Shortages of health care professionals are common in rural counties, and recent issues brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated workforce and staffing concerns among rural providers. While strategies for recruitment and retention of health care providers and staff exist, Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and rural health care providers have unique needs that cannot be addressed with the same strategies that are used in urban hospitals and communities. Thus, the objectives of this project are to:
identify the areas of need for workforce-related best practices in CAHs, and
develop a workforce toolkit for State Flex Programs and CAHs to use to improve CAH recruitment and retention in these areas of need.