Roundup Record Tribune & Winnett Times -

Through the Rural Health Development Hospital Improvement Grant several eastern Montana facilities have banded together to provide support for each other on a regional basis. It is designed to provide additional funding for hospitals for capital purchases, quality improvements and for creating cost savings and operational efficiencies. The grant is meant to benefit smaller facilities in implementing improvements in their facilities on an annual basis.

The Hospital Improvement Grant has been established since 2009 and has distributed over $460,000 with participation from over 26 healthcare facilities. The participating facilities, on a voluntary basis, contribute funds to Rural Health Development, Inc. a 5013©. Once the funds are received, applications are reviewed by the grants committee, made up of rural hospital CEO’s and then funding is distributed.

This year Roundup Memorial Healthcare (RMH) received a grant for $5,000 for the Replacement of the Hematology System and Coagulation unit. RMH also has two other grant requests pending to complete this project.

"During these unprecedented times of virus detection, up-to-date lab equipment is more vitally needed than ever," said Holly Wolff, CEO. "The new system is critical and an industry standard to provide best practice care."

The funds are distributed to the region’s smaller critical access hospitals, but funding comes from all hospitals in the region including Billings Clinic and St Vincent’s Healthcare.

For information further information about the grant, please contact Montana Health Network.