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.
The primary goal of the Rural Community Ambulance Agency Transformation Readiness Assessment and associated resources is to help ambulance agency leaders in rural America assess the state of their agency’s readiness in the core competency areas created following the Critical Access Hospital Blueprint for Performance Excellence, adapted specifically for rural ambulance agencies from the Baldridge Excellence Framework for Health Care.
Patients, Partners, and the Community core competencies for the ambulance agency include:
The agency participates in a community health assessment process to identify both strengths and needs to best serve the people in the community.
Staff receives ongoing education and support for effectively engaging multiple community stakeholders to coordinate transitions of care aimed at reducing hospital readmissions, unnecessary 911 response, Emergency Department (ED) utilization, and improving wellness.
The agency has a strategy to provide health assessments and education to the community at events such as a county fair, and on a scheduled basis at places like community centers.
Staff coordinates care with multiple stakeholders to address a patient's underlying needs and social determinants of health.
This 2018 resource collection by the National Association of State EMS Officials (NASEMSO) is intended to assist agencies planning for community health service provision as part of their transformation. The resources are aimed at defining health needs in the community with which the transformed EMS agency may be most useful for addressing.
The Action Guide is a framework to help multi-sector groups work together to improve population health. It is organized by 10 elements and contains definitions, recommendations, practical examples and a range of resources written in plain language to be as accessible as possible for all types of stakeholders.
This topic guide defines Community Paramedicine (CP), outlines challenges face by rural community paramedics and highlights rural models and resources. CP is rapidly emerging as a central part of the transformation to value and population health for EMS.
Rural health care leaders report challenges when trying to educate and engage board and community members regarding health care organization changes required to succeed during the volume-to-value transition. Yet, value-based care discussions should play a significant role in all strategic planning and should be included in organizational performance measurement. This document provides a list of conversation starting questions to help rural health care leaders facilitate value-based care discussions with board and community members.
Considers the historical focus of rural health research and policy on access to hospitals, primary care and other health services, and calls for a shift toward a population health approach to rural health.
Presents an Action Framework, aimed at improving population health and motivating cultural change that builds a shared value of health and an integrated, cross-sector approach.
This policy brief outlines the concept of population health in rural communities with a focus on providing better care, improving health and lowering costs.
Hospitals and health care systems have ample opportunity to collaborate with community partners, develop strategies to address community health concerns and catalyze change. This resource page outlines a framework for hospitals in fostering a culture of health and presents case studies on innovative initiatives.
Developed to help rural health care organizations learn more about the concept of social determinants of health, and encourage rural leaders and care teams to support activities that help address these issues and improve health in their communities.
Learn a practical approach to identifying key patient populations and a process to initiate population health planning. Learn how to integrate population health initiatives as part of an organization’s strategy.
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.
