December 17, 2024 – Intermountain Well being is partnering with Microsoft, Gates Ventures, Epic and West Well being to type a coalition geared toward reversing the present trajectory of rural healthcare. Sixty million folks – roughly one in 5 People – are battling declining entry to sufferers, rising dying charges and hospital closures.

Over the previous twenty years, dying charges for nearly each main explanation for dying in rural communities have almost tripled. About 20% of rural People dwell in counties with out hospitals. Seven in ten dwell in a province the place there isn’t any training oncologist. Rural sufferers wait a median of 13 minutes for an ambulance after a 9-1-1 name. Greater than 130 hospitals have closed and one other 700 are liable to closure.

The coalition, fashioned in late 2023, recognized enhancing entry to specialty care, lowering inequality in city populations, strengthening hospital monetary stability and addressing gaps in expertise infrastructure as areas that want most certainly to have a major, lasting influence.

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