State Flex Program Quality Improvement Activities

Funder:	Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP)
Research center:	Maine Rural Health Research Center Phone: 207.780.4430
Lead researcher:	Andrew F. Coburn, PhD , 207.780.4435, andyc@usm.maine.edu
Project completed:	August 2006
Topics:	Critical Access Hospitals and Rural Hospital Flexibility Program Quality

This project will analyze the state Flex Grant Applications and related revisions to their budgets and work plans to identify and summarize the range and scope of activities undertaken in the core Flex Program areas related to quality and performance improvement. Data extraction tools are being developed to summarize the activities proposed by state Flex Programs. Completion of the analysis and summary of the grant applications is anticipated by early January 2006, which will be followed by interviews, using semi-structured interview protocols, of five to ten state Flex Coordinators to obtain additional information on their quality and performance improvement initiatives. Products of this project will include a briefing paper summarizing the range of quality and performance improvement activities undertaken by state Flex Programs.

Publications

• Quality and Performance Improvement Grant Activities Under the Flex Program
  Author(s): Jennifer Lenardson, John Gale
  Report Number: Flex Monitoring Team Briefing Paper No. 12
  Date: 08 / 2006
  Describes quality and performance improvement activities proposed by states during the 2005 grant year under the Medicare Rural Health Flexibility Program (Flex Program). Report produced by the Flex Monitoring Project, funded by the Office of Rural Health Policy.