2023-2025 Small Rural Hospital Improvement Grant Program
DHHS Division/Office issuing this notice: Office of Rural Health
Date of this notice: March 15th, 2023
Working Title of the funding program: Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program Grant
Purpose- description of the function of the program and the reason why it was created:
The Small Rural Hospital Improvement Grant Program (SHIP) is a federal grant program administered by the North Carolina Office of Rural Health (ORH) to support rural hospitals with 49 beds or fewer. Funding helps small, rural hospitals by assisting hospitals in participating in improvements in value and quality to health care such as:
- Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Investment: Technical Assistance activities that facilitate quality reporting and improvement.
- Accountable Care Organization (ACO) or Shared Savings Investment: Technical Assistance activities that support becoming or joining ACO, development or the basic tenets of ACOs or shared savings programs.
- Payment Bundling (PB): Technical Assistance activities that improve hospital financial processes.
This grant will continue to assist the 32 SHIP eligible hospitals in improving both quality of care and operations by providing hospitals with focused quality and operational technical assistance. The two-year grant funding will be awarded to an eligible organization to conduct the scope of work defined below:
- Ensure all SHIP hospitals implement and/or participate in approved activities.
- Ensure each SHIP hospital receive technical assistant not to exceed $12,542. (amount dependent on federal funding allocation).
- Monthly tracking and reporting on progress in achieving the agreed-upon deliverables.
- Track and report each participating hospital’s status. Report successful completion of performance measures and achievements of target goals.
- Submit Mid-Annual report of North Carolina hospitals that participate in SHIP approved activities for project year.
- Submit Annual Report of North Carolina hospitals that participate in SHIP approved activities for the project year.
- Facilitate group activities to provide technical assistance and project sharing between SHIP hospitals.
- If any hospitals choose to forgo funds/projects, the contractor will develop a statewide project that would benefit all hospitals equally with documents information. Statewide project must be approved in advance by the Office of Rural Health.
- Submit monthly expense reports documenting technical assistance provided to hospital(s).
- The end of year annual meeting shall include at least one project presentation, project highlights, lessons learned, and hospital leadership (if available and willing).
- Convene small rural hospitals, at least annually, to provide support and training.
- The agenda shall be present and approved by the Office of Rural Health.
The maximum total per grant year not to exceed $401,352. The two-year grant programming maximum total grant award cannot exceed $802,704. All funding must be expended by May 31, 2025. (Funding amount is dependent on federal allocation).
Only one grant application per organization will be accepted for review. Submit your completed applications to nick.galvez@dhhs.nc.gov.
Questions regarding the application may be directed to Nick.Galvez@dhhs.nc.gov by the deadline date.
Funding Cycle:
Funding Period is June 1st, 2023, through May 31, 2025. Regardless of application or approval date, grant funds must be expended by May 31, 2025. Awards will depend on the availability of funds.
Eligibility:
Any organization that is staffed to provide quality and operational technical assistance to small rural hospitals is eligible to apply. Applicants must submit a complete grant application to be considered for funding.
How to Apply:
Grant applications must be received electronically by the Office of Rural Health by the 5:00 PM deadline on April 4th, 2023. Only electronic applications will be accepted. Email completed applications to Nick.Galvez@dhhs.nc.gov.
Deadline for Submission:
Grant applications must be submitted electronically by 5:00 pm, April 4th, 2023. Hard copies will not be accepted. Applications must be submitted by the survey process in the 'How to Apply' section above.
How to Obtain Further Information:
Questions regarding the grant application may be directed to Nick.Galvez@dhhs.nc.gov.