2025-2027 Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program
NOTIFICATION OF GRANT FUNDING
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. The SHIP Grant objectives and allowable activities can be found here:
https://www.ruralcenter.org/programs/ship.
Funding helps small, rural hospitals by assisting hospitals in participating in improvements in value and quality 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.
The purpose of these grant funds is to assist the 31 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:
1. Ensure all eligible hospitals implement and/or participate in a SHIP approved activities.
2. Ensure each SHIP hospital receives technical assistance not to exceed $13,025 (amount dependent on federal funding allocation).
3. Attend and participate in monthly stakeholder meeting hosted by ORH.
4. Report and discuss each participating hospital status during monthly stakeholder meeting.
5. Report successful completion of performance measures and achievements of target goals.
6. Submit Mid-Annual report of North Carolina hospitals to ORH that participate in SHIP approved activities for project year.
7. Submit Annual Report of North Carolina hospitals to ORH that participate in SHIP approved activities for the project year.
8. Facilitate group activities to provide technical assistance and project sharing between SHIP hospitals. Any statewide project must be approved in advance by the Office of Rural Health.
9. Submit monthly expense reports documenting technical assistance provided to hospital(s).
10. Facilitate an end of year annual meeting that shall include at least one project presentation, project highlights, lessons learned, and hospital leadership. The agenda shall be presented and approved by the Office of Rural Health in advance.
The maximum total per grant year is not to exceed $403,792. The two-year grant programming maximum total grant award cannot exceed $807,584. All funding award in Year 1 (June 1, 2025 – May 31, 2026) must be expended by May 31, 2025. All funding award in Year 2 (June 1, 2026 – May 31, 2027) must be expended by May 31, 2027. Funding is dependent on federal allocation and availability of funds.
Only one grant application per organization will be accepted for review. The application must be emailed to Nick.Galvez@dhhs.nc.gov before the deadline date.
Funding Cycle: Funding Period is June 1st, 2025, through May 31, 2027. Regardless of application or approval date, Year 1 grant funds must be expended by May 31, 2026 and Year 2 grant funds must be expended by May 31, 2027. 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 MARCH 12th, 2025. Only electronic applications will be accepted.
Deadline for Submission: Grant applications must be submitted electronically by 5:00 pm by MARCH 12th, 2025.
How to Obtain Further Information: Questions regarding the grant application may be directed to Nick.Galvez@dhhs.nc.gov