ROCKY MOUNT, Va. (WDBJ) – A report released in December by the Virginia General Assembly’s Select Committee on Advancing Rural Healthcare showed the healthcare disparities facing thousands of Virginias in rural areas.
The General Assembly’s bipartisan Committee on Rural Healthcare was created to study and address the disparities in healthcare access facing rural Virginians. The committee’s chair noted tens of thousands of Virginians don’t have access to basic healthcare simply because of where they live.
“If you look at the statistics, not only do they lack more access to care in terms of providers and health systems including hospitals, people in rural areas do not live as long as those in more urban areas and that is just absolutely wrong,” said Delegate Rodney Willett, a Democrat who represents Henrico County and chaired the select committee.
Willet said the committee traveled to rural areas around the state and met with hospital systems, free clinics, health centers and other providers, as well as people who are impacted by the healthcare disparities.
The committee’s report found one of the biggest barriers to healthcare access in rural areas is transportation.
“It’s not just the geography challenge; it’s also the actual vehicle challenge, someone finding a car or finding a ride. Particularly when you’re talking about follow-up health, probably the best example is maternal health. For a pregnant mom, those critical prenatal visits in some cases may even be weekly if it’s an at-risk pregnancy,” said Willett. “Moms in these rural areas are not getting to those appointments. They don’t necessarily have a car, don’t necessarily have a ride, and there’s certainly not public transportation in a lot of these rural areas.”
Transportation can be challenging in mountainous areas like Franklin County. Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital in Rocky Mount has its transportation system for emergency services, as well as taking patients home from the hospital or transferring them to a higher level of care.
However, the hospital said transportation remains a barrier for people in Franklin County.
“We still have a lot of transportation issues within the County in getting patients to our hospital or getting patients to a doctor’s office, or transporting patients for dialysis,” said Carl Cline, Vice President and Administrator of Franklin Memorial Hospital.
Molly Roberts is the Community Impact Manager for the Carilion Hospital System. She said a lack of transportation factors into some of the health needs of the community.
“Things like transportation and other social determinants of health get really tied back to some of those top health conditions we see in the needs assessment. Things like chronic diseases, obesity, physical activity issues,” said Roberts. “If people don’t have transportation to get their needs met, they’re not going to be able to really manage those chronic diseases that come up throughout the needs assessment process. Everything is very interconnected as we look at community needs.”
Carl Cline said Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital is working to make healthcare more accessible. He said the hospital recently renovated its operating rooms and doubled their size. This allowed the hospital to increase the number of surgeons at the hospital from four to over 25.
“By doing that we have provided more access to care. We have increased the general surgery cases that we do here. We have increased the OBGYN cases and the types of cases that we do here at Franklin Memorial, we have increased our orthopedic work., we’re doing ENT surgery cases here, we’re doing plastic surgery, we’re doing bariatric surgery,” said Cline.
Cline noted the hospital also began using Da Vinci robotic surgery for the first time in November. He said ultimately the biggest key to addressing rural healthcare is for hospitals, clinics, and other organizations to frequently communicate and collaborate with local governments and agencies.
Delegate Rodney Willett says the General Assembly’s ongoing session will see a number of bills and budget amendments aimed at addressing rural healthcare issues. One example of this is a plan to remove hurdles to access to telehealth options for people without reliable internet.
“Right now in Virginia in some cases, we’re not allowing for audio-only telehealth. There are some places where people do have a cell connection or landline and they could be accessing a medical professional. Right now the law doesn’t allow for reimbursement for that for providers so we’re going to try to lower that,” said Willett.
Willett also said he intends to carry a bill aimed at reducing obesity in rural areas. He said the goal is to loosen restrictions on GLP-1 weight loss drugs in Virginia.
“Right now to qualify for those drugs you have to be severely obese or have diabetes. That’s just too high a bar; we’re going to try to lower that bar and get more people on these medications. It’s not the only answer to obesity but it’s a critical part to it,” he said.
Willett said improving maternal health in rural areas will also be a key goal.
“We have a great group of midwives in Virginia and in certain cases, they are not able to do everything they’re qualified to do just because of regulatory hurdles. We’re going to try to make that a more level playing field. Midwives have played a critical role in rural areas; where I’m from in Prince Edward County, midwives actually now are doing most of the deliveries through a great system they have in Farmville. We’re going to try to replicate that in some other parts of Virginia,” he said.
Willet said the General Assembly has a bipartisan focus on improving rural healthcare.
“The administration is right there with us. This is led by our speaker, a Democrat, but the Republicans in the House joined right in there. I know my Senate colleagues are also very interested in this issue. So you’re going to see results; we’re going to move the needle here; it’s not going to happen in a day but we’re going to move the needle,” he said.
Copyright 2025 WDBJ. All rights reserved.
link