Rural Health

A new report found the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated Illinois' rural health worker shortage.

The market for health care labor continues to be pinched. Rural hospitals are finding they can attract staff by not requiring staff to get the COVID vaccine.

Boone County has one of the highest vaccination rates in Missouri, according to the Department of Health & Senior Services. 49.0 percent of the county has completed their vaccine regiment, and 55.5 percent have at least begun the process.

The outbreak of COVID-19 in southwest Missouri and northern Arkansas has become the nation's largest and is mostly driven by the highly contagious delta variant.

Agriculture, business and health care groups in Missouri are discussing ways to help boost the number of people in rural communities who receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Their goal is to change the way vaccine advocates communicate their message to rural residents.

Appointments for a COVID vaccination are still easier to find in rural areas, and many people living in the St. Louis area are headed out on long drives to get them.

About three-quarters of Kansas and Missouri counties lack intensive care units, forcing critically ill rural patients to seek care in major cities.

The rising rates of COVID-19 in Missouri's rural areas are causing the state's hospitals to become overwhelmed.

The main metro areas in Missouri are seeing coronavirus numbers that are stable and moving slowly. Much of the outstate region is experiencing a spike in cases.

The VA said not enough of Dent County's 1,000-plus veterans chose the clinic for health care, and without a certain number of patients, it was not viable to stay open.