Improving Quality with Rural Hospitals and Clinics

Demonstrating value through reporting and improving quality measures has become increasingly important for small rural hospitals and clinics. However, understanding quality reporting systems and using data to drive improvement can be particularly challenging for rural health care organizations with limited resources. Through a variety of initiatives, Stratis Health aims to fill these gaps, focusing on improving quality and health outcomes in rural communities across the country.   

Actions:   

As a partner supporting the national Rural Healthcare Provider Transition Project (RHPTP), we:

• Provide individualized technical assistance to a cohort of small rural hospitals and certified rural health clinics, providing consultation and coaching around building quality improvement infrastructure that embeds improvement into everyday practices focused on care coordination, patient experience, and safety of care. 
• Lead learning collaboratives for rural hospitals and clinics focused on using technology to support population health, understanding and improving health equity, and supporting mid-level managers in rural health care organizations to advance value-based care.  

From 2015 – 2023, Stratis Health served as the Rural Quality Improvement Technical Assistance (RQITA) center for the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy.
In that role, we leveraged national partnerships and delivered technical assistance to increase quality data reporting and improvement by working with: 

• The 45 State Flex Programs funded through the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) Program and the more than 1,350 critical access hospitals (CAHs) they support nationwide in the implementation of the Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Program (MBQIP). 
• Grantees of the FORHP Small Health Care Provider Quality Improvement (Rural Quality) program.

Stratis Health continues to work with the Flex Monitoring Team, providing ongoing support for the implementation of the National CAH Quality Inventory and Assessment and hosting resources that support the implementation of the Emergency Department Transfer Communication (EDTC) measure, a core measure of MBQIP. 

We make lives better by…   

Improving the quality of rural health care delivery nationally through: 

• Strengthening the capacity of rural health care organizations to improve quality and advance health equity through assessment, analysis, and structured improvement initiatives 
• Developing resources, identifying best practices, and providing education to support quality reporting and improvement activities among rural providers 
• Leveraging our national subject matter expertise in best practice, policy, and evaluation, while tailoring our offerings and interventions to meet the unique needs of the communities we work with.