Since the program began (2002) each of North Dakota’s 35 eligible small rural hospitals has received an average of $9,000 each year. To date, the total impact to North Dakota is $2 million. The Annual SHIP Report for 2007-2008 is now available.
Purposes
Reduce medical errors and support quality improvement (QI) efforts;
Strengthen privacy of patient information by training staff and by using more secure information systems that are required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996; and
Pay for costs to carry out Medicare’s prospective payment system (PPS), which uses financial incentives to encourage hospitals to develop more cost-efficient management of medical care.
Grant Awards
Twenty-nine direct hospital awards of $9,237, for a total of $267,873, were distributed as follows:
QI activities — 77%
HIPAA activities — 23%
PPS activities — 0%
Uses and Outcomes of Awards
Quality Improvement Activities Twenty-five hospitals used the funds to:
fund scholarships for hospital staff to attend national health quality conferences,
increase the effectiveness of physicians, nurses, and other health professionals through the shared use of electronic medical records,
train nurses in advanced cardiac life support,
provide automated external defibrillator response kits to hospitals and emergency rooms,
install wireless call or panic buttons in rooms, and
purchase variable density mattresses to help prevent pressure ulcers.
HIPAA Activities
Fifteen hospitals used the funds to:
train staff on privacy requirements,
increase the security of electronically stored patient information,
upgrade to more secure and powerful computers, and
purchase more robust identity-protection software.
