Oklahoma Hospital Association

PROJECT PURPOSE

This project would provide funding for the most vulnerable rural hospitals for equipment and/or infrastructure. Allowed expenditures would be for high-cost equipment or technology including but not limited to imaging, telemedicine, electronic health records and software upgrades, ambulance and non-emergency transport vehicles. Infrastructure costs allowed would include but not limited to new construction, renovations, additions, environmental upgrades including air handling, negative pressure and oxygen supply as well as emergency generators to improve the functionality of the physical plan. According to the Rural Hospital Sustainability report, (Navigant, 2019) there are several factors driving the rural hospital crisis: payer mix degradation as a result of loss of agricultural and manufacturing job loss leaving rural communities with older and sicker patients, hospitals that were built in a post-World War II era that no longer are designed to function with the practice of medicine today, and financial stress to invest in the latest technological trends in patient care. In Oklahoma, since 2016, 6 rural hospitals have closed permanently and 8 have declared bankruptcy. Economic development opportunities in rural Oklahoma depends upon an adequate health care infrastructure to be able to triage and stabilize emergency conditions.

EVIDENCE

Rural citizens tend to be older, sicker, and poorer than their urban counterparts (see addendum). During all three surges of COVID, rural hospitals have provided COVID care to their communities. As the ability to transfer rural citizens to higher levels of care was significantly hampered or curtailed, rural hospitals continued to provide care beyond their normal standards with available resources and staff. At the same time, these hospitals continue to struggle to recruit staff as burnout and higher level pay by staffing agencies is the norm. During normal times, it is difficult to recruit health care professionals to rural Oklahoma. The continued surges only magnify this difficulty every day. The hospitals and communities would provide benefit statewide since people freely travel outside of the metro and find themselves in medical need. Updated technology and/or infrastructure improvements would make it more attractive to recruit staff as well as instill public confidence in the services offered locally. This is a win not only for improving the health of the community but also the economic viability of the community.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

As stated in our attached addendum, rural citizens tend to be older, sicker and poorer than their urban counterparts. During all three COVID surges, rural hospitals have provided COVID care to their communities. As the ability to transfer rural citizens to higher levels of care was significantly hampered or curtailed, rural hospitals continued to provide the care beyond their normal standards with scarce staffing resources. At the same time, these hospitals continue to struggle to recruit staff as burnout and higher level of pay with staffing agencies continue to be a problem. The continued surges only magnify this difficulty every day. The hospitals and communities this would benefit are statewide. Updated technology and/or infrastructure improvements would make it more attractive to recruit staff as well as instill public confidence in the services offered locally. This is win not only for improving the health of the community but also the economic viability of the community.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

While this project will depend upon individual rural hospital applications, hospitals would be encouraged to use the Economic Impact Analysis Tool of the Rural Health Hub (linked in the addendum) to vet feasibility, plan, and to demonstrate value and performance. As part of the application process the hospital would be required to submit project performance metrics that is measurable and can validate/verify performance. For example, investments in improved clinical tools, such as imaging or telemedicine, can demonstrated improved quality of care while reducing redundancy in testing. Investments in infrastructure can result in improved operational efficiency, service offerings, and financial performance. All of these can be measured around improved access to care and improved health outcomes. A robust health sector in a community is key to economic development. See addendum for more on the topic.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

One-time project will not need continued funding