Southern Rural Access Program (SRAP) Survey of Access to Outpatient Medical Services in the Rural Southeast, 2002-2003

This survey was conducted to obtain baseline data as part of an evaluation of the Southern Rural Access Program (SRAP), a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative to improve access to health care services in select rural areas of eight states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, West Virginia, and eastern Texas. Within these states, 150 nonmetropolitan counties were selected for SRAP participation based on perceived local health needs, willingness of local organizations and providers to partner with the program's efforts, and prospects for long-term program viability. The SRAP counties demonstrated greater socioeconomic need than other nonmetropolitan counties in the eight states: approximately 50 percent higher poverty rates, 30 percent higher unemployment, and 40 percent greater minority proportions. Topics covered by the survey include health status, health insurance coverage, health care access challenges, confidence in and satisfaction with health care, and utilization of outpatient services including specific disease prevention services. Personal demographic characteristics collected by the survey include age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, primary language spoken at home, marital status, educational achievement, work status, income, number of children at home, and the state, county, town, and ZIP code of residence. The data file also contains county-level and Primary Care Service Area (PCSA)-level contextual variables from external sources, such as population size, population composition by race, number of hospital beds, and variables indicating the presence of short term hospitals and Federally Qualified Health Centers.