American Heart Association Extends Rural Health Care Outcomes Accelerator Through 2028 to Address Health Disparities

Research demonstrates that rural Americans face a 30% higher risk of stroke, are 40% more likely to develop heart disease, and live an average of three years fewer than their urban counterparts. The American Heart Association has announced a three-year funding extension of its Rural Health Care Outcomes Accelerator through June 2028 to address these disparities. This extension will provide limited three-year no-cost enrollment opportunities for new rural organizations participating in the Get With The Guidelines programs for coronary artery disease, heart failure, and stroke.

Federally designated Critical Access Hospitals will receive no-cost access to all five Get With The Guidelines programs, including atrial fibrillation and resuscitation. All rural Get With The Guidelines program participants will gain access to the peer-to-peer American Heart Association Rural Community Network, dedicated quality program consultants, quarterly learning collaboratives, quality improvement focus groups, and educational resources specifically tailored to rural hospital clinicians. The program also includes recognition awards focused on performance metrics developed for rural hospitals.

Since its launch in 2022, the Accelerator has significantly expanded rural hospital participation, with 430 rural hospitals enrolling at no cost, bringing the total to more than 1,000 rural hospitals engaged in over 1,500 Get With The Guidelines programs nationwide. In 2025 alone, more than 650 rural hospitals earned recognition awards through the program, representing a nearly 30% increase over the previous year. The program extension highlights include dedicated quality program consultants to support data completeness and validation, continued learning collaboratives and quality improvement workgroups tailored for rural clinicians, enhancements to the Rural Get With The Guidelines registry and reporting, and the launch of the Rural Accelerator Quality Improvement Challenge Scholarship offering competitive awards to support hospitals sharing model practices at national conferences.

According to Eduardo Sanchez, M.D., M.P.H., FAHA, chief medical officer for prevention at the American Heart Association, "Rural hospitals are vital points of access to health care for over 60 million people living in rural communities across the country. This extension underscores the American Heart Association's continued commitment to enhancing cardiovascular and stroke care for rural clinicians with collaboration opportunities, resources, education and data-driven strategies that improve outcomes and save lives." The initiative addresses critical health inequities documented in research such as the Call to Action: Rural Health advisory published in Circulation, which highlights the urgent need for targeted interventions in rural healthcare settings.