The Center for Rural Health

For More Information on Collaboratives, contact Jackie Childers

In collaboration with the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant administered by Georgia State Office of Rural Health,
a division of the Department of Community Health

CAH SHIP Small Rural Hospital Improvement Grant

Congratulations on being a 07/08 SHIP Grant recipient! The funding period for this grant is 9/1/07 through 8/31/08.

You submitted the proposal in Table 1 to the State Office of Rural Health Services and received funding to participate in the GHA SHIP Grant Consortium. This is a continuation and expansion of last year’s grant. We are excited to partner with member hospitals to improve the quality of health care within the state of Georgia. As a member of the Consortium, you are entitled to technical assistance, quality and safety improvement activities and educational opportunities, a 1 year subscription to the CARE Program Suite which allows access to state databases and benchmarks, and the Culture of Patient Safety evaluates the employees’ culture and perception of safety. Table 1 describes the services available to you.

GHAREF QI Consortium Matrix

Table 1

Services and Products Provided

Data to enhance

quality and safety.

1 year subscription to CARE Programs/HeRMES (access to databases and benchmarks):

· CARE2 web-based tool to monitor and document improvements to quality outcomes. CARE performance indicators will allow the hospital to monitor important aspects of patient care and easily identify opportunities for quality improvement.

· Medical Evaluation Module - provides physician level data that hospitals can use for performance evaluation, credentialing, and reappointment of physicians

· High Risk Patient Safety measures will allow identification of areas where strategies should be implemented to reduce the risk of adverse events

Culture of Patient Safety – is a web-based tool that will allow hospitals to evaluate the employees’ perception of culture of safety for “celebration” and for improvement.

Technical assistance re:

1. Assessment of compliance levels with and implementation of strategies to achieve The Joint Commission 2008 National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs)

2. Ways to understand and work with the data for various monitoring and reporting purposes.

3. Identification and sharing best practices and methodologies with other small and rural facilities

· 2008 NPSG Self Assessment to determine compliance with specific goals

· Provide comparative data to determine hospitals with “best practices” that can be shared among consortium members

· Present successful strategies to implement

· Unlimited telephone and e-mail communications

· Up to one (1) on-site consultative visit as per hospital request. These will be scheduled in a manner to reduce total travel expenses.

· TELNETs and Webinars as appropriate Continue to promote use of quality dashboard and presentation materials, including one (1) TELNET/Webinar program.

· Registration for 2 attendees to educational activities.

In order to meet individual hospital needs, each hospital will receive educational coupons totaling 28 points which can be applied towards the educational opportunities of their choice. Attached please find our SHIP 07/08 Educational Courses and Point Matrix. This Matrix describes the TELNETs/Webinars and in-person conferences which are available to you through this grant. You will be receiving a hard copy of the SHIP 07/08 Educational Courses and Point Matrix, along with your educational coupons and instructions in a forthcoming mailing.

GHA strongly encourages the participants to fully utilize these educational sessions and quality tools to identify opportunities for improvement, drive performance improvement initiatives, and to sustain improvements. We will ask for evidence of utilization of the Culture of Patient Safety Tool and participation in the 2008 NPSG self assessment. We will also ask that you attend at least two (2) educational activities offered. Please do not hesitate to call on me, Jackie Childers at 770-249-4546 jchilders@gha.org or Rhett Partin at 770-249-4552 rpartin@gha.org if we can be of assistance.

Sincerely,

Vi Naylor
Executive Vice-President
Georgia Hospital Association

For more information please email us at: pha@gha.org