Data Collection Inventory

Rural Health and Primary Care (RHPC) aims to meet the following priorities and goals: Access – To increase access to quality health care services for rural and underserved populations; Quality – To improve the quality of care provided at Critical Access Hospitals and Rural Health Clinics; Sustainability – To improve financial and operational outcomes of Critical Access Hospitals and Rural Health Clinics; and Workforce – To increase the number of health care providers serving rural and underserved populations. RHPC houses the State Office of Rural Health (SORH), the Rural Hospital Flexibility Program (Flex), the Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program (SHIP), the State Loan Repayment Program, and the J-1 Visa Waiver (Conrad 30) program. The Health Professions Data Center was developed to collect supply and capacity data from healthcare professionals in primary care related fields. Workforce survey implementation during the license renewal cycle with the health professions licensing boards began with physicians in 2015 and expanded to include APRNs, mental health practitioners, and PAs by 2018. Survey implementation for psychologists and alcohol and drug counselors begins in 2019.