The Health Resources and Services Administration has announced that Wisconsin’s Critical Access Hospitals – which includes Tomah Health … 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 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).
Tomah Health… formerly known as Tomah Memorial Hospital….has been a critical access hospital since 2001. The U.S. Congress developed the designation as part of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act in response to a string of hospital closures in the 1980s and early 1990s designed to reduce the financial vulnerability of rural hospitals and improve access to health care by keeping essential services in rural communities.
There are 58 CAHs in Wisconsin.