ASHPIN

Project Date: 2005 - present
Project Manager: Thea Agnew Bemben
Client: Alaska Small Hospital Performance Improvement Network (ASHPIN)
Location: Anchorage

In 2003, the Alaska State Hospital & Nursing Home Association (ASHNHA), in partnership with the Alaska Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP), formed a network of its smallest, most rural hospitals, now known as the Alaska Small Hospital Performance Improvement Network (ASHPIN). The mission of this relatively new organization is to improve the clinical, operational, and financial performance of Alaska's small rural hospitals and to ensure patient access to appropriate healthcare services. As part of this effort, ASHPIN undertook an assessment of its membership's collective need to improve its teleradiology capabilities. The needs assessment identified several common areas where equipment/service upgrades and expanded radiology service capabilities were identified as a high priority. Four main initiatives emerged from the assessment process:

• Upgrade existing radiology equipment
• Upgrade existing telecommunications equipment and services
• Develop a service hub that will enable service providers to quickly, reliably and efficiently interconnect and communicate to provide quality radiology service for their patients
• Enable networked hospitals/clinics to obtain reliable, quality radiology reading services

In early 2005, ASHPIN contracted Agnew::Beck Consulting to create a fundraising strategy through which their state-of-the-art teleradiology network connecting 12 rural hospitals/clinics could be created. Though the project is in its early stages, Agnew::Beck has identified several possible funding sources and embarked on the grant writing process.