The Chartis Center for Rural Health
Committed to helping rural hospitals navigate a new era
As the stability of the rural health safety net further erodes beneath the weight of the pandemic, closure crisis, and socioeconomic disparities, rural hospital leadership teams must act quickly to devise new strategies and interventions to meet the needs of their communities.
Rural providers, health systems, associations, and state-wide networks require data, analytics, and expertise to navigate today’s complex rural healthcare environment. Critical to sustaining their missions and improving performance are a strong understanding of market dynamics and patient outmigration, being able to deliver higher quality care at lower cost, measuring and reporting results for public reporting, and understanding and addressing population health disparities.
Client Impact
“The Chartis Center for Rural Health leveraged an established data methodology and framework, helping us break down barriers of resistance and build a collaborative group. Their approach and ability to work closely with hospital leadership team stakeholders ensures that progress takes root and really blossoms.”
At the Chartis Center for Rural Health, we offer an unparalleled value proposition to rural health leaders and those advocating on their behalf. Combining advanced analytics and rural-relevant benchmarks with industry-leading research and expertise, we deliver the knowledge leaders in rural healthcare need.
Our programming, curriculum, benchmarking technology, and collaborative platform deliver a common, rural-relevant framework through which leadership teams and frontline decision-makers can establish a deeper understanding of hospital performance and initiate further performance improvement. Our client engagements focus on:
Network Collaboration
Tailored programming and guidance to support peer collaboration and learning in priority areas, such as value-based payment models, quality improvement, revenue cycle optimization, and population health management.
Strategic and Operational Advisory
Expert guidance on the internal operational and external market factors that impact the health and growth of rural organizations and create a data-driven foundation for achieving strategic goals.
Quality Improvement
Technical assistance in the development of quality improvement initiatives, including Value-Based Purchasing-related improvement in areas of Process of Care, Outcomes of Care, Patient Satisfaction (HCAHPS), and Efficiency.
Advanced Analytics
Rural-relevant analytics for detailed assessment and identification of improvement opportunities across finance, operations, quality, and population health.
Our analysis suggests that the socioeconomic disadvantages and health disparities dividing rural and urban communities may be widening. Particularly alarming are gaps in disparity measures between rural communities and those in which a rural hospital is vulnerable to closure.
Our national survey indicates that COVID vaccine-related hesitancy and resistance among rural hospital healthcare personnel is prominent. As a result, COVID will linger in rural communities for the foreseeable future, stretching hospital resources and amplifying the risk to already vulnerable populations.
The rapid spread of COVID-19 in rural communities and the pre-existing rural hospital closure crisis have left 453 hospitals vulnerable to closure, on top of the 135 hospitals that have closed since 2010. Our latest research provides a lens into the extent to which the pandemic is impacting rural hospitals.
In this analysis, The Chartis Center for Rural Health explores key factors in assessing the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the rural health safety net, including access to intensive care unit beds, the reliance on outpatient service revenues and rural provider days cash on hand.
The accelerated rate at which rural hospitals are closing continues to unsettle the rural healthcare community. Building on our research into the stability of the rural health safety net, our multilevel logistic regression model identified more than 450 rural hospitals vulnerable to closure.
While hospital beds are filling up across the country, rural hospitals have felt the brunt of the latest COVID-19 surge. Research from the Chartis Center for Rural Health shines light on the issue.
Michael Topchik, leader of the Chartis Center for Rural Health, discusses the staffing challenges rural hospitals face while handling the coronavirus pandemic.
The Community Health Access and Rural Transformation (CHART) Model is designed to increase financial stability, remove regulatory burden, and enhance access to care in rural communities.
Michael Topchik, leader of the Chartis Center for Rural Health, sheds light on the 237 hospitals at risk of closing their doors and the realities they face due to COVID-19.
