Small Rural Hospital Improvement (SHIP) Grant Program

Small Rural Hospital Improvement (SHIP) Grant Program is sponsored by Virginia Department of Health (Federal pass-through). This program aims to help small rural hospitals in Virginia improve their services and financial viability.

State Office of Rural Health - Health Equity On Saturday 8/16/2025, our dashboard provider will be performing system maintenance from 12:00PM – 10:00PM ET. Most of the VDH dashboards will be unavailable during these hours. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program (SHIP) The HRSA Federal Office of Rural Health Policy’s (FORHP) Small Rural Hospital Improvement (SHIP) grant program provides funding for participating rural Virginia hospitals with 49 staffed beds or less, to support activities related to: Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Accountable Care Organization (ACO) or Shared Savings Plan (SSP) Payment Bundling (PB) or Prospective Payment Systems (PPS) The SHIP program enables small rural hospitals: To become or join accountable care organizations (ACOs); To participate in shared savings programs; and To purchase health information technology (hardware and software), equipment, and/or training to comply with quality improvement activities such as advancing patient care information, promoting interoperability, and payment bundling.

The overarching goal of Virginia’s SHIP program is to enhance the health of rural communities by assisting rural hospitals with the transition to value-based care models.

2023-2024 Virginia SHIP Program Hospital Participants: Ballad- Lee County Community Hospital Buchanan General Hospital Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital Carilion Giles Community Hospital Carilion Rockbridge Community Hospital Carilion Tazewell Community Hospital Centra- Bedford Memorial Hospital Dickenson Community Hospital LewisGale Hospital- Pulaski Valley Health- Page Memorial Hospital Bon Secours Rappahannock General Hospital Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital VCU Health- Tappahannock Hospital Shenandoah Memorial Hospital Smyth County Community Hospital Southampton Memorial Hospital Southern Virginia Regional Medical Center Wythe County Community Hospital If your hospital system is interested in participating in the SHIP Program contact Brandon Rivenbark at brandon.

rivenbark@vdh. virginia. gov .

SHIP Program Eligibility & Requirements: Eligible small rural hospitals are non-federal, short-term general acute care facilities located in rural areas of the United States and the territories, including faith-based hospitals. They may be for-profit, not-for-profit, or tribal organizations.

1) "eligible small rural hospital" is defined as a non-Federal, short-term general acute hospital that: (i) is located in a rural area as defined in 42 U.S.C1395ww(d) and (ii) has 49 available beds or less, as reported on the hospital's most recently filed Medicare Cost Report; 2) "rural area" is defined as either: (1) located outside of a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA); (2) located within a rural census tract of an MSA, as determined under the Goldsmith Modification or the Rural-Urban Commuting Areas (RUCAs) or (3) is being treated as if being located in a rural area according to 42 U.S.C.

1395(d)(8)(E); and, 3) Eligible SHIP hospitals may be for-profit or not-for-profit, including faith-based. Hospitals in U.S. territories as well as tribally operated hospitals under Title I. and V.

of P. L. 93-638 are eligible to the extent that such hospitals meet the above criteria.

HRSA Federal Office of Rural Health Policy National Rural Health Resource Center Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association Virginia SHIP Program Resources: HRSA FORHP State Support to Rural Hospitals Fact Sheet (updated October 2020) Virginia Rural Hospital Coaching Collaborative Virginia Hospital Improvement Innovation Network For more information about the SHIP program, contact Brandon Rivenbark at brandon. rivenbark@vdh. virginia.

gov .