Katy Kozhimannil, PhD, MPA

• Current Projects - (4)
• Completed Projects - (12)
• Publications - (27)

Current Projects - (4)

• Access to and Use of Midwifery Care for Rural Residents
  Rural obstetric unit closures and health care workforce shortages limit access to care for pregnant rural residents. Our goal is to describe the midwifery workforce in rural communities and at rural hospitals that provide obstetric care, and to assess rural-urban differences in use of midwifery care at the time of childbirth.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Hospitals and clinics, Maternal health, Nurses and nurse practitioners, Women, Workforce
  
• Monitoring Obstetric Unit Closures and Measuring Closure Impacts to Support Rural Maternity Care Access
  This project will create a public health data infrastructure with annually updated information on the loss of hospital-based obstetric services, merging policy-relevant hospital and county characteristics with transportation and geographic data, and measuring trends over time in the loss of hospital-based obstetric care.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Healthcare access, Hospitals and clinics, Maternal health, Women
  
• Neonatal Care at Rural Hospitals: Describing Access, Closures and Levels of Childbirth-Related Care
  This project will describe access to childbirth-related care for families living in rural and urban communities; it will document access to neonatal care and the levels of that care, describe rural counties that have lost access to neonatal care, and identify rural counties without access to either obstetric or neonatal services.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Children and adolescents, Healthcare access, Hospitals and clinics, Maternal health, Quality, Women
  
• Postpartum Morbidity and Mortality and Health Care Utilization in Rural vs. Urban Communities
  Using 2006-2018 data from the National Health Interview Survey linked to the National Death Index through 2019, this project will examine postpartum mortality among rural and urban residents. We will also evaluate differences in health, health care utilization, and barriers to care across rural and urban communities.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Healthcare access, Maternal health, Medicaid and CHIP, Mental and behavioral health, Private health insurance, Social determinants of health, Uninsured and underinsured, Women
  

Completed Projects - (12)

• Developing Rural-Relevant Strategies to Reduce Maternal Morbidity
  The purpose of this project was to distinguish and analyze predictors of maternal morbidity during childbirth hospitalization by geography and to develop recommendations to improve the safety of childbirth for rural residents. It also assessed the degree of rural focus and representation in current policy efforts to address this crisis.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Health services, Healthcare access, Hospitals and clinics, Legislation and regulation, Maternal health, Quality, Women
  
• Emergency Obstetrics in Communities Without Hospital-Based Maternity Care
  The purpose of this project was to describe rural hospitals that do not provide obstetric services and to survey a sample of these hospitals regarding their capacity for emergency obstetrics locally in order to inform policy to support access to high-quality maternity care for all pregnant rural residents.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Health services, Healthcare access, Hospitals and clinics, Maternal health, Quality, Women
  
• Making It Work: Models of Success in Rural Maternity Care
  The purpose of this project was to update information on access to obstetric services in rural counties, to identify common factors across rural communities that have maintained local hospital-based obstetric services, and to describe best practices associated with successfully supporting birth locally in rural communities.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Health services, Healthcare access, Hospitals and clinics, Maternal health, Quality, Women
  
• Obstetric Care Practice Models and Quality in Rural Hospitals
  The project will examine current obstetric practice models in rural hospitals and assess the prospects for implementation of new policy recommendations for reducing primary cesarean rates and non-medically indicated inductions of labor in rural hospitals.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Maternal health, Quality
  
• Obstetric Unit and Hospital Closures and Maternal and Infant Health in Rural Communities
  This project will examine the relationship between closure of an obstetric unit or hospital and maternity care and outcomes of childbirth in rural US counties including prenatal care, distance to delivery hospital, out-of-hospital birth, and infant health outcomes.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Children and adolescents, Health services, Hospitals and clinics, Women
  
• Quality of Obstetric Care and Perinatal Safety in Rural Hospitals
  The project will use both national and state-level hospital discharge data to examine obstetric care quality and perinatal safety in rural U.S. hospitals, with an in-depth focus on rural hospitals in a nationally representative group of eight states across all four U.S. Census regions.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), Maternal health, Women
  
• Rural Obstetric Unit Closures
  The goal of this project was to update prior research to include the latest information on the loss of hospital-based obstetric services in rural U.S. counties. This project is important because ensuring obstetric care access and reducing maternal mortality in rural and underserved areas is a key focus of national, state, and local policies.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), Healthcare access, Hospitals and clinics, Maternal health, Women, Workforce
  
• Rural Women Giving Birth in Non-Local Hospitals: Implications for Obstetric Access and Quality
  The purpose of this project is to: 1) analyze recent data from nine states on delivery by rural women at non-local hospitals; 2) characterize the roles of medical vs. non-medical factors in delivery at a non-local hospital by identifying lower-risk and higher-risk women using established criteria; and 3) analyze the relationship between delivery at a non-local hospital and obstetric quality.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Hospitals and clinics, Quality, Women
  
• Rural-Urban Differences in Domestic Violence as a Contributor to Maternal Morbidity and Mortality
  Using 2016-2020 data from the CDC's Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, this project assessed the prevalence of domestic violence among rural and urban residents who give birth. We also analyzed how screening and support services could be improved to support rural families that experience domestic violence, including during pregnancy and the postpartum period.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Maternal health, Social determinants of health, Violence and abuse, Women
  
• Rural-Urban Differences in Opioid-Affected Pregnancies and Births
  This analysis aimed to combat the opioid epidemic in rural communities by describing the rates and predictors of non-medical opioid use prior to and during pregnancy and maternal diagnosis of opioid use disorder at birth, based on rural or urban maternal residence and rural or urban hospital location.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Maternal health, Substance use and treatment, Women
  
• Rural/Urban Differences in Postpartum Health Insurance, Healthcare Use, and Health Outcomes
  The purpose of this project was to identify rural/urban differences in health insurance, healthcare use, and health outcomes among postpartum individuals, and to describe policy-relevant implications or strategies to improve insurance coverage, receipt of recommended healthcare, and, ultimately, health outcomes among rural residents who give birth.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Healthcare access, Healthcare financing, Hospitals and clinics, Legislation and regulation, Maternal health, Medicaid and CHIP, Private health insurance, Women
  
• Safe Obstetric Care Access for All Rural Residents: Minimum Standards for Clinical, Workforce, and Financial Viability of Rural Obstetric Units
  The goal of this project was to analyze data from rural hospitals to understand the criteria by which hospitals and communities assess their need and capacity for obstetric care access in rural counties and to describe effective ways to operationalize minimum standards for clinical safety and financial viability for rural obstetric units.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), Healthcare access, Hospitals and clinics, Maternal health, Women, Workforce
  

Publications - (27)