Delta Health Systems Implementation Program

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This notice announces the opportunity to apply for funding under the Delta Health Systems Implementation Program (DSIP). The purpose of this program is to improve healthcare delivery in rural areas by implementing projects that will improve the financial sustainability of hospitals and allow for increased access to care in rural communities. These projects focus on financial and operational improvement, quality improvement, telehealth, and workforce development in hospitals in the rural counties and parishes of the Delta region. The Delta region includes 252 counties and parishes located across eight states: Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee. To view maps of the counties and parishes in each state that are in the Delta region, visit https://dra.gov/about-dra/map-room. To determine if a county or parish in the Delta region is rural visit https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/am-i-rural Funding is provided to support small rural hospitals (critical access hospitals or inpatient prospective payment system facilities with up to 100 beds) in the Delta region that have received previous technical assistance (TA) through the Delta Region Community Health Systems Development Program (DRCHSD) or another similar TA program within the last five years. The DRCHSD Program provides intensive, multi-year technical assistance to healthcare facilities located in the Delta region for free. DSIP is an extension of the DRCHSD Program and is designed to help hospitals that previously received TA, from DRCHSD or another similar TA program, to implement projects based on the recommendations from their TA. Program Objective Improve health care in rural areas through projects in these focus areas: • Financial and operational improvements; • Implementation of quality improvement initiatives; • Expansion of telehealth services and financial/operational systems enhancements; • Workforce recruitment and retention initiatives; and • The development of new service lines to address the needs of the community, including populations in the community that have been historically underserved. Implementation project activities could include, but are not limited to: • Financial and Operational (such as developing new service lines, increasing inpatient and swing bed volume, increasing outpatient services, implementing revenue cycle best practices to increase point of service collections, and optimizing emergency department operations) • Quality (such as reducing readmissions, improving transitions of care and discharge planning, implementing performance measurement systems, clinical documentation integrity training, and utilizing data analytics) • Telehealth (such as expanding telehealth services, and enhancing cybersecurity) • Workforce (such as recruitment initiatives, implementing new technology to increase clinical efficiency, simulation training for clinicians, and leadership training such as rounding to improve patient and employee satisfaction) HRSA will work with recipients of this grant to identify the appropriate measures to show improvement in financial sustainability and the impact of their specific implementation projects.