Curated News
By: NewsRamp Editorial Staff
August 26, 2025
Heart Association Extends Rural Health Program to Combat Healthcare Disparities
TLDR
- Rural hospitals can gain no-cost access to American Heart Association's proven Get With The Guidelines programs, enhancing cardiovascular care quality and earning recognition awards.
- The American Heart Association extends its Rural Health Care Outcomes Accelerator through 2028, providing evidence-based guidelines, data validation, and tailored resources to improve rural cardiovascular care.
- This initiative reduces health disparities by extending life-saving cardiovascular care to 60 million rural Americans, promoting equitable health outcomes and longer, healthier lives.
- Over 1,000 rural hospitals now participate in the program, with 650 earning recognition awards in 2025 alone, a 30% increase from the previous year.
Impact - Why it Matters
This initiative addresses critical healthcare inequities affecting millions of Americans in rural areas who face significantly worse cardiovascular outcomes and shorter lifespans. The program's expansion means more rural hospitals can implement evidence-based care protocols without financial barriers, potentially saving countless lives and reducing the three-year life expectancy gap between rural and urban populations. For rural communities that often lack specialized medical resources, this represents a vital step toward equitable healthcare access and improved quality of life.
Summary
The American Heart Association has announced a three-year extension of its Rural Health Care Outcomes Accelerator program through June 2028, targeting the significant health disparities faced by rural Americans. Research shows rural residents face a 30% higher stroke risk, 40% greater likelihood of heart disease, and live three years fewer than urban counterparts. The program expansion will provide no-cost enrollment opportunities for rural hospitals in the Association's evidence-based Get With The Guidelines® programs for coronary artery disease, heart failure, and stroke, while Critical Access Hospitals gain access to all five programs including atrial fibrillation and resuscitation.
Since its 2022 launch, the Accelerator has dramatically increased rural hospital participation, with 430 facilities enrolling at no cost and over 1,000 rural hospitals now engaged in more than 1,500 Get With The Guidelines programs nationwide. The extension includes dedicated quality program consultants, tailored learning collaboratives, enhanced registry reporting, and a new Rural Accelerator Quality Improvement Challenge Scholarship. Participants also gain access to the peer-to-peer American Heart Association Rural Community Network and specialized resources designed specifically for rural hospital clinicians, helping bridge the healthcare gap for the 60 million Americans living in rural communities.
Source Statement
This curated news summary relied on content disributed by NewMediaWire. Read the original source here, Heart Association Extends Rural Health Program to Combat Healthcare Disparities
