State Offices of Rural Health Grant Program (SORH)

The goal of the State Offices of Rural Health (SORH) grant program is to assist States in strengthening rural health care delivery systems by creating a focal point for rural health within each State. The program provides an institutional framework that links small rural communities with State and Federal resources to help develop long term solutions to rural health problems. The SORH grant program features a single grantee from each of the 50 United States. The program is a Federal-State partnership that requires a State funding match of $3 for each $1 of Federal funding.

SORH Award Amount (FY06): $146,400

Major Accomplishments in ORHP FY 2006 (October 1, 2005 – September 30, 2006)/PORH FY 2006-2007 (July 1, 2006 – June 30, 2007):

1. Coordinated the 15th Annual Pennsylvania Rural Conference, on June 12 and 13, 2007, in State College, PA; 135 persons attended the conference with over 30 participating exhibitors;
2. Coordinated the 6th Annual Migrant and Immigrant Health Conference, on March 27 and 28, 2007, in Gettysburg, PA; 110 persons attended the conference with 11 participating exhibitors;
3. Coordinated the Swimming Pool Pesticide Applicators Certification and Recertification Training Program; 378 participants acquired certification and/or recertification at 13 locations across the state as a result of this program;
4. Published two issues of Pennsylvania Rural Health magazine; one in January 2007 and another one in June 2007, to over 4,800 healthcare professionals and organizations in the state and nationally, as well as posted on the PORH Web site; and
5. Responded to a total of 375 requests for technical assistance, totaling 209 hours and 57 minutes, including: special event information (e.g. The Penn State Rural Interest Meeting); critical access hospital information (e.g. reimbursement rates; definitions; contacts); healthcare provider information (e.g. urologists in Tioga County; rural health clinics in Sullivan County); and requests for letters of support for particular grant proposals;
6. Convened two groups of professionals from within as well as outside the Commonwealth with the purpose of developing short- and long-term strategic initiatives in the areas of “drug use” and “health literacy” in rural Pennsylvania.

SORH Contact Information:
Office: Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health
Address: 202 Beecher-Dock House, University Park, PA 16802
Phone: (814) 863-8214
Fax: (814) 865-4688
Email: porh@psu.edu
Director: Lisa Davis

2) Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant Program (Flex)
The Flex Program helps sustain access to high quality health care services in rural America. The program facilitates the development and support of community-based collaborative rural delivery systems in all grantee States through the conversion of hospitals to critical access status, development of rural health care networks and the integration of EMS.
Flex Award (FY06): $365,340

Program Highlights:

• Number of Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) supported: 13
• Number of Critical Access-eligible Hospitals supported: 2
• Number of Rural Health Networks developed: 3
• Number of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) assisted: 13
• Number of Rural Communities assisted: 15+

Major Accomplishments:

1. Thirteen hospitals in Pennsylvania have converted to Critical Access Hospital (CAH) status and have formed the Pennsylvania Critical Access Hospital Consortium (PACAHC). Those hospitals continue to work together with 12 of the 13 CAHs participating in a performance management program utilizing a balanced scorecard framework. Through quarterly meetings, these hospitals share best practices, receive educational programming, and collaborate in quality improvement initiatives. The Small Hospital Improvement Program (SHIP) is closely linked with the Flex Program to enhance the effectiveness of the hospitals. Many of the CAHs are now ready to begin to develop departmental scorecards to further embed the balanced scorecard into the performance management of the hospital.
2. The Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health is located at The Pennsylvania State University. Through collaboration with the Penn State Office of Economic and Workforce Development and Penn State Management Development a “Rural Health Care Manager Academy” was developed to assist small rural hospitals in meeting the training needs of their existing workforce, particularly in supervisory and management training. During 2006, the programming was developed based upon an training assessment conducted in the CAHs in 2005.
3. Continued support was given to two rural health networks, the Susquehanna Valley Rural Health Partnership (SVRHP) and the Southern Alleghenies Rural Heal Alliance (SARHA). SVRHP, a mature network, received Flex funds to support Phase II of their Transportation Project which assessed how transportation affects the medical care in a three county region of rural Pennsylvania. SAHRA was allocated funds to further assist in the development and planning of their network and to support information technology diffusion to rural areas of their region.
4. An assessment of the utilization of the previously developed Rural Transfer and Triage Protocols was conducted. This has led to a project with Pennsylvania’s QIO, Quality Insights of Pennsylvania, Inc., to develop a standardized transfer communication checklist for the state’s CAHs to use when they are transferring a patient to another facility.

3) Small Rural Hospital Performance Improvement Grant Program (SHIP)
The goal of SHIP is to assist small (less than 50 beds) rural hospitals pay for any or all of the following: 1) costs related to implementation of prospective payment systems, (2) compliance with provisions of HIPAA and 3) reduction of medical errors and quality improvement. State Offices of Rural Health (SORH) help eligible rural hospitals to participate in SHIP. Eligible hospitals submit an application to their SORH; the SORH prepares and submits a single grant application to HRSA on behalf of all hospital applicants in the State. There are approximately 1,600 eligible hospitals nationwide and each usually receives between approximately $9,000.
SHIP Award (FY06): $169,746

Program Highlights:

• Hospitals receiving funding: 19
• Hospitals in consortiums, networks or systems: 13
• Hospitals using funds for QI and /or reduction of medical errors: 18
• Hospitals using grant funds for Health Information Technology: 1 for HIPAA related; all 19 are using grant funds for a technology-related solution for quality improvement.

Major Accomplishments:
The Pennsylvania Critical Access Hospital Consortium (PACAHC) continues to subscribe to Rural Performance Management (RPM), an on-line performance management system that permits the consortium’s hospitals to utilize internal and external benchmarking comparisons. Data from RPM led the PACAHC to form a collaborative with Pennsylvania’s QIO, Quality Insights of Pennsylvania, Inc. to improve the pneumococcal vaccination rates in the PACAHC’s member hospitals. That project is due to conclude in December 2007 but thus far the vaccination rates have improved from 44 percent to 76 percent in less than a year. PACAHC meets on a quarterly basis for “Shared Learning,” whereby they share best practices.

Total HRSA Funding (FY06): $681,486