North Dakota's 23-Hospital Rural Network Cited as National Model After Cutting Readmissions
[NORTH DAKOTA] The Rough Rider High Value Network (RRHVN), a collaboration of 23 independent rural and critical access hospitals formed in 2023, has sharply cut hospital readmissions and emergency room visits, and was singled out in a recent report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as a collaborative model the federal Rural Health Transformation Program should support and other states could emulate, InForum reported on Oct. 11 (republished by the North Dakota News Cooperative).
The network's 23 member hospitals collectively serve about 65% of North Dakota's rural population. The idea dates to 2020, when rural hospital directors in the state began discussing how to transform rural health without being absorbed by large health systems — keeping local leadership, local board governance and local decision-making while operating at a larger scale. In 2023, the North Dakota Legislature appropriated $3.5 million to help get the initiative off the ground.
SMP Health–St. Kateri, a 25-bed critical access hospital in Rolla, was among the first chosen to pilot in the network. Its CEO Chris Albertson called it the most transformative thing happening in rural health in North Dakota, adding that other states are starting to follow the same model.
By the numbers: after joining the network, St. Kateri cut its hospital readmission rate from about 16.5% to about 5%; over a nine-month period it reduced emergency room visits by 536, saving about $1.13 million in healthcare spending and avoiding about $500,000 in Medicare spending. Across the network, colorectal cancer screenings rose about 12%, cervical cancer screenings about 11% and breast cancer screenings about 10%; overall adult preventive visits doubled, with measurable improvements in blood pressure and diabetes control.
RRHVN president and CEO Alfred Sams said the network partnered with Caret Health to improve outcomes for Medicaid patients and added cancer care navigators to make sure patients see an oncologist on time and complete follow-ups and referrals; CEOs, nursing and business staff meet monthly to share what works. Sams said CMS invited him to Washington, D.C., at least four times to discuss the network's outcomes, and that the CMS report's message was: if a state wants to succeed, model after this network.
Source: InForum (via North Dakota News Cooperative), Oct. 11, 2026.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0, 作者 Wikideas1
