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Rural healthcare infrastructure challenges

Aging infrastructure is a problem for many rural healthcare providers.

John Monson with farm credit cooperative Compeer Financial says facilities are lacking across the country.

“We have two people in a room, you have a sheet down the middle and that’s the privacy they have. Or they can’t fit into a bathroom. So the idea here is to update those facilities and help them have better living circumstances so they can live out their lives where they should.”

He tells Brownfield many of Compeer’s farmer clients end up in assisted living.

“Our grandparents, our parents, aunts, uncles and so on. We want to make sure they have a great place to live, world-class facilities (because) they deserve that.”

Monson says another challenge is the cost to keep rural healthcare staff.

“My own father-in-law is experiencing a $900 increase per month at age 93 (in southeast Minnesota) to stay in an assisted living facility, and this is happening everywhere to keep workforce in place.”

He says Compeer is partnering with local banks to help finance assisted living facilities, clinics, and hospitals in rural areas.

A Rural Voices town hall titled Great Doctors and Healthy Communities: Improving Patient Care in Rural Minnesota is happening later today in Cannon Falls.

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