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Rural Hospital Stabilization Program

Pilot Program Report

Presentation to: DCH Board

Presented By: Lisa Carhuff, Director, Hospital Services Project Manager Rural Hospital Stabilization Program

December 14, 2017

1

Mission

The mission of the Department of Community Health is to

provide access to affordable, quality health care to

Georgians through planning, purchasing

and oversight.

We are dedicated to A Healthy Georgia.

2

82 Rural Hospital Closures: January 2010 – Present

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Rural Hospital Closures

Hospital Closures since 2001

• Hancock Memorial Hospital 2001

• Dooly County Hospital 2001

• Telfair Regional Hospital 2008

• Calhoun Memorial Hospital 2013

• Stewart-Webster Hospital 2013

• Charlton Memorial Hospital 2013

• Lower Oconee Regional 2014

• North Georgia Medical Center 2016

Closed Emergency Room

• Flint River Hospital 2013

• Cook Medical Center 2017

4

TIMELINE

Rural Hospital Stabilization Committee established

April

2014

Rural Free Standing

Emergency Department Regulations

approved

May

2014

Rural Hospital

Stabilization Committee

Final Report

“Hub & Spoke” Model

Published February

2015

Governor signed budget

$3,000,000 hospitals selected

May

2015

Department of

Community Health

executed grants

July

2015

Initial Meeting

Performance Measures Selected

August

2015

Project work plans and budgets

approved

October

2015

Grant Extension approved

April

2016

Grant Terminated

December

2016

5

“the right care, at the right time, in the right setting”

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Rural Healthcare

Metrics Help Rural Hospitals Achieve World-Class Performance, Scott W. Goodspeed; Journal for Healthcare Quality Volume 28,

Issue 5 September-October 2006 Pages 28–55

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Overarching Goals

➢Increase Market Share

➢Reduce Potentially Preventable Readmissions

➢Reduce Non-Emergency care and “Super Users” served

in the ED

➢Increase Primary Care Access

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Rural Hospital Stabilization sites

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Project Snapshots

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Strengths

• Linkages of rural stakeholders with the hospital has proven to be the greatest

opportunity and strength of the Rural Hospital Stabilization Program. Prior to this

initiative, some communities had limited knowledge of each other as healthcare

providers – in particular, behavioral health, despite the physical proximity of these

providers to their facility. This program has forged relationships that can continue to

grow with ongoing collaboration in sustaining healthcare delivery to rural Georgia.

• The stabilization funds provided an infrastructure in which hospitals could test

innovative programs in response to a rapidly changing health care environment.

The hospitals leveraged the investment to bridge the funding gap that exists in

population health models. This program provided a necessary level of flexibility,

stability, and support for the exploration of new rural health models in Georgia.

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Performance Measures

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Opportunities

• Due to limited data across the healthcare continuum it was difficult to objectively quantify the rural hospital stabilization phase one program results.

While the “Pre-Post” Performance Measures reflect hospital performance at two distinct points in time, they are limited in their ability to adequately reflect the complex environment in which the stabilization projects were launched and therefore may or may not correlate with the specific project outcomes. Hospitals and the community stakeholders must share additional longitudinal data across each healthcare delivery settings to understand the impact of performance improvement strategies deployed in the Rural Stabilization Program.

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Contact

Lisa Carhuff, Director

Hospital Services

Rural Hospital Stabilization Project Manager

State Office of Rural Health

502 South Seventh Street

Cordele, Georgia 31015

Phone: (229) 401-3092

Email: lisa.carhuff@dch.ga.gov