Management

Building Stronger Support Systems for Rural Healthcare

Rural community and independent hospitals are crucial for delivering much-needed care to millions of Americans.

Adam Oldenburg is the director of CDW Healthcare Sales - West.

Christopher Mills is an executive healthcare strategist at CDW.

There are nearly 2,000 rural community hospitals, which make up just a bit over a third of all hospitals in the U.S., according to the American Hospital Association.

These hospitals are serving millions of Americans who are in critical need of healthcare, which is why the risk of more closures is a major concern as it further limits care access for vulnerable communities. The financial health of many rural hospitals is largely precarious because they operate on thin margins, have limited revenue sources and rely heavily on government funding. And with recent legislative changes, including massive cuts to Medicaid, there’s a lot of uncertainty. We’re partnering with these critical hospitals across the U.S. on a regular basis. It’s imperative that we find ways to empower these organizations with innovative technology solutions that enhance patient care, streamline operations and improve overall health outcomes.

Another concern is the impact of a negative cyber event on a rural hospital. In 2023, a hospital in a small town in Illinois closed its doors after a ransomware attack messed with its ability to submit claims to insurers, shaking its financial standing. It was a worst-case scenario made real.

Despite the difficult landscape, rural hospitals have support. When it comes to shoring up cybersecurity strategy and optimizing healthcare IT infrastructure and applications for efficiency and cost-effectiveness, they can turn to a partner with dedicated teams for rural community and independent hospitals, including strategists who have previously worked in rural healthcare.

Click the banner below to enhance technology reliability and improve patient outcomes.

ht-itoperations-animated-2024-uncover-desktop

ht-itoperations-animated-2024-uncover-mobile

Addressing Rural Healthcare IT Budgets

“How do I keep the lights on?” That’s likely the top priority for rural healthcare IT budgets. These hospitals need to ensure that their critical environment (networks, servers and storage) is up and running, so that their clinical teams can deliver care without disruption.

That can mean, however, that plans to adopt newer technologies or undertake necessary upgrades may be pushed down the line if the budget doesn’t allow for it. Technical debt is an industrywide problem, but for rural health systems that are already under immense financial pressure, aging technology can end up being a hindrance in the long run even if it can offer some savings by pushing the upgrade of 5-year-old network switches to another half-decade.

But this mindset that only considers IT as an expense and not as a building block for a potential revenue-generating project is outdated and can use a good refresh.

And while third-party support for end-of-life equipment management can be a stop-gap measure for IT cost savings, the better approach is to build bridges across departments to understand what the needs are so that the IT conversation becomes less about hardware or software in a vacuum and more about how IT is a key part of powering operations.

Ask operational staff what their plans are for 12 months or more. Reframe IT needs as workflow needs: rather than saying “we need to refresh the network,” try “our mobile devices are losing connectivity in this part of the hospital and that slows our patient discharge process,” which will not only improve clinical workflows but also chip away at technical debt.

Having IT work in cooperation with operations and building lasting partnerships between departments are much more effective approaches than just centering IT in isolation. Listen to what operational and clinical staff are planning for, which can help you better identify priorities for the budget and encourage optimization of the tech stack you already have.

Finding Support from Private and Public Resources

Microsoft launched in 2024 its Cybersecurity for Rural Hospitals Program, which includes the participation of more than 550 rural hospitals as of March 2025. Google also has a rural healthcare cybersecurity initiative.

Major electronic health records system vendors such as Epic and MEDITECH offer resources for smaller health systems to leverage their solutions or access a critical industry network. Epic Community Connect, for example, allows smaller hospitals and clinics to partner with a larger health system that uses Epic without all of the associated costs of a self-implementation.

Certain federal funding, such as the Rural Health Care Program, can target IT needs around broadband services and telecommunications. Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shared more details on how states can apply to receive funding from the Rural Health Transformation Program. Conversations on the impact of newer legislation will be ongoing.

This article is part of HealthTech’s MonITor blog series