Utah 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, Utah
Flex Coordinator, Utah
Survey Results
In each core area, what are the top Flex activities in your state?
Core Area 1: Support for Quality Improvement
- Encourage and determine ways to help with participation in the Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Project (MBQIP).
- Assess critical access hospital (CAH) participation in Hospital Compare quality measure reporting, including Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) by providing technical assistance, presentations at meetings, and Summit.
- Assess status and readiness of CAHs organized as 501(c)3 not-for-profit entities to comply with Affordable Care Act “Community Needs Assessment” requirements.
- Encourage CAHs to publicly report quality data to Hospital Compare on relevant inpatient and outpatient measures through technical assistance, presentations at rural hospital council meetings, hospital administrator Summit, and face-to-face meetings of Flex Coordinator and hospital administrators.
- Community needs assessment assistance provided through requested consultation of Flex, technical assistance, and meeting and conference education.
- HCAHPS patient assessment of care survey measures by direct consultation with hospitals, technical assistance requests, and meeting presentations.
- Rural Hospital Administrator Summit.
- Flex Program Advisory Committee meeting(s).
- Short-term support for and make improvements to CAHs and other rural non-CAH hospital medical staff peer review program.
- Quarterly meetings of nurse leaders and quality improvement coordinators of independent CAHs and other rural independent hospitals.
Core Area 2: Support for Operational and Financial Improvement
- Continue to make site visits to all critical access hospitals (CAHs) and other non-CAH rural hospitals to assess needs of financial and operational efficiencies and prioritize collaboration efforts.
- Continue to evaluate ways to assist with claims denial management. Continue to work with large hospital system to provide on-going monthly coding education webinars.
- Continue to evaluate possible collaboration with neighboring state rural hospital consortiums and networks.
- Continue to assess ICD-10 education and conversion readiness and evaluate best ways to assist CAHs and other rural hospitals in ICD-10 conversion.
- Continuation of ICD-10 conversion preparation and readiness.
- Provide financial assistance for revenue cycle management assessments.
Core Area 3: Support for Health System Development and Community Engagement
- Conduct Rural Trauma Team Development Courses (RTTDC) for rural emergency medical services (EMS) personnel and critical access hospital (CAH) and non-CAH rural hospital providers.
- Establish and implement a statewide trauma performance improvement process based on the Utah Trauma Performance Improvement Guide and patient safety model.
- Sponsor on-line EMS Medical Director Certification for CAH affiliated EMS medical directors.
- Host a discussion with statewide stake holders to explore the possibility of implementation of Community Paramedicine in Utah.
- Plan and conduct CAH/EMS needs assessments to determine EMS Leadership issues in CAH and non-CAH rural hospitals, as well as surrounding communities.
- Conduct statewide workshops to enhance recruitment and retention for EMS personnel in rural and frontier areas.
- Conduct medical director forum to discuss and address issues related to variations in on-line medical direction (provided by hospitals to EMS during transport) and off-line (provided by EMS agency medical director, ongoing).
- Conduct a Western States Trauma Leadership meeting for state trauma managers and state EMS Directors to support integration of services and address rural system issues.
- Host a leadership forum specifically designed for CAH and rural non-CAH hospital administrators and local rural EMS service providers.
- Collaborate with Intermountain Health Care, Inc. (Integrated Healthcare Organization in Utah) to invite non-system rural hospital administrators to “Healthy Dialogues” lecture series.
Please describe a success story or innovative program from the Flex program in your state:
Establishment of an Annual Rural Hospital Administrators Summit (conference).
State Contact Details
Don Wood
State Office Director, Utah
(801) 273-6619
State Office Director Since 2012
Greg Rosenvall
Flex Coordinator, Utah
(435) 528-3573
Flex Coordinator Since August 2011