Question

Identify a critical business requirement for a small healthcare provider located in rural Florida. Also explain why you think this requirement is critical.

Answer 1

Accesss to healthcare services in every nook and corner of the world is important, especially in rural areas it is quite critical. Ideally, the residents of the area must have convenient and affordable access to the services such as primary care, behavioral heath, emergency, dental, and public health services. Each individual’s ability to access health services has a profound effect on every aspect of his or her health, yet at the start of the decade, almost 1 in 4 Americans do not have a primary care provider (PCP) or health center where they can receive regular medical services.

When we talk about providing healthcare services in rural areas, there are many issues which a small heathcare provider might face and one such critical business requirement is lack of funds and quality of service compared to urban healthcare. Rural residents tend to be older, have lower incomes and are more likely to be uninsured than residents of metropolitan areas.Rural residents also are more likely to suffer from chronic illnesses than their urban and suburban counterparts.
Nearly half of rural residents report having at least one major chronic illness, and chronic diseases such as hypertension, cancer, and chronic bronchitis are up to 1.4 times more prevalent in rural than in large urban areas.

Due to reluctance of people to pay more for the medical services, the business of a small heathcare can severly get affected as only a handful of people will be willing to spend any part of their income on costly health services be it primary health care, mental or any other service. If there will be no funding, the business cannot flourish and the healthcare cannot invest in costly equipment which might be helpful for treatment of chronic diseases.

Another critical business requirement is manpower. It is a little difficult to find efficient and skilled workforce in rural areas as most of the people are into small scale businesses or jobs such as farming, labourers etc. So it is a critical task to find the adequate workforce in rural areas.