Health Care Innovation Awards Round Two: University of Kansas Hospital Authority Project Profile

Project Title: "Rural Clinically Integrated Network to Improve Heart Health and Stroke Survival for Rural Kansas"
Geographic Reach: Kansas
Estimated Funding Amount: $12,523,441

Summary:

The University of Kansas Hospital Authority will test a model to implement the Rural Clinically Integrated Network (RCIN) to Improve Heart Health and Stroke Survival for Rural Kansas, which will form a collaborative governance structure to create a trust environment through which independent providers serving Northwest Kansas can define and refine the entire care continuum for that population. Through clinical integration, these providers - from the hometown primary care physician to the state's academic medical center - will become a team accountable for population health. The RCIN will develop "regional hubs" staffed by providers and health coaches serving multiple communities. The RCIN resembles another uniquely rural business entity: the agricultural service cooperative. By working through a jointly owned and operated association, independent farmers secure resources and market products more efficiently than acting alone. Similarly, RCIN members will pursue collaborative implementation of clinical interventions to improve care and lower costs.

Initially, the RCIN will focus on patients at risk for or suffer from heart attack or stroke, including deployment of collaborative guidelines, pathways, and patient engagement strategies. RCIN will implement ST-elevation myocardial infarction and stroke regional systems of care. The RCIN will expand use of telehealth, robust health information exchange, "big data" analysis, and population health management, all in ways a single provider could not accomplish.

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