St. Luke's Miners Campus Rural Health Centers have earned the 2016 Rural Program of the Year distinction from the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health. The Miners Campus rural health clinics were nominated for the award by Kelly Malone, executive director of the Schuylkill United Way.

Because 23 percent of its population lives in rural areas, Pennsylvania ranks nationally as one of the states with the highest number of rural residents.St. Luke's Rural Health Program, which consists of three clinics located in Schuylkill and Carbon counties, provides excellent health care by:• Creating easy access to preventative, specialty and acute care services.• Providing more than 12,000 face-to-face primary care visits for patients and families regardless of insurance or ability to pay.• Adding a physical activity component through the Network's "Get Your Tail on the Trail" program.• Using the creative "Flinders Chronic Condition Management Program" to motivate patients to address chronic conditions.• Delivering endocrinology services through the use of telemedicine for patients who cannot travel.• Improving literacy efforts by providing books to school students, "Little Free Libraries" at the clinics and a Reading Day when physicians read to students at elementary schools.• Providing screenings and shuttle transportation for students to a volunteer optometrist.• Providing a monthly Health van for students and staff who cannot see the clinic staff outside of school hours and a periodic dental clinic van.