Program Details
Alaska 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, Alaska
Flex Program Coordinator
Survey Results
In each core area, what are the top Flex activities in your state?
Core Area 1: Support for Quality Improvement
- Critical access hospitals (CAHs) are participating in a quality collaborative which includes face-to-face meetings, webinars, and teleconferences to share best practices, set quality benchmarks and collect data to support quality improvement activities.
- Actively working to raise staff awareness about patient safety and examining trends in patient safety culture.
- Facilitate education, training and links with resources for CAH staff and/or board members to improve quality performance.
Core Area 2: Support for Operational and Financial Improvement
- Provide or arrange for direct technical assistance to individual critical access hospitals (CAHs) on charge master updates or other financial management tools.
- Provide the infrastructure for a multi-hospital financial collaborative that supports CAHs in sharing best practices, benchmarks, resources and expertise.
- Provide training on improving revenue cycles to hospital leaders to increase their ability to better manage their revenue cycles.
Core Area 3: Support for Health System Development and Community Engagement
- Support critical access hospitals (CAHs) and their communities in collaboration of assessments to identify unmet community health needs.
- The Trauma System Review Team will work to identify eligible acute care hospitals interested in becoming Level II trauma centers.
- Rural Trauma Training and Development courses will be provided to CAHs and rural acute care hospitals.
Please describe a success story or innovative program from the Flex program in your state:
Development of the Hospital to Hospital Mentoring Program providing for critical access hospital staff and management to be mentored by other similar professionals as to the best practices for their particular specialty or management position. This program has been well received and provides opportunities for professional growth in both the mentor and mentees.
State Contact Details
Patricia Carr
State Office Director, Alaska
(907) 465-8618
Specialty Areas / Background
Over twenty-five years of experience in rural and health, health promotion and primary care
State Office Director since 1994
Shellie Smith
Flex Program Coordinator
(907) 269-3445
Flex Program Coordinator Since September 2012