Case Stories and Innovative Projects - Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Office of Rural Health, located in the University of Wisconsin Medical School, administers the SHIP grant program in Wisconsin. In FY 2004, fifty hospitals applied for SHIP grant funds; thirty individual hospitals and the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative (on behalf of 20 hopsitals) requested funds.
The Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative (RWHC) was developed in 1979 by a small group of hospital administrators to share physical therapy services. Since then, the RWHC programs have expanded to include a wide range of clinical, management, consulting, networking and educational services. Modeled after successful Wisconsin dairy cooperatives, its 29 members are exclusively from rural hospitals, each hospital represented by its CEO on the board.
In 2001, the RWHC Board identified the need to collaborate in the area of information technology (IT). RWHC focused on the development of a Wide Area Network (WAN) with robust T1 connections through which its members could access shared data services. In 2002, when SHIP grant funds became available, the State Office of Rural Health partnered with RWHC to encourage small rural hospitals to expend their SHIP funds to enhance their IT infrastructure through the RWHC WAN.
Eighteen SHIP hospitals participate in the RWHC WAN. For 2004, SHIP grant funds were used to offset the costs of a T1 line as well as the benchmarking and QI databases hosted at the RWHC Data Center. RWHC receives SHIP grant funds for each of the participating hospitals which are then applied toward each hospital's monthly connectivity/subscription fees. Participating hospitals can also request the balance of their SHIP funds for individual projects at any time.
Contact: Larry Clifford