Program Details
Indiana Flex State Profile
The Technical Assistance and Services Center (TASC), a program of the National Rural Health Resource Center, provides technical assistance for the Rural Hospital Medicare Flexibility (Flex) Program in the form of information, tools and resources. State Flex Programs benefit from sharing information with one another and the Flex State Profiles are meant to be a method to encourage that sharing.
State Contacts
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State Office Director, Indiana
State Office of Rural Health (SORH) Manager, Flex Coordinator, Indiana
Contracts and Grants Manager, Indiana
Survey Results
In each core area, what are the top Flex activities in your state?
Core Area 1: Support for Quality Improvement
- Critical Access Hospital (CAH) Readmissions Project.
- Annual CAH educational program focusing on quality initiatives.
- Medicare Beneficiaries Quality Improvement Project (MBQIP).
- e-Learning network/virtual library and learning management system (LMS) focusing on quality needs.
Core Area 2: Support for Operational and Financial Improvement
- Annual CAH educational programs focusing on finance, operations, and leadership.
- LEAN mini collaborative projects for readmissions, care transition and emergency department (ED) throughput.
- e-Learning network/virtual library and learning management system (LMS) focusing on financial, operational, and leadership needs.
Core Area 3: Support for Health System Development and Community Engagement
- e-Learning Network/Virtual Library and learning management system (LMS), includes emergency medical service (EMS) continued education.
- Supporting Rural Trauma Team Development Courses (RTTDC) with rural critical access hospitals (CAHs) and acute care hospitals.
- Supporting Homeland Security in training emergency medical technicians (EMT) -intermediates to becoming paramedics. Due to new legislation in Indiana, the Indiana EMT-Intermediates would go down a level if they don’t complete the training.
- Assist with community health needs assessments for CAHs and their communities.
Please describe a success story or innovative program from the Flex program in your state:
Indiana's Flex Program has been contracting with Purdue Healthcare Advisors, Lean training and coaching focused on assisting each critical access or rural hospital to improve one of three key quality issues:
1) Patient transitions of care
2) Emergency department patient flow
3) Unnecessary patient readmissions
With guidance from Purdue, each hospital assigned an internal, multidisciplinary team to learn and to apply the concepts, principles and methodologies of Lean Healthcare to their selected issue. Improvement following the implementation of evidence-based practices and technology optimization included patient wait times reduced by 25 percent; patient wait times for admission from the emergency department reduced by 22 percent to 77 percent; and avoidable patient hospital readmissions reduced by 44 percent.
More than 150 workers from the front line to the executive suite received Purdue Healthcare Advisors training. Approximately 100 achieved certification from Purdue as a Lean Healthcare "Yellow Belt," and 60 continued on to receive advanced training with plans to pursue certification as a Lean Healthcare "Green Belt" and "Black Belt."
State Contact Details
Ann Alley
State Office Director, Indiana
(317) 233-7546
Specialty Areas / Background
Health care, housing, and economic development
State Office Director since July 2009
Brittany Knick
State Office of Rural Health (SORH) Manager, Flex Coordinator, Indiana
(317) 371-8488
Specialty Areas / Background
Allied health sciences, epidemiology, and environmental health
SORH Manager since October 2010
Mary Ann Hurrle
Contracts and Grants Manager, Indiana
(317) 233-7829
Specialty Areas / Background
Health education, grant writing, and grants management