Defining rural teaching hospitals in Canada: Developing and testing a new definition

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Rural Health
• Health Workforce Development

Background:

• Current definitions of teaching hospitals, like the one from the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI), primarily focus on large, academic institutions.
• High-quality rural training experiences are essential for preparing future rural physicians.
• A lack of a standardized definition for 'rural teaching hospital' hinders the understanding and comparison of rural training opportunities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and validate a working definition for a 'rural teaching hospital'.
• To facilitate better identification and understanding of rural medical training environments.
• To support research and operational planning in rural medical education.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the CIHI definition of rural as a starting point.
• Employed data from the University of Calgary and University of Alberta Distributed Medical Education (DME) programs.
• Applied the proposed definition to identify rural hospitals in Alberta.

Main Results:

• A rural teaching hospital is defined as a hospital in a community <30,000 people, with teaching occurring ≥36 hours/week, including Family Medicine clerkship or residency rotations.
• 104 rural hospitals in Alberta were identified.
• 44 out of 70 communities involved in DME programs met the proposed criteria.

Conclusions:

• A clear, working definition of a 'rural teaching hospital' is vital.
• This definition supports research endeavors in rural medical education.
• It also aids in the daily operations of rural educational programs.