Rural Hospital Flexibility Program - Kentucky Rural Health Works Program

CEDIK finished the CHNA process with 12 Critical Access Hospitals in Kentucky. There are multiple objectives associated with the CHNA. The objectives below are an expansion of Objective #6 of the 2014-2015 Rural Hospital Flexibility Program. 1) Ensure that the hospital stays relevant to the needs of the community by identifying and improving upon the services and programs that the community needs most 2) Improve financial performance of the hospital 3) Identify opportunities for growth 4) Improve quality of care for all residents of the community 5) Improve communications with the community 6) Create better communication among providers, public health, and other community agencies within the community CEDIK will work with these hospitals to help implement, monitor and evaluate their progress. In addition, CEDIK will work with the informal coalitions that have been created as a result of the CHNA process to launch community-led activities to improve health. Specific activities: o Work with individual hospitals to complete marketing analyses or feasibility studies as needed, approximately 3 per year o Provide assistance to hospitals and the community steering committees that were formed as a result of the CHNA process. Many committees decided to pursue activities beyond the purview of the CHNA and require assistance facilitating conversations, identifying funding opportunities, working with new partners and collecting data. o Conduct updated economic impact reports for each CAH. Provide training to hospital administrators about how to utilize the numbers and market their hospital to their community and elected officials. o Support three (3) existing networks and communities in identifying and developing collaborative projects/ initiatives through the provision of technical assistance, consultative support or funding: a.) Identify unmet needs b.) Identifying the opportunity to share specialty services c.) Assist networks in developing a collaborative planning process In addition, work with new networks that are in the planning stages and help facilitate strategic planning, resource development, data analysis and etc. o Provide grant writing workshops based on the release of RFPs by HRSA and other state and local health-related granting organizations o Finalize the Rural Health Improvement plan based on CHNAs from around the state and other stakeholder input. Provide priorities and identified strategies to address priorities