Increasing patients’ access to healthcare services is an issue that has gained particular importance in addressing the needs of the aging population. Among key barriers to accessing health services, the lack of funding for rural places needs to be mentioned first. The identified issue seems to entail major concerns for aging people as far as the management of their health needs is concerned, from the quality of provided care to the options for transportation to local health management facilities (Hash, Jurkowski, & Krout, 2015). However, on a deeper level, the issue at hand can be seen as the misplacement of state funds and the focus on urbanization.
Once the current principles of locating funds are reconsidered, rural areas could have a greater range of resources at hand. The redesign in the state budget and the reduction in the number of expenses for specific aspects of managing urban public health could have a significant impact on handling rural issues associated with aging. Nonetheless, the described issue is likely to persist due to the flaws in the current infrastructure and the spatial arrangement of healthcare facilities (Siconolfi et al., 2019). Since it is financially impossible to place a healthcare facility in every minor area, a better transportation system has to be created for rural patients to be able to access healthcare facilities within a short amount of time. For this purpose, the integration of innovative technology and the reconsideration of the current infrastructure will have to be seen as possible solutions. Thus, patients will receive timely and appropriate care despite the fact that the rural setting suggests greater time in the delivery of healthcare assistance.
References
Hash, K. M., Jurkowski, E. T., & Krout, J. A. (2015). Aging in rural places. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company, LLC.
Siconolfi, D., Shih, R. A., Friedman, E. M., Kotzias, V. I., Ahluwalia, S. C., Phillips, J. L., & Saliba, D. (2019). Rural-urban disparities in access to home-and community-based services and supports: Stakeholder perspectives from 14 states. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 20(4), 503-508. Web.