Community & Population Health Community support of the local health care system is vital for sustainability and growth. Learn how to create a healthier and more engaged community by working with The Center.
Health Information Technology Consulting As the national knowledge center on rural electronic health record adoption, The Center offers comprehensive services targeted at rural hospitals, rural health clinics and state and national HIT programs.
Leadership Success begins with strong, informed leadership. The Center offers a variety of services, on-site and remotely, to leaders to assess strengths and identify areas of useful performance improvement.
Workforce The Center understands that rural health care facilities face unique workforce challenges. Since 1991, The Center has assisted rural citizens, health professionals, educators and policymakers with design and implementation strategies to assure the availability of quality health care.
Strategic Planning Effective planning is critical for organizational success. Expertly facilitated services conducted by The Center’s staff of national rural health experts will help hospitals and organizations achieve this success.
Performance Improvement The Center offers a complete spectrum of rural health performance improvement services. With support from The Center, clients succeed in aligning people, processes and resources with their mission.
Technical Assistance & Services Center (TASC) TASC provides performance improvement resources to CAHs and state Flex Programs on quality, finance, operations, systems of care and population health.
Small Rural Hospital Improvement Grant Program (SHIP) SHIP provides funding to approximately 1,600 participating hospitals in 46 participating SORHs to help small rural hospitals participate in value-based payment and care delivery models.
Network Technical Assistance (TA) RHI provides technical assistance (TA) to over 60 networks in the Development and Allied Health rural health network grant programs.
Small Rural Hospital Transition (SRHT) Project The Small Rural Hospital Transition (SRHT) Project supports small rural hospitals nationally by providing on-site technical assistance to assist bridging the gaps between the current health care system and the newly emerging health care delivery and payment system.
Resource Library The Center's Resource Library features webinars, presentations, articles and toolkits developed by trusted industry leaders to guide and support rural health stakeholders.
Events Find information about upcoming webinars, workshops and more hosted by The Center or Rural Health Innovations.
Allied Health Webinars Find recordings and resources from recent technical assistance webinars for Rural Network Allied Health Training grantees.
Health Education and Learning Program (HELP) Webinars Eligible rural hospital leaders and staff can attend a HELP webinar to learn about current financial, operational and quality performance needs that impact their transition to the new health care environment.
Network Development Webinars Find recordings and resources from recent technical assistance webinars for Rural Health Network Development grantees.
Performance Management Group (PMG) Calls Learn from the experience of leading hospital administrators and nationally recognized field experts. PMG calls allow peer-to-peer education focused on preparing rural hospitals for new payment and care delivery models.
These resources focus on quality improvement for care transitions. The current core and additional Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Project (MBQIP) measures that fall under this domain include:
Core
Emergency Department Transfer Communication
Additional
Discharge Planning
Medication Reconciliation
Swing Bed Care
Claims-based Measure, including reducing readmissions, complications, and hospital return days
For more information about the reporting requirements for these measures, see Data Reporting and Use.
This web page contains tools and resources for improving rural emergency department communication including data collection and quality improvement tools.
This toolkit includes an overview of the quality improvement process and how it can be applied, as well as tools and resources that can be adapted to support the transfer of critical patient information from the ED to other care settings.
This three-page brief provides history and an overview of the EDTC measure, as well as a summary of MBQIP hospital reporting and improvement for EDTC for Quarter 1, 2015 through Quarter 3, 2016.
The Preventing Avoidable Readmissions website offers information and tools for clinicians and patients to make the hospital discharge process safer and to prevent avoidable readmissions.
The Re-Engineered Discharge (RED) Toolkit was developed to help reduce readmissions and post-hospital emergency department (ED) visits. This toolkit is designed to assist hospitals, particularly those that serve diverse populations, to replicate RED.
The purpose of this interactive toolkit is to help all health care providers learn to use teach-back to support patients and families throughout the care continuum, especially during transitions between settings.
This report features case studies of how three communities are working together to improve care transitions and reduce avoidable hospitalizations. The report lays out steps to encourage and promote the creation of comparable multi-sector innovative communities that would involve local providers as well as consumers and caregivers.
MATCH toolkit for Medication Reconciliation incorporates the experiences and lessons learned by health care facilities that have implemented MATCH strategies to improve their medication reconciliation processes for patients as they move through health care settings.
This project is/was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number UB1RH24206, Information Services to Rural Hospital Flexibility Program Grantees, $1,100,000 (0% financed with nongovernmental sources). This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.
The tentative topic for the August Flex VKG is Grant Logistics: Closing out the Flex Grant Year. Flex VKG webinars provide a forum for state Flex Programs to share successes, discuss challenges and brainstorm strategies for improvement and Flex Program excellence.
The tentative topic of the August TASC 90 webinar is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). This quarterly webinar will include updates from TASC, RQITA, FMT and FORHP, to include both the Flex Program and policies impacting CAHs.
