Priority Populations
In definition, a priority population is that which is being targeted by a particular program for a given course. When defining priority populations, many people dwell on the social factors of the population, including race, culture, ethnicity, gender, income, sexual orientation and language. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality uses the priority populations that were earlier defined by Congress in the Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999. This includes children, women, racial minorities, the elderly, ethnic minorities, low-income, rural, inner-city and those with special health needs (e.g. those with chronic illnesses and various disabilities) (Tyler & Hassen, 2015).
The rural Americans face considerable health disparities. These can be said to be the differences in their health conditions as compared to that of the general population. The main factors that point to health disparities include high number of diseased or disabled persons, high death rates, extensive suffering, and lower life expectancy. These may be as a result of geographical isolation, unemployment, ethnicity, and low social-economic status, among others. All these factors lead to limited access to health care, difficulty in solving health issues and cyclic problems. (Rural Health Information Hub,...
These areas suffer lack of doctors and the populations are generally poor. Their remote location also contributes to lack of access to quality health care. Unlike urban populations, rural populations generally have lower income, higher levels of poverty, lower literacy levels, high rates of death and a large number of uninsured people. (Warshaw, 2017)
The majority of rural dwellers live on ranches, farms, frontiers or reservations. Accessing the nearest health care provider may mean travelling for long distances. Thus someone must take some hours off work to consult the health care provider. It also takes a long time for authorities to respond to emergencies in the rural areas. This is a great danger to patients who may require such urgent attention. (Warshaw, 2017)
This has led a number of players in the medical sector to develop strategies that will improve the quality of health care in these rural areas. Two of these strategies are Frontier Community Health Integration Program (FCHIP) and Frontier Extended Stay Clinics (FESC). These have support from the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy. The former, FCHIP, aims at…
