It can take someone who lives in rural Arizona nearly 10 times longer to get to the hospital than it takes patients in urban areas of the state. And once they get there, there are often staffing shortages – a gap that only deepens for primary care, behavioral health, mental health and maternal health providers. 

Rural Arizonans often face significantly worse health outcomes than those in urban areas due to these circumstances. They have higher mortality rates from cancer, suicide, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, according to data from the University of Arizona Center for Rural Health, or CRH, in the Zuckerman College of Public Health.

The Health Resources and Services Administration, or HRSA, and State of Arizona awarded the CRH five-year competing continuation funding of $973,640 to support the center's Arizona State Office of Rural Health and its efforts to address these health disparities. Over five years, the funding is nearly $5 million.

The CRH also received a non-competing continuation for year three of a five-year cycle from the HRSA to extend Arizona's Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program and Flex EMS Supplement initiative. This year's award is $970,003.

"These awards are great opportunities for all the work we've been doing as a land-grant university," said Dr. Daniel Derksen, the Walter H. Pearce Endowed Chair and director of the University of Arizona Center for Rural Health. "State Offices of Rural Health are something that have very broad bipartisan support, both at the federal level and the state levels, so we're excited to build on that important work over the coming five years."

These awards allow the CRH to continue their work with rural healthcare providers in Arizona, collect data, use that data to inform health policy deliberations, and help rural and Tribal hospitals and clinics prepare for changes in federal or state funding in 2027 and beyond.

"Arizona is the sixth-largest state in land area, and rural and critical access hospitals, community health centers, tribal-run Indian Health Service and rural health clinics often provide services across vast geographic rural areas," Derksen said. "Those are the folks we work with through our State Office of Rural Health."

Derksen added that the State Office of Rural Health, along with the State of Arizona's Rural Health Transformation Program, are providing "exciting opportunities to address some of the intractable challenges in assuring access to rural healthcare in Arizona."

For more information on the University of Arizona Center for Rural Health and its funded initiatives, please see the 2026 AzCRH Annual Report.