With the assistance of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) and Stratis Health, the National Rural Health Resource Center’s Technical Assistance and Services Center (TASC) is excited to share their new Small Rural Hospital Blueprint for Performance Excellence and Value.
For nearly a decade, the U.S. health care industry has been undergoing profound change in payment and service delivery; and growing increasingly complex. The past year has layered several additional opportunities and challenges including the need for pandemic and emergency preparedness, massive growth in the acceptance and use of telehealth, spotlighting of social needs as a core component of health, and the systemic and persistent disparities facing people of color. Small rural hospitals face the challenge of being successful in fee-for-service payment systems while preparing for and entering into value-based payment arrangements, at a time of financial stress and uncertainty.
The Blueprint is intended to be a tool to assist rural hospital leaders in implementing a comprehensive systems approach to achieving organizational excellence. It contains an outline of the key inter-linked components of the Baldrige Framework, along with critical success factors relevant to small rural hospitals. Challenges and strategies are also addressed.