The Kansas Small Hospital Improvement Program (SHIP), a federal-supported program to support small rural hospitals activities related to quality improvement and investments towards meaningful use of health information technology.
The Kansas SHIP is managed by the by State Office of Rural Health within the Bureau of Community Health Systems (BCHS) at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. KDHE has contracted with KHERF to administer this program for FY17 and FY18. The SHIP is funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy in the Health Resources and Services Administration.
How does the SHIP work?
Hospitals receive direct grant funds, ranging between $8,000 and $9,000, to use towards:
- Improving data collection activities in order to facilitate reporting to Hospital Compare.
- Maintaining accurate billing and coding systems.
- Building accountability across the continuum of care and improving care transitions between ambulatory and acute, acute to upstream acute and acute to step-down facility.
- Improving quality outcomes. Focus on activities that support QI such as reduction of medical errors as well as education and training in data collection and reporting and benchmarking.
Who is Eligible for SHIP grants?
To be eligible for these grants, a hospital must be: 1) 49 available beds or less, as reported on the hospital’s most recently filed Medicare Cost Report, 2) in a rural area, (located outside a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) or located in a rural census tract of a MSA as determined under the Goldsmith Modification), and 3) defined as a non-Federal, short-term, general acute care facility.
Hospitals with SHIP grant-specific questions, please contact the Kansas Hospital Education and Research Foundation at ship@kha-net.org or Susan Cunningham at scunningham@kha-net.org
Quarterly Webinars
Click on the links below to listen to the recordings and view the slides of the SHIP Quarterly Webinars:
March 20, 2018 Recording and Slides
December 20, 2017 Recording and Slides
September 20, 2017 Recording and Slides
June 20, 2017 Recording and Slides
March 20, 2017 Recording and Slides
Additional Resources
Click on the links below for additional resources:
SHIP Fillable Agreement with Hospitals FY17
SHIP Frequently Asked Questions FY 17