Case Studies and Site Visits

​NORC team members have conducted case studies in numerous projects for clients when seeking to explore a phenomenon within its real-life context.  These projects often use multiple data collection methods (including focus groups, interviews, questionnaires, and direct observations) to examine a system of action, considering all the relevant groups of actors and the interactions between them.  This methodology allows researchers to triangulate across data types and sources, arriving at a fuller picture of a given system or phenomenon within a given population

Representative Projects

Home Care in Rural America. Several provisions of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA) have affected Medicare-covered home health care, including the interim payment system and the introduction of a prospective payment system for Medicare services. In two previous studies, Project HOPE examined the impact of the BBA on rural home health agencies (HHAs) and rural Medicare home care users. More

Impact of the Home Health PPS on Access in Rural America. Under the PPS, home care agencies are reimbursed based on a 60-day episode of care, with adjustments to the base payment that reflect differences in resource needs.  More

Involvement of State Offices of Rural Health in Emergency Preparedness Activities. In 2002, the federal Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) released its report on emergency preparedness in rural communities as perceived by directors of state offices of rural health.  More

Roadmap for the Adoption of Health Information Technology in Rural Communities. The goal of this project was to develop a reference document that would be provided to attendees at the Office of Rural Health Policy's September 2006 conference and widely distributed to other interested parties following the conference.  Based on a review of the relevant literature as well as exhaustive review of relevant web sites, this document compiles information designed to help all types of rural health care providers along the road to adoption of health information technology.  More

Understanding the Roles of Rural Hospitals in Responding to Bioterrorist Attacks and Other Emergencies. The purpose of this study was to improve our understanding of rural Emergency Room (ER) capacity and the nature of constraints in expanding capacity in response to demand surge caused by emergencies, including acts of terrorism or bioterrorism. More

See all Case Studies and Site Visits projects