The Flex Monitoring Team is a consortium of the Rural Health Research Centers in Minnesota, North Carolina, and Maine. We are funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy to evaluate the impact of the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant Program (the Flex Program).
All of our efforts aim to improve the accessibility, viability, and quality of health care for rural residents and communities. We provide State Flex Programs and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) with ways to optimize their performance based on evidence and/or best practices. We conduct analysis, collect and track state-level CAH data, maintain a national database of CAHs, consult with our expert workgroup for their feedback and input, collaborate with the Technical Resources and Services Center (TASC) and other organizations to provide project services, and share our findings at meetings, webinars, and conferences.
Our work focuses on three main topic areas:
Quality
We measure the quality performance of Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), with the goal of improving access to quality health care in rural communities. Specifically, we:
- Identify health care quality measures most relevant to CAHs and rural health care;
- Track CAH participation and performance in Hospital Compare and the Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Program (MBQIP);
- Produce annual quality reports for each of the 45 states that participate in the Flex Program; and
- Present findings at a wide range of conferences, meetings, and webinars.
This topic area is primarily the focus of FMT staff at the University of Minnesota.
Finance
We provide comprehensive information on the financial condition of Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), with the goal of improving hospital financial performance. Specifically, we:
- Assess and develop financial indicators for CAHs;
- Produce annual financial reports for individual CAHs and states that participate in the Flex Program; and
- Present our findings at a wide range of conferences, meetings, and webinars.
This topic area is primarily the focus of FMT staff at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Community Engagement
We assess the community engagement and health system development activities of Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and rural communities, with the goal of improving access to needed services by vulnerable rural populations. Specifically, we:
- Assess and develop ways to measure community engagement for Critical Access Hospitals,
- Produce annual community benefit activity reports for each of the 45 states that participate in the Flex Program; and
- Present our findings at a wide range of conferences, meetings, and webinars.
This topic area is primarily the focus of FMT staff at the University of Southern Maine.
