Dr. Hochman was joined in March by Alvin Hoover, CEO of King’s Daughters Medical Center in Brookhaven, Miss., who is serving on the front lines of rural health care.

The conversation covered how KDMC, an independent rural hospital with about 75% of its patients covered by either Medicare or Medicaid, has responded to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, including vaccine equity in the race to get shots in arms. Alvin also talked about sustainable ways to meet community needs in the near and long term, including how rural hospitals are defined.