By EMSGrantsHelp Team
EMS agencies seeking funds to increase capacity, purchase new equipment and better address the needs of their communities have several options through the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA).
The administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was created to improve quality healthcare access to geographically isolated and economically or medically vulnerable individuals.
The HRSA Strategic Plan through 2022 outlines four mission-critical goals:
- Improve access to quality health services;
- Foster a healthcare workforce able to address current and emerging needs;
- Achieve health equity and enhance population health; and
- Optimize HRSA operations and strengthen program management.
In order to accomplish its mission, HRSA partners with healthcare providers and organizations through grant programs.
HRSA funding for EMS includes the following five grant programs:
1. Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC): EMSC is the only federal grant program specifically focused on addressing the distinct needs of children in prehospital and hospital emergency medical systems. The program works to ensure that seriously sick or injured children have access to high-quality pediatric emergency healthcare, regardless of where they live in the U.S., and works to improve pediatric health outcomes in prehospital EMS agencies and hospital emergency departments (EDs).
2. Telehealth Network Grant Program (TNGP): TNGP works to promote rural tele-emergency services with an emphasis on tele-stroke, tele-behavioral health and tele-EMS. The overarching goals for the TNGP is to:
- Expand access to, coordinate and improve the quality of healthcare services
- Improve and expand the training of healthcare providers; and
- Expand and improve the quality of health information available to healthcare providers, patients and their families for decision-making.
Program goals are achieved by enhancing telehealth networks to deliver 24-hour ED consultation services via telehealth to rural providers without emergency care specialists. Funding is available for a variety of services, which may include assessment of patients upon admission to the ED, interpretation of patient symptoms and clinical tests or data, supervision of providers administering treatment or pharmaceuticals, or coordination of patient transfer from the local ED.
3. Rural Health Network Development Planning Program (RHNDP): The purpose of RHNDP is to promote the development of integrated healthcare networks in order to achieve efficiencies; expand access to, coordinate and improve the quality of basic healthcare services; and strengthen the rural healthcare system as a whole. The program brings together key components of a rural healthcare delivery system, particularly those entities that may not have collaborated in the past, to work together to establish or improve local capacity and coordination of care. The grant program supports one year of planning to develop and assist integrated healthcare networks in becoming operational.
4. Rural Health Network Development Program (RHND): The purpose of the RHND program is to support integrated rural healthcare networks that have combined the functions of the entities participating in the network, including skilled and experienced staff and a high-functioning network board, in order to address the healthcare needs of the targeted rural community. The overarching goals for the RHND program are to:
- Improve access and quality of healthcare in rural areas through sustainable healthcare programs created as a result of network collaboration;
- Prepare rural health networks for the transition to value-based payment and population health management;
- Demonstrate improved health outcomes and community impact;
- Promote the sustainability of rural health networks through the creation of diverse products and services; and
- Utilize and/or adapt an evidence-based or promising practice model(s) in the delivery of healthcare services.
Broad network membership that includes traditional and non-traditional healthcare partners and have extensive collaborative experience with one another is essential for the transition to value-based care and is fundamental to improving population health.
5. Rural Health Care Coordination Program (RHCC): The purpose of the RHCC program is to support rural health consortiums/networks aiming to improve access, delivery and quality of care through the application of care coordination strategies in rural communities. To achieve this, applicants are required to coordinate the healthcare delivery services in rural communities through the following focus areas:
- Collaboration. Utilizing a collaborative approach to coordinate and deliver healthcare services through a consortium, in which member organizations actively engage in integrated, coordinated, patient-centered delivery of healthcare services;
- Leadership and workforce. Developing and strengthening a highly skilled care coordination workforce to respond to vulnerable populations’ unmet needs within the rural communities;
- Improved outcomes. Expanding access and improving care quality, delivery and health outcomes through an evidence-based model and/or promising practices tailored to meet the local populations’ needs; and
- Sustainability. Developing and strengthening care coordination program’s financial sustainability by establishing effective revenue sources such as expanded service reimbursement, resource sharing, and/or contributions from partners at the community, county, regional and state levels.
For more information about these funding programs, visit the HRSA website.