Resources

The Cancer Screening and Prevention Toolkit features messaging that emphasizes cancer prevention and awareness, highlighting the powerful motivation of living not just for oneself, but for others.

America’s rural health care system faces growing challenges in accessing capital funding for essential infrastructure projects. This paper provides a historical overview of major capital funding programs and analyzes the persistent challenges that prevent rural health care providers from converting available funding into usable capital—undermining sustainability in rural health systems.

Outlines a compilation of states' criteria for designation as a necessary provider. Describes how each state has addressed local considerations or unique requirements.

This document outlines four performance management tools: Balanced Scorecard, Baldrige, Lean and Studer. These tools have been identified as effective methods for managing performance improvement with small rural hospitals.

HIT networks can use this tool to assess organizational strengths and weaknesses and identify areas needing attention.

These samples from an HIT network can serve as reference documents for networks interested in incorporating the Balanced Scorecard into their strategic and evaluation planning efforts.

This document summarizes the consensus of a discussion with CAH financial leaders and experts about the most important performance indicators, the CAH financial distress model from the FMT, CAH interventions for optimizing financial performance and the evolving health care system.

This guide to Direct connectivity standards is designed to assist health care providers in understanding and implementing health information exchange using Direct protocols. It includes descriptions of technologies used, a glossary of terms and recommendations on implementing Direct.

Determining whether your practice is ready to build or join a HIE can be a challenge. This guide provides some basic information for providers to consider while evaluating options for HIE.

With the changes and transitions in today’s health care environment, it's an important time for rural health care leaders to engage stakeholders in collaborative efforts. This presentation suggests two key ways to enable people to take on new behaviors and offers specific ways to help leaders succeed in truly engaging stakeholders.

View a list of key resources curated by the Technical Assistance and Services Center (TASC) for use by state Flex Programs to support incorporation of performance management into program operations, feeding into program improvement and evaluation

This updated guide provides rural hospital executive and management teams with generally accepted best practice concepts in revenue cycle management. It is also designed to assist State Offices of Rural Health directors and Flex Program coordinators.

The Flex Program and CAHs rely on leadership and a skilled workforce to advance program goals and deliver high-quality, high-value care for patients.

Managing the cooperative agreement is one of the primary responsibilities of state Flex Programs and includes: budgeting, cooperative agreement application writing, working with partners, information management, and reporting.

Planning ought to be purposeful, active, and relevant, with input from key stakeholders such as internal staff, rural provider leaders and staff, and the state rural health and clinic organizations.

Evaluation reporting to program stakeholders should be included in Flex Program activities. Reporting supports overall program transparency and development, stakeholder buy-in, engagement, and accountability.

State Flex Programs remain vital because of the web of relationships developed and maintained within communities, providers, networks, states, regions, and nationally. It is imperative that state Flex Programs have the skills, capacity, and commitment to build and sustain partnerships, new and old, to support rural providers and rural stakeholders.

State Flex Programs need to have an in-depth understanding of the policies and regulations governing the Flex Program, as well as a basic understanding of the policy-making process and other policies and regulations affecting rural providers.

State Flex Programs must understand QI principles, resources, and trends to support CAHs in advancing QI.

The Flex Program and CAH designation was established and remains in place because of the financial vulnerability of small rural hospitals. CAH financial and operational improvement is one of the required program areas of the Flex Program.