Many rural hospitals have closed in the last decade in the United States and a recent report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform says about 700 more are at risk of shuttering. Rural residents are more likely to die earlier than urban residents from things like heart disease, cancer and stroke. Health advocates, hospital and clinic administrators and rural residents across the country say changing health outcomes and health care itself in rural America needs to start at the local level. That's especially true in communities of color that may lack trust in the medical field.
