Rural Spotlight

Now Enrolling for Fall 2023 Cohort – Rural Hospital CEO Certification Program

August 11, 2023

Now Enrolling for Fall 2023 Cohort – Rural Hospital CEO Certification Program

NRHA’s Rural Hospital Certification Programs were created by rural hospital leaders for rural hospital leaders to empower them to lead their rural hospitals and communities to success. The Center for Rural Leadership has recently expanded its program offerings, with certifications now available for rural nurses, rural hospital board members, CMOs and human resources and the first cohorts in each launching this month.

Rural Hospital CEO Certification Program

Participants engaging in this program will be empowered to lead rural hospitals as CEO’s to thrive, not just survive, and to improve the quality of life in rural America by effectively leading their hospitals and communities to create a culture of wellness.

Curriculum

The building blocks that make up the course curriculum were developed by successful rural hospital CEOs by answering this question: “What do you know now that you wish you would have known then?

  • Leadership Building Bloc
    • INTRA-Personal Leadership
    • INTER-Personal Leadership
  • Operational Building Bloc
    • Regulatory Compliance
    • Data Analytics & Predictive Analytics
    • Lean Management
    • IT/Cybersecurity
    • Insurance
    • Strategic Planning & Working with your Board
  • Financial Building Bloc
    • Fee for Service
    • Population Health
    • Dashboard Items
    • Supply Chain
  • Clinical Building Bloc
    • Physician/Patient Outcomes
    • Physician/Providers
    • Quality
    • Physician Engagement

Learn more about this and other programs

Apply Now

HRSA Needs Rural Reviewers for Grant Applications

August 10, 2023

HRSA Needs Rural Reviewers for Grant Applications

The Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) seeks rural reviewers for grant applications. If you have expertise in certain subjects, you may be able to evaluate grant applications.

How Reviewers are Chosen:

Reviewers are chosen based on their knowledge, education, and experience. They are also selected based on specific criteria in the HRSA Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).

How to Become a Grant Reviewer:

If you work or have experience in health care, register via the Reviewer Recruitment Module (RRM).

HRSA looks for people with expertise in one of the following areas:

  • Behavioral health
  • Health workforce training
  • HIV/AIDS
  • Maternal and child health
  • Primary care delivery
  • Rural health
  • Working with or a member of underserved communities

Additional experience

  • Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA)
  • Lived experience
  • Health equity
  • Social determinants of health

HRSA is also interested in reviewers who have expertise in social, cultural, or health care issues of people in rural areas, migrants, or Native Americans.

What You Will Do:

  • Review eligible applications against published evaluation criteria
  • Input your scores and comments into an online portal, the Application Review Module (ARM)
  • Discuss your scores and evaluation with other reviewers

Compensation

Each non-federal participant is compensated

Quarterly Training Webinars:

Questions: Email HRSA for assistance at RRMTechAssistance@hrsa.gov

Learn More

HQIN Office Hours on Reducing Readmissions

August 10, 2023

HQIN Office Hours on Reducing Readmissions

This session, Hear From Your Peers: What Works to Reduce Readmissions, will feature speakers from Health Quality Innovators’ (HQI) network of hospitals, including critical access, rural and acute care hospital settings. Each speaker will share their hospitals experience with readmission reduction strategies, key implementation tips, and results. You will also have an opportunity to ask questions and network with other peers seeking ideas on what is working to reduce readmissions.

Attendees will learn how to:

  • Examine new options for reducing readmissions
  • Connect with peers for assistance on operationalizing new interventions
  • Feel empowered to apply new strategies to strengthen your readmission reduction portfolio

This session will have something applicable for each hospital within the HQI network.

Date & Time: You can choose to attend one or more of the following session:

  • August 10, 2023 11:00 a.m.
  • September 14, 2023 11:00 a.m.
  • October 12, 2023 11:00 a.m.
  • November 9, 2023 11:00 a.m.

Register Here

 

Updates to Requirements for Buprenorphine Prescribing

August 10, 2023

Updates to Requirements for Buprenorphine Prescribing

As announced by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in January 2023, clinicians no longer need a federal waiver to prescribe buprenorphine for treatment of opioid use disorder. Clinicians will still be required to register with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to prescribe controlled medications.

Beginning on June 27, the DEA registration will require applicants – both new and renewing – to affirm they have completed a new, one-time, eight-hour training. Exceptions for the new training requirement are practitioners who are board certified in addiction medicine or addiction psychiatry, and those who graduated from a medical, dental, physician assistant, or advanced practice nursing school in the U.S. within five years of June 27, 2023.

Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) still have the opportunity to apply for a $3,000 payment on behalf of each provider who trained between January 1, 2019 and December 29, 2022 (when Congress eliminated the waiver requirement). Approximately $889,000 in program funding remains available for RHCs and will be paid on a first-come, first-served basis until funds are exhausted.

New Training Requirements for All DEA-Registered Providers

Send questions to: DATA2000WaiverPayments@hrsa.gov

Partnership for Quality Management (PQM) Seeks Rural Health Experts for Committees

August 10, 2023

Partnership for Quality Management (PQM) Seeks Rural Health Experts for Committees

New committees are being formed by Battelle, as contracted by CMS, to make recommendations on health care quality measurement. Rural health experts are sought for all PQM committees.

It takes diverse voices to drive PQM’s mission. PQM uses a consensus based process involving a variety of experts – clinicians, patients, measure experts, and health information technology specialists – to ensure informed and thoughtful endorsement reviews of quality performance measures.

Interested in learning more about joining a committee? Click Here

Committee Nominations:

Battelle staff conduct a review of committee member appointments annually, which includes internal re-calibration of membership, a call for nominations, and targeted outreach.

Any interested party may nominate themselves or another individual to a committee of interest once the nominations period is open.

Click Here to nominate yourself or another person

Upcoming Webinar – The Star Struck Factor in Survey Mastery

August 9, 2023

Upcoming Webinar – The Star Struck Factor in Survey Mastery

The next webinar in the Engage series, The Star Struck Factor in Survey Mastery, with expert Brian Lee, is scheduled for September 8 at 9:30 a.m. CT.

Who Should Attend:

  • C-Suite
  • Executives
  • Leaders at every level
  • Board members
  • Quality
  • Physicians & ACPs
  • Everyone committed to improving the patient experience

You will learn how to:

  • Understand the purpose and goals of the CMS HCAHPS Inpatient Survey
  • Gain insights into the credibility of all CMS CAHPS Surveys
  • Become knowledgeable about the evolution and purpose of public social media “reputation management” rating sites and how they work
  • Interpret the impact of social media websites that empower consumers with rating transparency
  • Learn the fundamentals of reading and interpreting the patient experience survey data
  • Empower your leaders and caregivers to interpret and use patient experience survey reports for continuous improvement
  • Master the five questions leaders need to know and answer about their ongoing patient experience scores
  • Grow market share about star ratings and their market impact
  • Gain important insights about the significant financial impact of survey ratings on market growth and decline

2 Powerful Action Take-Away Tools:

  • The Patient Experience Reporting Protocol Guide
  • Seven Steps to Improve Patient Experience Response Rates

When: Friday, September 8, 9:30 a.m. CT

Cost: No charge

Register Now

 

Upcoming Webinar – The Future is Virtual Care – but how do we get there, sustainably?

August 9, 2023

Upcoming Webinar – The Future is Virtual Care – but how do we get there, sustainably?

By now it’s obvious that virtual care is here to stay. The key questions though is: how can health centers, health systems, hospitals and behavioral health agencies make virtual care an integral part of their care delivery? How can we achieve financial sustainability, clinical sustainability, and strategic sustainability? What approaches can we take to increase clinician buy-in and commitment by leadership?

Based on 15+ years of experience implementing virtual care services, Christian Milaster will share a set of pragmatic approaches, mindset models, and tactics to enable those who care about virtual care to make it stay. Sustainably.

The presentation will present approaches and tactics

  • to create clinician buy-in and leadership commitment
  • to build the business, financial, and clinical case for virtual care
  • to increase your organization’s virtual care maturity
  • for telehealth optimization: workflows, technology and policy
  • to create a virtual care and digital health strategy
  • to manage virtual care performance

When: August 15, 2023, 2:00 p.m. CT

Register Here

Telehealth Resources

August 9, 2023

Telehealth Resources

Telehealth.HHS.gov provides trusted telehealth resources that cover a wide range of topics including workflow and staff training, reimbursement, and behavioral health. Easily access various topics and areas of interest for providers and patients.

Telehealth topics:

  • Behavioral Health
  • Chronic conditions
  • Health equity
  • Internet Access
  • Maternal health and pediatrics
  • Reimbursement and policy
  • Training
  • General

Learn more about telehealth resources

Register for the National Telehealth Conference

August 9, 2023

Register for the National Telehealth Conference

Join Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) on September 12 for the National Telehealth Conference! Hear from experts about the future of telehealth and how to best use telehealth for your practice.

HRSA will host this virtual conference that brings public and private sector leaders together to discuss telehealth best practices. The conference will examine the importance of integrating telehealth into standard care.

Conference topics include:

  • The adoption of telehealth and expansion of broadband connectivity to improve health equity
  • Using tele-behavioral health as a successful model for integrating telehealth into the standard of care
  • Telehealth’s role in supporting the health care workforce and expanding services for patients
  • Implications of health policy to inform telehealth’s future in an evolving health care environment

Questions? Send email to: chsdteam@gsu.edu

Register Here

Become a Certified Rural Health Clinic Professional

August 8, 2023

Become a Certified Rural Health Clinic Professional

The National Association of Rural Health Clinics (NARHC) is offering Directors, Clinic Administrators & other RHC leaders a unique full-spectrum course designed to teach you how to operate a successful Rural Health Clinic. Upon course completion & attainment of an 80% or higher exam score, you will earn a Certified Rural Health Clinic Professional (CRHCP) designation.

Enrollment:

This course is offered twice a calendar year. Enrollment begins approximately 10 weeks prior to the date of the Final Exam taking place online.

View upcoming dates Here

Format:

This is a self-paced online course with a proctored online Final Exam

Time Commitment:

Most people complete the course in 4 – 6 weeks

Course Curriculum:

4 modules:

  • Admin & Finance
  • Billing & Coding
  • Regulatory Compliance & Quality
  • Federal Updates

Learn More