INTRODUCTION The objectives of this paper are 1) to analyze the characteristics of rural physicians who currently practise obstetrics, their training background and the environment in which they work and 2) to develop strategies to sustain rural obstetrical services. METHODS Information was gathered using both a survey and brief individual interviews. PARTICIPANTS A survey was sent to 56 fa...

background: access to family physicians plays an important role in individuals' health and health indicators. this study aimed to determine the effect of family physicians lodge on performance indicators of rural family physicians working in health centers of jiroft and kerman universities of medical sciences. methods: in this cross - sectional study conducted in 2013, 26 lodge physicians (as t...

Access to appropriate health care is often difficult for people living in rural areas because of a widespread shortage of appropriately educated local, rural healthcare workers and the distance, time and cost of travelling to larger urban health centres. This shortage is due to many factors including medical education, practice conditions, health system, regulatory, community, personal, family ...

INTRODUCTION Opioid abuse has reached epidemic levels. Evidence-based treatments such as buprenorphine maintenance therapy (BMT) remain underutilized. Offering BMT in primary care settings has the potential to reduce overall costs of care, decrease medical morbidity associated with opioid dependence, and improve treatment outcomes. However, access to BMT, especially in rural areas, remains limi...

background: assessment of policies and determining their challenges are necessary to improve and reform health systems. family physician and rural insurance policies have been the second important phase of changes in health services provided in iranian villages and towns with populations under 20,000. this study aimed to identify the challenges of implementing these policies in kerman province,...

Background: LBW is an important factor that can affect infant mortality and represents an index of economic and social development. It is expected that an increase in the density of midwives attending family physician programs will lead to a decrease in LBW in health centers. This study aimed to compare the percentage of LBW infants before and after the implementation of the family physician pr...

INTRODUCTION Rural and remote settings pose particular healthcare and service delivery challenges. Providing appropriate care and support for individuals with dementia and their families living in these communities is especially difficult, and can only be accomplished when the needs of care providers and the context and complexity of care provision are understood. This paper describes formal an...

Twenty percent of the US population lives in rural communities, but only about 9% of the nation's physicians practice in those communities. There is little doubt that the more highly specialized physicians are, the less likely they are to practice or settle in rural areas. There is clearly a population threshold below which it is not feasible for specialist (in contrast to generalist) physician...

background & purpose: since 2005, a reform known as rural insurance and family medicine scheme has introduced to primary health care network in iran in rural areas and small towns. the content of the reform implies a substantial change in those aspects of health centers that mainly could be categorized as structural quality. although, this is the requirement of all health care providers, they a...

Amid concerns that too few physicians practice in many rural areas, lower income potential is cited as one obstacle to attracting and retaining rural physicians. Congress has responded by increasing Medicare payment rates to virtually all physicians practicing in rural areas. However, average physician incomes in rural and urban areas do not differ significantly, even after accounting for diffe...