Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program

Workforce and financial challenges continue to be among the top concerns for hospitals and health systems. The same problems are felt more acutely in rural areas where recruitment challenges and resources for talent pipeline development are limited. Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program (SHIP) funding enables NCHF to support workforce development and capacity building in the state’s critical access and small rural hospitals through the CPHQ Certification Preparation and Professional Development Program (CCPD). Delivering high quality, cost-efficient care depends on a workforce skilled in more than the traditional competencies of patient safety and quality assessment. High quality, cost-efficient care also requires staff capacity to partner with the community on performance improvement and population health, and staff capacity to articulate the impact of doing so on hospital financial performance. The CCPD supports knowledge acquisition and application through didactic learning, group and individualized coaching, and peer-to-peer learning networks. The three professional learning tracks culminate in a capstone project, identified based on organizational priorities. Capstone projects increase the knowledge and skills rural quality professionals have to complete formal root cause analyses, identify return on investment of quality improvement activities, and leverage hospital-community partnerships to improve population health.