Upper Midwest Rural Health Research Center

Current Projects

Acute and Post-Acute Care Bundled Payments and Care Coordination in Rural Environments
The purpose of this project is to: 1) Identify opportunities and potential unintended consequences for rural providers of current proposals for implementing bundled payments for acute and post-acute care episodes; 2) Describe modifications to current bundling proposals that will address rural-specific issues; and 3) Identify quality measures related to care coordination that are relevant for rural patients whose services are reimbursed by a bundled payment.
Funder: Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP)
Topics: Health services, Quality

Assessing the Rural Relevance of Hospital Outpatient Quality Measures
The purpose of this project is to: 1) determine the diagnoses that are most commonly treated and the procedures most commonly performed in rural hospital outpatient settings; and 2) to evaluate the rural relevance of the proposed new CMS outpatient quality measures and other potential outpatient quality measures.
Funder: Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP)
Topics: Hospitals and clinics, Quality

Effect of Type and Timeliness of Post-Acute Care on Preventable Hospital Readmissions for Rural Medicare Beneficiaries
The purpose of this project is to: 1) determine how location of hospitals used for initial admissions by rural patients affects readmission rates; 2) assess how the use of swing beds affects rural patients’ readmissions; and 3) examine the impact of the type and timeliness of post-acute care, including home health care, skilled nursing, and physician visits, on readmissions for rural patients.
Funder: Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP)
Topics: Hospitals and clinics, Medicare

Nursing Workforce Impact on Rural Hospital Performance Improvement in the Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration Project
The purpose of this project is to examine the impact of nurse staffing on hospital performance improvement in the CMS/premier Inc. Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration project with specific interest in whether and how this relationship differs in rural hospitals as compared to urban hospitals.
Funder: Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP)
Topics: Hospitals and clinics, Quality, Workforce

Potentially Preventable Rural Hospital Readmissions
This project focuses on the analysis of potentially preventable rural hospital readmissions, a potential quality indicator receiving considerable attention from policymakers and payers. Using 3-M algorithm software and MedPAR inpatient claims data from 9 geographically representative states, this study will explore the relationship between readmission rates and geographic regions, categories of rural hospitals, discharge destination, clinical diagnoses and patient attributes.
Funder: Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP)
Topics: Hospitals and clinics, Quality

Rural Implications of Health Care Reform: Issues Related to Quality of Care, Health Information Technology and Care Coordination
The purpose of this project is to provide support to the Office of Rural Health Policy on rural health care reform issues.
Funder: Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP)
Topics: Health policy, Health services