Meeker Memorial Hospital: Bringing Sustainable Coordination of Care to its Patients and Community

Meeker Memorial Hospital (MMH), a 30-plus bed, not-for-profit, health care organization located in Litchfield, Minnesota, was one of six organizations selected to participate in the 2022-2023 Rural Healthcare Provider Transition Project.

During the hospital’s year-long engagement in the project, the MMH team worked with RHPTP technical assistance consultants from Stroudwater Associates to identify opportunities to improve financial and operating performance, determine financial risk, and develop strategies to address operational cost efficiency. The hospital also worked with the quality improvement consultants from Stratis Health to focus on building a solid foundation for ongoing care coordination in preparation for participation in alternative payment and care delivery models.  

We have a lot of work ahead, but RHPTP made the work feel more manageable and structured, and felt very collaborative with both consultant groups.

Meeker Memorial Hospital Team

Below are some of Meeker Memorial Hospital’s top accomplishments and early outcomes made possible through their RHPTP participation.

• Completed electronic medical record (EMR) training for the hospital’s pharmacist, including how to create custom metric reports for each provider 
• Implemented a new EMR referral process 
• Hired an additional three providers at the hospital’s West Clinic
• Began integrating medication therapy management (MTM) visits and follow-up appointments into patient Medicare Annual Wellness Visits
• Completed MTM visits with ten clinic providers
• Completed collaborative practice agreements for medications, in addition to lab orders, with three providers
• Partnered with three local pharmacy schools to become a pharmacy residency site by 2025
• Obtained registered preceptor certification through the Board of Pharmacy, allowing the hospital to begin rotations with pharmacy residency students in the summer of 2025

With the help of Stroudwater consultants, the MMH team found that often-daunting financial and operational tasks were broken down into smaller, more manageable steps. After being introduced to Stroudwater’s Transitional Framework, the team gained insight into which project areas truly took priority and learned new strategies to address operational silos. One of the top priorities identified was a need for increased swing bed growth, an initiative that required much persistence and an effective use of effective communication channels throughout the hospital. With this effort, the hospital achieved and sustained its swing bed goal, increasing by over 200 beds in the last year. Moving forward, the MMH team plans to apply the Stroudwater framework to future goals, such as improving population health, and can now refer to successful strategies from the swing bed program to strategize upcoming operational initiatives.   

Simultaneously, the hospital achieved many of the care coordination goals it developed in its quality improvement project with Stratis Health consultants. The MMH team worked to build the hospital’s EMR, provided staff training on EMR capabilities and increased patient outreach. Over the last year, the team has been diligent to present EMR updates to leadership and providers, promoting data utilization across departments and driving improvements in the hospital’s MTM program. The updated system now allows for a new MTM process and script for referrals, saving the hospital’s pharmacist time and allowing for additional clinic visits. Additionally, the team has initiated a collaborative practice agreement for medications and lab orders, further emphasizing coordination of care across a patient’s health care team. With this, the pharmacy has had time to partner with the University of Minnesota and pursue its goal of becoming a pharmacy residency school. The hospital is proud to have completed its first, five-week rotation with a pharmacy resident in the summer of 2024, and has welcomed several residents on-site for shadowing. The pharmacy department looks forward to accepting additional residents in the coming year. 

Meeker Memorial Hospital ranked the access to resources from RHPTP as one of the top benefits from participation. The team is excited to move forward with tools gained from the project, applying sustainable principles to organizational changes and goals that may arise. By engaging providers and local students in care coordination, the hospital will continue to ignite interest and positive change into its community and culture. While rural health care organizations dedicate one year to RHPTP activities, the community engagement and knowledge gained is long lasting. Meeker Memorial Hospital and Clinic’s achievements reflect the larger purpose and goal of RHPTP – to strengthen rural health care organizations with the evergreen philosophy behind value-based care.