Maine Flex State Profile

The ongoing development of the three hospital leadership networks for CEOs, chief nursing officers (CNO), and quality improvement (QI) directors. For fiscal year (FY) 2012, two new hospital leadership networks were developed, for chief financial officers (CFO) and Mid-Managers (see Core Area II).

The New England Performance Improvement (NEPI) network, which includes Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts and is coordinated through the New England Rural Health RoundTable (NERHRT), has partnered with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) to offer staff at Maine critical access hospitals (CAHs) free participation in the 2013 Leading Quality Improvement: Essentials for Managers program. Additionally, through NEPI, Maine CAH and rural hospital staff are able to access comprehensive resources from the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) to complete the Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CHPHQ) certification program.

In FY2012 CFO and Mid-Manager networks were established for Maine critical access hospiatls (CAHs). The objective of the CFO network is to discuss operational and financial issues utilizing iVantage Hospital Strength Index reports. The Mid-Managers network is a collaborative focused on CAH management training skills and cultivating a network of CAH professionals engaged in similar management challenges.

Maine is part of a multi-hospital collaborative in New England that supports small rural hospitals in planning and implementing evidence-based strategies for improving operational and financial performance.

The cornerstones of the New England Performance Improvement (NEPI) Collaborative are:

• The Annual Performance Improvement Summit
• Maintenance of a regional rural health care website that provides relevant rural hospital performance improvement resources and tools 
• Access to governance training modules through the NERHRT website.

The Maine Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Trauma System project provides guidance to critical access hospitals (CAHs) and other rural emergency care providers with a statewide trauma system plan, technical assistance program, clinical consensus guidelines for patient care and transfer, and the development and implementation of trauma care performance measures. In fiscal year (FY) 2012, Maine Flex funds also contributed to the Maine CAH Rural Trauma Team Development course.

Maine Flex funds also support the development of a community paramedicine (CP) program with the goals of better integrating EMS and community health resources in rural areas to fill gaps in advanced and basic life support EMS coverage; and addressing other community health and medical gaps.