Projects

Each year, the Flex Monitoring Team conducts several projects in the areas of quality performance, financial performance, and community engagement. Select a description below to find out more information about the project and any associated publications. Our current projects are listed first, followed by completed projects.

This project will continue the tracking of Critical Access Hospital (CAH) conversions. A CAH management information dataset, housed at the University…
Current Project
The Critical Access Hospital Measurement and Performance Assessment System (CAHMPAS) is a web-based data query tool that allows users to search…
Current Project
The purpose of this project is to fulfill the Flex Monitoring Team’s three-pronged evaluation of the operational and financial health, quality…
Current Project
Provider-based Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) can be an important strategy to support primary care services in rural communities and other essential…
Current Project
Building on the FMT’s extensive body of work related to the role of Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) in supporting the health of their communities,…
Current Project
Hospice closures in rural communities are putting a strain on the remaining hospice providers, and this strain is compounded by increased demand for…
Current Project
​​​​​This project will identify a rural-relevant minimum data set of core EMS (Emergency Medical Services) agency licensure elements for…
Current Project
This study will examine rural hospital transformation programs designed to improve the performance of Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and other…
Current Project
Across the country, rural hospitals are facing significant financial pressure, with prior work demonstrating that rural hospitals tend to be less…
Current Project
​​​​​This project will compare Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) participating and not participating in Value-Based Care (VBC) initiatives in order to…
Current Project
Approximately 60 Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) merged with other hospitals or health systems between 2009 and 2016. As hospitals continue to…
Current Project
​​​​​This project seeks to examine the involvement of Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) in multi-sector community health networks and to identify…
Current Project
Since 2005, 64 of the 182 total rural hospital closures were Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs). Considering the unique challenges that exist in small…
Current Project
This project will gather and analyze nationally standardized information related to Critical Access Hospital (CAH) quality improvement (QI). The…
Current Project
Shortages of health care professionals are common in rural counties, and recent issues brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated…
Current Project
The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted people living in rural areas and highlighted the need to address the underlying systemic…
Current Project
As many rural communities become increasingly racially diverse, data-driven strategies to identify and mitigate health disparities both between rural…
Current Project
Many rural communities rely on emergency medical services (EMS) and ambulance services to meet the prehospital needs of their residents. However,…
Current Project
Though the proportion of Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) using at least a basic electronic health record (EHR) is comparable to non‐CAHs, CAHs are…
Current Project
Frontier Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) are likely among the most vulnerable of CAHs due to the geographic isolation, persistent poverty, and low…
Current Project