Delta health systems implementation program - STE

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded a $350,000 Project Grant under the Rural Health Care Services Outreach, Rural Health Network Development and Small Health Care Provider Quality Improvement program (CFDA 93.912) to Ste. Genevieve County Memorial Hospital (SGCMH) in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. The grant funding will support SGCMH, a rural critical access hospital, in addressing financial, operational, and marketing challenges through the following key activities:

1. Developing a comprehensive marketing and positioning strategy to improve patient retention and increase inpatient and outpatient service utilization within SGCMH's service area.
2. Conducting a revenue cycle and staffing benchmark analysis to identify opportunities for improving operational efficiency and financial stability.
3. Implementing the recommendations from the revenue cycle and staffing analysis to optimize SGCMH's operations and ensure the hospital remains financially independent.

The grant period of performance is from September 1, 2024 to August 31, 2026.

Genevieve county memorial hospital (sgcmh) is a rural, critical access hospital located in the southeast missouri county of STE. Genevieve. According to county demographics, approximately 73% of STE. Genevieve county residents reside in rural AREAS1. Sgcmh joined the delta region community health systems development (drchsd) program in 2019 and graduated in 2022. Through this program, sgcmh engaged stroudwater associates to complete a financial and operational assessment. The assessment aimed to address financial, operational, and industry-specific questions presented by administration, identify top opportunities for improved financial and operational performance, and position sgcmh for success in the rapidly evolving healthcare market. This includes adapting to new payment and delivery care models and promoting value within a population health management system. Stroudwater associates identified the importance of improving marketing efforts across the organization focusing on all service lines. Stroudwater recommended continued target growth efforts to increase inpatient market share in the sgcmh home ZIP code, and continued target outpatient service growth, ambulatory care, and primary care services. Sgcmh is facing significant challenges in retaining community members for their healthcare needs. Many residents are seeking medical services outside of the sgcmh ZIP code, leading to a decrease in patient volumes and revenue. As a result, our hospital is struggling to maintain financial stability and operational efficiency. Stroudwater associates also recommended that sgcmh focus on its revenue cycle and perform a staffing benchmarking analysis to identify overall operational efficiency improvements for financial stability. Recommendations include establishing a revenue cycle team at sgcmh who would meet regularly to identify and discuss revenue cycle performance and improvement opportunities, establish a point of service (POS) CA SH collection process, and annual chargemaster review. Stroudwater also recommended using a volume-based staffing benchmark analysis to evaluate departmental staffing levels with the goal of achieving and maintaining efficiency. Sgcmh is in the process of contracting a professional marketing firm to establish a marketing and positioning strategy (maps) to be completed by september 2024. This strategy will set a clear path forward for sustainable growth and competitive positioning, including findings, competitive differentiation points, a positioning strategy as well as topline recommendations for marketing priorities and key operational considerations. Then sgcmh plans to utilize grant funds for the health marketing firm to activate a new marketing and creative advertising campaign for one year. This includes preparing media recommendations and creative assets for brand and service line campaigns as well as launching and tracking the proposed campaigns. Sgcmh plans to utilize dsip funds to engage a consulting firm to perform a revenue cycle and staffing benchmark analysis. The analysis would provide a roadmap with recommendations for optimizing sgcmh revenue cycle and staffing to assist sgcmh in remaining a financially independent rural hospital. Remaining dsip funds after the marketing activation and revenue cycle/staffing analysis will be allocated towards implementing the identified revenue cycle and staffing recommendations. 1 county demographics data from county health rankings & roadmaps.