how Henry Ford Health began treating diagnostics as a source of actionable information that can support better decisions, stronger clinical stewardship and greater economic value. Rather than focusing only on the cost per test, leaders explored how faster, better information could improve admission decisions, medication use and overall performance.

The result was a more integrated, end-to-end strategy. Henry Ford Health established diagnostic testing capabilities at almost 20 locations to support faster influenza testing and more timely decision-making. The system also reduced unnecessary blood cultures by more than 20% and saw a 35% reduction in CLABSI rates through stronger stewardship and collaboration across infection prevention, emergency medicine and the lab.

Download the whitepaper to learn:

  • Why cost per test can miss the broader value of diagnostics,
  • How Henry Ford Health used faster information to support better decisions,
  • What diagnostic stewardship looked like in practice across the system, and
  • How lab strategy can support both clinical and financial priorities.

Click Here to Download this Whitepaper

Webinar: How Specialty Practices are Recovering Missed Patients with Agentic AI Outreach, June 16

June 8, 2026

Webinar: How Specialty Practices are Recovering Missed Patients with Agentic AI Outreach, June 16

Every day, provider organizations lose patients they never realize they’ve missed. Patients with open referrals, overdue preventive care, unrebooked no-shows and unresolved balances often fall out of the system entirely. Staff shortages and fragmented workflows make proactive outreach difficult to sustain at scale.

The practices solving this are seeing meaningful results. SENTA Partners is converting 64% of its referral outreach into booked appointments. Annapolis Internal Medicine booked 61% of annual flu shots through AI outreach alone. When a snowstorm closed Boston Bone & Joint Institute’s offices, agentic AI rebooked 53% of affected patients and cut overall call abandonment by 67%. The technology is now in production across more than 5,000 providers.

In this session, specialty practice executives share how they’re using agentic AI to proactively reach patients throughout the care journey. The discussion will focus on which outreach campaigns worked, what conversion rates leaders measured and how teams operationalized these programs.

Attendees will learn:

  • Why proactive outreach is becoming a critical part of patient access strategy,
  • How specialty practices identified their first high-impact AI outreach use cases, and
  • What leaders learned while deploying outreach programs into existing workflows.

Cost: Free

When: Tuesday, June 16, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

Webinar: Telehealth in 2026: A Practical Framework for Compliant, Sustainable Programs, June 10

June 8, 2026

Webinar: Telehealth in 2026: A Practical Framework for Compliant, Sustainable Programs, June 10

Telehealth programs don’t stall because of a lack of vision; they stall when policy requirements outpace implementation. This session is designed to close that gap.

Healthcare leaders from health systems, clinics and telehealth resource centers will walk through how to apply current federal and state regulatory requirements to the practical work of building and sustaining compliant virtual care programs – and how to align those programs with organizational mission and national advocacy priorities.

Expect a practical exchange of lessons learned and best practices from organizations working through the same implementation challenges.

What you’ll learn:

  • How to apply telehealth policy and regulatory requirements to program design,
  • Strategies for aligning virtual care services with organizational mission and national initiatives, and
  • Practical takeaways and best practices from healthcare peers.

Cost: Free

When: Wednesday, June 10, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

MHA Health Institute: 2026 Pain Management Series Registration: Advancing Substance Use Care in Clinical Practice, Starts June 10

June 4, 2026

MHA Health Institute: 2026 Pain Management Series Registration: Advancing Substance Use Care in Clinical Practice, Starts June 10

Join MHA for a four-part informational series focused on improving clinical practice related to opioid prescribing, pain management, stimulant use disorder and alcohol reduction.

Each session offers practical, evidence-informed strategies that can be applied across health care community settings.

Objectives

Upon completion of this program, participants will be able to:

  • Gain a deeper understanding of the CDC prescribing guidelines,
  • Engage patients in effective pain-related conversations,
  • Learn about overamping and how to medically respond to stimulant use disorder, and
  • Improve comfort with difficult conversations around alcohol use.

Cost: Complimentary for all attendees

When:

  • Wednesday, June 10, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
  • Wednesday, June 17, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
  • Wednesday, June 24, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
  • Wednesday, July 1, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grants

June 4, 2026

FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grants

The AFG Program provides financial assistance directly to eligible fire departments, nonaffiliated emergency medical service (EMS) organizations, and State Fire Training Academies (SFTAs) to equip and train emergency personnel to recognized standards, outfit responders with compliant personal protective equipment, provide funding to retrofit or modify facilities to protect personnel from known health hazards, acquire emergency response vehicles, design and implement health, wellness and resiliency programs that prepare responders for incident response, enhance operational efficiencies, foster interoperability, and support community resilience.

Click Here to Learn More

USDA Rural Business Development Grants – June 15 and June 30

June 4, 2026

USDA Rural Business Development Grants – June 15 and June 30

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) supports targeted technical assistance, training, and other activities leading to the development or expansion of small and emerging private businesses in rural areas.

The June 15 closing date only applies to Strategic Economic and Community Development applications; the June 30 date applies to the remainder of the applications.

Click Here to Learn More

Webinar Recording: Sustaining Rural Labor & Delivery Programs

June 4, 2026

Webinar Recording: Sustaining Rural Labor & Delivery Programs

Rural hospitals face ongoing financial and operational pressures that have contributed to the closure of many Labor & Delivery programs nationwide.

This webinar, hosted by researchers at the Flex Monitoring Team (FMT) for rural Medicare hospitals and presented by Stroudwater, highlights practical strategies to help rural hospitals assess and strengthen the financial sustainability of these services.

FORHP funded the development of the Sustaining Rural Labor & Delivery Programs brief; this webinar highlights key insights from the brief and covers approaches to improving how costs are tracked and reported, understanding the financial performance of Labor & Delivery services, and identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and partnerships. Viewers will gain actionable insights to support informed decision-making and help maintain access to essential maternity care in rural communities.

Click Here to View Recording

Click Here to Read Sustaining Rural Labor & Delivery Programs Brief

Save the Date for The Rural Impact, Monday, June 22

June 4, 2026

Save the Date for The Rural Impact, Monday, June 22

The National Association of Community Health Centers will hold an online panel discussion with leaders from rural hospitals and health centers from three states – New Hampshire, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania – discussing their collaborations for rural health.

Hear from panelists as they discuss their priorities for Rural Health Transformation funding as well as how they face shared challenges such as workforce, community engagement, and care models that close access gaps.

Cost: Free

When: Monday, June 22, 2:00 p.m. ET

Click Here to Register