Strengthening Minnesota’s Rural Critical Access Hospitals

More than a quarter of Minnesota residents live in rural areas. They are more likely to have chronic conditions, report poorer health status, and have more difficulty accessing the types of care they need than people in urban areas. (Rural Health Care in MN) Stratis Health has been working in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Health Office of Rural Health and Primary Care for more than 15 years to support Minnesota’s 77 rural critical access hospitals in ensuring access to high-quality health care that is aligned with community needs. We do this by providing training and technical assistance to build capacity and promote sustainable improvement in the rural health care system.

Actions

• Improve the quality of care and patient safety for inpatient, outpatient, and emergency services through root cause analysis, coaching, and networking
• Improve consistency, accuracy, and completeness of quality data reporting through medical record abstraction training and feedback
• Improve care transitions through better emergency department transfer communication
• Increase and strengthen capacity to improve health equity through assessment, analysis, and structured improvement initiatives

We make lives better by…

Increasing access to high-quality care for people in rural areas through assistance and services for Minnesota’s 77 rural critical access hospitals:

• Improving rural hospital clinician, leadership, and staff skills in delivering evidence-based care
• Building capacity in rural hospitals to address community health needs
• Fostering population health approaches focused on creating and maintaining health