RHPI: End of the Journey

by Terry Hill, Senior Advisor for Rural Health Leadership and Policy

Listening to Jerry Garcia this morning singing about a "long, strange trip," brought to mind the impending conclusion of our Rural Hospital Performance Improvement (RHPI) project journey in support of rural hospitals in the Mississippi Delta Region. Beginning with an initial hospital consultation in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi in 2000, the National Rural Health Resource Center (The Center) and its many partners supported 323 onsite hospital projects in eight states between 2001 and 2014, and put on hundreds of educational events.

Funding was provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP). We are grateful for their stellar leadership as well as the many contributions of our state partners, including state offices of rural health and state hospital associations. Our original corporate partner was the Mountain States Group, and our deep appreciation goes to their staff and to our stellar cadre of consultants too numerous to mention.

We have also had an amazingly dedicated staff here at The Center. They have worked hard to bring excellence to every aspect of the RHPI program, including measurable outcomes, education and customer service. And finally, we are grateful to the many hospital leaders in the Mississippi Delta Region that we have come to know and have proudly served over these many years. They are the real heroes of our journey, and their accomplishments have been documented by Dr. Eric Scorsone on three separate occasions, as returning $3, $11, and most recently $7 in hospital improvement, for every $1 invested in RHPI by the federal government.

In an era of value-based healthcare, we at The Center, are most proud of the documented value our RHPI program brought to more than 200 rural hospitals and the communities they serve. As we wrap up the RHPI project, we thought you might enjoy a few "fun facts" about the work done to support the Delta states:

• From 2001 to 2014, RHPI supported 323 onsite hospital projects
• Financial Operational Assessments were the most requested project with 110 completed
• Strategic Planning was second most requested and 37 projects were supported
• 170 different hospitals were eligible for onsite projects and 127 facilities took advantage of the opportunity
• A Return on Community Investment (ROCI) analysis completed in 2014 indicated that for every $1 invested in RHPI, a return of $6.8 was generated