Officials look for ways to expand health care in rural counties during COVID-19 crisis
MORGAN COUNTY, Mo.
Some rural counties have yet to see a spike in confirmed COVID-19 cases despite major outbreak in some urban areas.
Morgan County had just one confirmed case of COVID-19 on Wednesday. Morgan County Health Center administrator Shawn Brantley said to the best of his knowledge, only about 70 residents have been tested so far.
The ranking considers socioeconomic status, age and disability, minority status and language along with housing and transportation factors.
Brantley said Morgan County has a large Mennonite population, low-income families as well as retirees. He said while that creates some barriers, they still work to release crucial information.
"We are aware of those issues and we try to keep those in mind as we are getting our messages out," Brantley said.
Morgan County did not issue a stay-at-home order before the statewide order was put in place April 6. But county health authorities had already been encouraging social distancing and the state had already shut down dine-in areas of restaurants.
Brantley said for the most part, the community has followed the guidlines set in place, but said he fears the Easter holiday weekend may have made some people a little more lax on social distancing.
"This next two weeks is going to be a telling time," Brantley said. "I think there's just some issues that will show us if it's really a problem here in Morgan County or not. "
He said leaders are discussing whether to loosen restrictions or extend the guidance, but nothing has been set in stone.
Another factor in the county's vulnerability is access to health care and testing. Morgan County is one of 44 counties without a hospital. Brantley said only a few clinics offer testing for COVID-19, forcing many residents to travel to more urban areas for care.
"I think we would definitely fall into a health care shortage," Brantley said. "There's issues with travel, being able to get to a clinic, being able to afford insurance ... that's an ongoing issue outside of COVID."
He said the county's leaders continue to have conversations about solutions to the issues with rural health care. Right now, they are looking at satellite clinics to address the current need.
Access to health care in rural communities was an issue before the COVID-19 outbreak. Gov. Mike Parson said Wednesday that the state is working on providing access to rural communities by opening mobile sites across the state.
"Every day we are taking a look at rural Missouri because it's one of the concerns we have in those areas," Parson said. "Every day we are taking a look at that, trying to figure out what services we can do better."
Parson said the state is also pushing for people to use telemedicine, something the University of Missouri has been working toward for years.
MU Health Care CEO Jonathan Curtright said that on Tuesday alone, the system did more than 1,000 telehealth visits. He said they used to only do about 500 visits per year.
"The benefit of that is that we aren't going to go back," Curtright said. "We have now proven to ourselves that we can provide this care at a distance so Missourians can get their care in their home."
