Diversity in rural hospitals: Going beyond matching the community
Chief Healthcare Executive
Rural hospital executives acknowledge that it’s difficult to attract clinicians and other critical workers who may prefer to live in more urban settings.
It also becomes more challenging to bring workers from minority communities to areas where most of the residents are white.
Sunil “Sunny” Eappen, president and CEO of The University of Vermont Health Network, talked about the challenges at a forum on rural hospitals last week. In Vermont, 94% of the state’s residents are white, according to U.S. Census data. Only 2.2% of state’s residents are Hispanic, and only 1.5% of Vermont’s residents are Black.
Eappen said the system’s service area, which also includes northern New York, does have some diversity, including Native Americans and Black residents. While hospital executives in very diverse areas say they want their staff to reflect their communities, Eappen said his goal is different.