Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and rural prospective payment system (PPS) hospitals provide essential healthcare services for nearly 54 million people in the U.S., including nine million Medicare beneficiaries. In general, rural hospitals are uniquely different from their urban counterparts in terms of economics, healthcare staff shortages, and types of care they provide. Providing these hospitals with rural-relevant quality measures and an opportunity to assess and address their organizational safety culture can help promote transformational change and improve patient safety and quality of care. 

Our Progress

Through consultative relationships, extensive technological support, training and educational conferences, OFMQ works with rural hospitals to integrate quality improvement processes into their culture and strategic plan.  Oklahoma hospitals achieved notable progress on a rural heart failure project which aimed to reduce the 26% disparity between rural and urban hospitals in the documentation and use of appropriate diagnostic tests to evaluate the left ventricular function (LVF) in heart patients. Hospitals implemented process improvement in heart failure care and achieved absolute improvement of 10.6% and the reduction in disparity was 3.9%.

OFMQ is strategically aligned with organizations committed to rural health issues: Rural Health Association of Oklahoma, Inc., Oklahoma State University Office of Rural Health and the OSU Cooperative Extension Program. This partnership produces the annual Rural Hospital Conference, which brings together rural health professionals for extensive learning and networking. In 2007, OFMQ recognized 15 rural hospitals for achievements in quality data reporting. 

Current Program Focus:

OFMQ works with hospitals to promote transformational change through the Rural Organizational Safety Culture (ROSC) project.  We work with hospital senior leadership to assess its organization's safety climate, identify opportunities for improvement and develop strategies for change.  OFMQ provides extensive technical and clinical consulting support to enhance the safety climate in rural and CAH hospitals including: data collection tools, support with data abstraction and submission, evidence-based tools to monitor and improve patient safetyand ongong assistance with the hospital's quality improvement plan.

ROSC Resources and Links:

Order from OFMQ - A variety of tools are available to download and order at no cost.

AHRQ's Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture

Access more information, tools and resources on ROSC on MedQIC, the national quality improvement web site. 

Contact:  Lisa Wynn, Clinical Informatics Coordinator, at 405.840.2891 x259 or E-mail.