The Health Resources and Services Administration announced Thursday that Wisconsin’s Critical Access Hospitals ranked in the top three in the nation for their quality reporting and improvement rates over the past year. The Wisconsin Office of Rural Health (WORH) facilitates rural hospitals’ participation in the Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Project (MBQIP), a federal initiative to highlight rural-centric quality measures for national benchmarking. In 2020, WORH is being recognized as third in the nation in MBQIP performance. This honor continues a trend of Wisconsin’s rural hospitals leading the nation in top quality improvement measures.
“We are grateful for the willingness of the Critical Access Hospitals to participate in these reporting initiatives, and of course for the stellar performance and improvement shown consistently in our state,” says Kathryn Miller, WORH’s Rural Hospitals & Clinics Program Manager. “We extend our thanks to CAHs for their continued commitment to patient care and hospital performance.”
Critical Access Hospitals, or CAHs, are low-volume, rural hospitals essential to providing health services to rural communities. Quality reporting and improvement rates are voluntary benchmark measures for the performance of CAHs. The Wisconsin Office of Rural Health assists CAHs through the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) Program in areas of quality improvement, financial and operational improvement, population health, and integration of Emergency Medical Services (EMS).
For more information on this award, Wisconsin’s Critical Access Hospitals, or the Flex Program, contact Kathryn Miller at kmiller9@wisc.edu or 608-261-1891, or visit our website at worh.org/hospitals.