This project builds upon the findings of the first two years of the Tracking Project and will develop a systematic understanding of the impact of program participation on the stability and availability of needed rural health care services. It refines our approach for analyzing network relationships and their role in the stability and availability of care. Hospital conversion experiences will continue to be tracked, but added emphasis will be given to those facilities that have been operating the longest in order to better assess how post-conversion activities contribute to the scope and availability of needed services. The inquiry will focus on a number of areas of program-related experiences including: 1) hospital reorganization; 2) inter-organizational arrangements among CAHs and between CAHs and their affiliated hospital(s); 3) network relationships with other health care providers; 4) the role of innovative technologies, strategies, and organizational relationships in post-conversion strategies; and 5) the degree to which other federal rural initiatives (e.g., FQHCs and RHCs) play a role in the manner that CAHs and their network partners elect to address local health care needs.

There may be products related to this project; please contact the lead researcher for more information.