I have the privilege of traveling
across the country to visit critical access hospitals (CAHs) serving as the
Community Specialist for The Center. Through my adventures, I have observed how
CAHs face the challenges of being successful in the current payment system,
while preparing for the new value-based payment structure, all the while
striving to achieve the Triple Aim of,
“better care, better health, at a lower cost”. Managing the complexities
of these changes is not easy, so The Center assembled national rural hospital
experts in a Summit meeting this past June to begin the creations of a CAH
Blueprint for Performance Excellence modeled after Baldrige, which is a
comprehensive systems-based management framework.
This CAH Blueprint for PerformanceExcellence includes critical success factors in the seven Baldrige components and
outlines how each component is inter-linked:
Use of a systems-based performance
excellence framework, as such, provides CAHs with a formula for not only
achieving sustainability in this rapidly changing health care environment, but
it enables facilities to flourish when meaningful work is accomplished in each
of the seven components. As one Summit participant noted, “There is no cohesive
vision of what a future rural hospital needs to look like. We are in a perfect
storm. We can’t go back, but we can’t go forward by staying the same.” It is
important that CAH leaders begin to identify the key strategies necessary to
bridge the gap between where they are presently and where they will need to be
in a value-based health care system. The Blueprint can help do just that.
Challenges and strategies
faced by CAHs are also identified in this Blueprint, acknowledging that as a
rural hospital leader, you may feel daunted or overwhelmed in keeping up with
all of the ongoing changes, but do note that this Blueprint and The Center are
here to support your transition in achieving the Triple Aim.
