Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program Grants
Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program (SHIP) grants provide support to small rural hospitals with implementation of delivery system changes. Funds will benefit small rural hospitals and help ensure that they have a strong foundation to provide quality health care to their community.
Grant award is made available to California State Office of Rural Health (CalSORH) through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Office of Rural Health Policy. Federal authorization for the SHIP program is found in Section 1820 (8) (3) of the Social Security Act and the Labor HHS Appropriations Act of 2002 (PUBL 107-116).
Grant funds are awarded to small rural hospitals to help with any or all of the following for federal fiscal year (FFY 2011-2012): (1) Offset costs related to the implementation of prospective payment systems (PPS) (such as updating chargemasters or providing training in billing and coding). HRSA guidance encourages the use of the grant award to be used to focus on activities related to implementation of ICD-10. (2) Purchase computer software and hardware (such as applications that focus on quality improvement, performance improvement and patient safety). (3) Educate and train hospital staff on computer information systems (such as technology to improve patient outcomes). Grant awards may not be used for routine equipment replacement or capital improvements.
To qualify for SHIP Grants, applicant hospitals are required to be small non-Federal, short-term, general acute care facilities with 49 or fewer beds, and must be located in a rural area. Successful applicants will receive funding for one year and renewal is contigent upon satisfactory applicant performance. Amounts awarded are dependent upon the availability of federal appropriated funds.
Interested applicants must submit an application to the CalSORH and the hospital's Medicare Cost Report Worksheet S-3. CalSORH will then submit a single grant application to HRSA.
DHCS Letter to Potential Applicants for SHIP Grant FFY 2012-2013 (PDF)
SHIP HOSPITAL APPLICATION FOR FFY 2012-2013
PROGRAM FORMS
- SHIP Hospital Progress Report FY 2011 (Word) (Coming Soon)
RESOURCES