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Show Rural Access "Rural access" refers to the availability of health care services to rural populations. The following quotation describes what constitutes "rural areas" in Utah: There are many definitions of "rural." Government and private organizations employ different definitions to serve various purposes. The task force on Rural Health Policy Development has defined rural to be all the counties of Utah except the four urban Wasatch counties of Weber, Davis, Salt Lake, and Utah. This 25 county rural area encompasses 96% of the state's land mass, and 22.5% of its population. The Task Force embraces the concept of frontier areas. A "frontier" area is a geographical area that has a population density of six or fewer people per square mile. Frontier areas have unique economic and health care delivery challenges that often must be addressed by non-traditional means.1 One method of assessing rural access is use of an isochrone model.1 An isochrone is defined as "a geographic area that is within a specified time or distance from a health care delivery site" (Utah's Vision for Rural Health Care, 1992 p. B-l). An "outlier area" is a geographic region outside the isochrone's boundaries. In brief, the isochrone model utilizes the following steps in assessing rural access: (1) define a health care facility in a rural area; (2) identify the primary and secondary highway routes surrounding that health care facility; (3) assess how much of a geographic region can be adequately served by the health care facility. The example included in this Review (Table 82 and the Isochrone map, Figure 63) has been defined as the farthest distance that can be traveled in a 50-minute time span to the facility, traveling at the legal speed limit. This total distance is represented by an isochrone model drawn around the regional delivery center. (4) Identify the outlier areas; (5) utilize matrix data (a chart that lists basic services in a column and lists issues pertaining to those services in rows across the top, so the two can then be matched in an easy-to-read table) to assess the needs and circumstances of the rural areas; and (6) summarize information obtained from each region, which can be used to facilitate improvement in health care delivery in rural areas. A preliminary isochrone model is included in this review to help clarify the usefulness of this model (Table 82 and the Utah Isochrone map, Figure 63). *Utah Department of Health, Division of Health Care Resources, Bureau of Local and Rural Health Systems. (1992, April). Utah's Vision For Rural Health Care: Policies. Goals, and Strategies. Salt Lake City: Author, p. 3, B-l. 70 HEALTHCARE |