Rural Hospital Provider Assistance Program - Project Abstract Summary Public-facing abstract | 4,000-character maximum Project Title: Maintaining Essential Rural Healthcare Providers and Services at Dodge County Hospital Dodge County Hospital requests $148,000 through the Rural Hospital Provider Assistance Program to maintain nine hospital-employed healthcare providers who preserve access to essential primary, preventive, specialty, surgical, and hospital-based services for residents of Dodge, Telfair, Wilcox, Bleckley, Pulaski, and Wheeler counties. The hospital employs two family practice physicians, four family practice nurse practitioners, one general surgeon, one orthopedic surgeon, and one internal medicine physician. The hospital-employed clinics sustain an annual operating loss of approximately $2.1 million while providing approximately 15,000 patient visits each year. The providers also support approximately 546 general surgery and endoscopy procedures and 200 orthopedic cases annually. Dodge County Hospital is not planning to close these practices and remains firmly committed to maintaining them because they are vital to the rural community. Many residents face significant transportation barriers and have limited alternatives for obtaining primary, specialty, surgical, and follow-up care. Grant assistance will ease a portion of the continuing financial burden and strengthen the hospital’s ability to sustain high-quality care for its rural communities. Grant funds will support $140,000 of allowable salary costs for the nine employed providers during the one-year period of performance and $8,000 of documented fiscal and grant administration. The funding will help Dodge County Hospital maintain primary care, chronic disease management, general surgery, orthopedic services, internal medicine, colonoscopy and upper endoscopy services, referrals, inpatient consultations, and continuity of care for medically vulnerable rural residents. All funds will be used by Dodge County Hospital and will not be transferred to or used by another hospital or at the system level.
