Virginia's State Rural Health Plan

Virginia's State Rural Health Plan (VA-SRHP) is a 3-5 year strategic plan designed to strengthen the health care infrastructure in rural areas. The plan, which is a led by the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) Office of Minority Health and Public Health Policy (OMHPHP) and the Virginia Rural Health Association (VRHA), is a collaborative effort of over 50 prominent partners who are dedicated to rural Virginia.

The VA-SHRP seeks to provide analyses and strategies that will lead to improvements in rural health, not solely improvements in the delivery of health care services. It is intended that the plan will continue to be an active collaborative effort throughout the years and will be examined annually to ensure:

  • Relevance of the plan to emerging rural health needs
  • Effectiveness of proposed and completed projects
  • Successfulness of projects to benchmark measurements
  • Active engagement of various partners

The VA-SRHP operates under several core principles:

  • Improving rural health requires integrative thinking and strategies that not only address health care services, but also address the inseparable effects of individual behaviors and social determinants of health
  • Quality and performance improvements are fundamental values and expectations
  • There is a compelling need sensitivity to local and regional conditions
  • Rural citizens must play critical roles in determining rural needs and strategies
  • Collaboration must be promoted and service fragmentation reduced
  • Funding sources must be better aligned to targeted strategies
  • Models of care and pilot projects should be used for community planning and engagement
  • Rural health is a critical factor in sustaining and developing strong rural communities
  • Decision making must supported by quality and accurate data and data analysis

Over the next few months, Virginia will advance several VA-SRHP recommendations, including: 

  • Launch the official VA-SRHP website
  • Formalize the former four workgroups into official Virginia Rural Health Councils, based on respective subject area (i.e. access, workforce, quality, data/rural definition)
  • Develop a statewide rural health database portal

We invite you to become a partner with us as we Support Rural Health through Action.