关键词：矿工；保健；农村地区；职业安全与卫生；医药
摘 要：Mining communities access to appropriate health care has not been well studied. Appropriate care includes competencies to adequately diagnose and treat mining related disease or illness. The current study has two primary objectives. First, we seek to understand whether mining communities face shortages in numbers of safety net providers compared to non-mining communities. To accomplish this, the study locates and maps mine locations in the U.S. and rural safety net providers (Rural Health Clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, Critical Access Hospitals and Black Lung Clinics). Second, we assess the capacity of rural safety net providers in mining areas to prevent, diagnose and treat mining related injury and illness. This was done through a survey of rural primary care providers practicing in safety net facilities co-located with mining communities.