ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨

Rural health systems face unique challenges, including smaller and more isolated facilities, higher costs, fewer staff and less infrastructure. What works well in urban centres doesn’t always work in rural areas. And among rural communities, no two are the same.

It’s challenging to make decisions about which services to provide and where, and which delivery model to use. To make the best decisions, you need to consider many factors.

ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨works with rural and northern stakeholders across Canada who deal with these challenges every day. Together, we’ve developed some resources to help.

--

Are you trying to understand the unique aspects of your rural health system?

If you look only at population size and geographic distance, health systems across rural areas may look similar — but they can be very different when you dig deeper.

[Image showing 3 parts of the Rural ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨ Systems Model: Geography (referring to geographic distance); Population (referring to the size and density of the population); and ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨ system and community context.]

Our Rural ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨ Systems Model will help you understand what’s behind differences among rural communities, identify comparators and develop benchmarks. 

--

Facing a decision or pressure to change local health care provision? Starting, stopping or reconfiguring a service? Our Rural ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨ Service Decision Guide was designed to help.

[Image showing the 5 steps of CIHI’s Rural ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨ Service Decision Process. Step 1: Clearly state the question to be answered; Step 2: Quantify the need for services; Step 3: Identify potential service options; Step 4: Assess viable service options; Step 5: Summarize your results.

Within Step 4, you will assess viable service options against 6 themes: quality and safety; patient experience; provider experience; internal capacity and context; funding and payment models, costs; and engagement.]

Sometimes the solution seems obvious — but before you adopt it, make sure you’ve considered all the factors and explored alternatives. For example, when a long-serving general surgeon retires, the instinctive reaction would be to hire a replacement as soon as possible. But it’s likely best to take a moment and reassess the community’s current and future needs. It may turn out that some other combination of services would be a better match.

[Image showing the 5 steps of CIHI’s Rural ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨ Service Decision Process]

Our simple, 5-step process ensures that you cover your bases, look at different aspects of the situation and consider various ways to solve the problem. It’s useful whether you need a decision by tomorrow, next week or next month.

[Laptop showing a screenshot of the Rural ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨ Service Decision Guide web page]

By following this systematic approach, you’ll be confident with your decision, and you’ll be able to easily explain the thinking behind it to local residents and stakeholders.

-------------

You can find links to both of these tools on CIHI’s Rural health care in Canada web page. Visit our site today to download these resources and see how they can help you!

[Images of the Rural ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨ Systems Model and Rural ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨ Service Decision Guide]