In early 2024, McCurtain Memorial Hospital was selected to participate in the Targeted Technical Assistance Program (TTAP) at no cost to the hospital. The program, highly sought after by rural hospitals across the United States, was made possible by a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant.
Hospital Chief Operating Officer, Lane Manginell, worked with and was instrumental in securing the hospitals spot in the program. On Tuesday, June 11, the representatives the TTAP arrived on-site at MMH and over a two-day period identified key areas the hospital could immediately work on.
TTAP targets hospitals that are at risk of closing. Since 2018, they’ve helped 150 rural hospitals across 38 states and the Northern Mariana Islands.
TTAP helps rural hospitals maintain healthcare services. They offer free technical assistance to hospitals who participate. The Center for Public Health Practice and Research (CPHPR) at Georgia Southern University provides this technical assistance.
TTAP works with individual hospitals to:
Address challenges to sustaining access to essential health care services
Understand community health needs and resources
Ensure communities can keep health care locally
TTAP provides intensive technical assistance to help stabilize hospitals at-risk for closure by developing recommendations to keep healthcare services local and by developing resources to add to what is currently available to hospitals challenged with maintaining essential healthcare services.
Each year, TTAP only helps 4-6 hospitals on-site.
This may include:
Financial and operational assessments
Financial and operational management education and training
2. Revenue cycle optimization
Revenue enhancement via service line addition, expansion or reconfiguration
3. Cost reporting
Each year, TTAP provides remote technical assistance to hospitals that applied, but were not selected to receive on-site assistance. MMH was one of four selected.
MMH will use the program to focus on operational excellence and to improve its revenue cycle processes. Chief Revenue Cycle Officer, Cole Jackson, MHA, was present for the on-site visit both days, along with hospital Chief Financial Officer, Kena Allen, BBA. The two, along with all other executive leadership of the hospital, discussed challenges the hospital has faced with technology and processes. Together with TTAP and administration, a plan was developed to immediately make meaningful impacts.
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