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

Critical Access Hospital Readiness for CMS Value-Based Purchasing
The purpose of this project will be to assess Critical Access Hospital readiness for participation in a Value-based Purchasing program similar to that proposed by CMS for Prospective Payment System hospitals.
Funder: Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP)
Topics: Critical Access Hospitals and Rural Hospital Flexibility Program, Health care financing, Quality

Developing Quality Measures and Communication Strategies for Rural Patient Transfers
The purpose of this project is to quantify the complexity of the coordination of patient care in rural health care systems and to expand our work on developing quality measures for rural patients whose care is transferred between providers.
Funder: Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP)
Topic: Quality

Health Information Technology and Quality in Rural Hospitals
The purpose of this project is to: 1) examine the adoption of health information technology (HIT) among rural hospitals and identify hospital and market characteristics that facilitate or impede HIT diffusion; 2) measure the effect of HIT on clinical quality in rural hospitals; and 3) identify technologies that may be promoted to improve quality of care in rural areas.
Funder: Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP)
Topics: Health information technology, Hospitals and clinics, Quality

Patient Assessments and Quality of Care in Rural Hospitals
This study will 1)analyze the relationships between rural patients’ perspectives of hospital quality of care and key hospital characteristics that may influence patients’ experiences of hospital care; and 2) assess whether rural patients’ perspectives of hospital quality of care are related to quality measures focused on the provision of recommended care for medical conditions.
Funder: Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP)
Topics: Health services, Quality

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

The Impact of Expansion of Ambulatory Surgery Centers on Rural Hospitals and Communities
This project will examine the extent of freestanding ambulatory surgery center (ASC) expansion into rural communities between 1998 and 2005, the market factors driving that expansion, and the impact of ASCs on the operational and financial viability of rural hospitals located in the same communities.
Funder: Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP)
Topics: Health care financing, Health services

The 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