IHS, CMS enter Systems Improvement Agreements for Rosebud, Pine Ridge hospitals

by Mary Smith, Principal Deputy Director, IHS

Providing access to quality medical care is a top priority for IHS. We are committed to making improvements to ensure the safe delivery of care for its patients and to implement reforms to stabilize, strengthen and raise the overall quality of care in the IHS Great Plains Area.

To support this goal, IHS and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)—another part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—have entered into Systems Improvement Agreements for the IHS Rosebud Hospital and the IHS Pine Ridge Hospital. You will find copies of these Agreements here for IHS Rosebud Hospital PDF – 7MB] and [IHS Pine Ridge Hospital [PDF – 8MB].

These agreements are important steps forward for both of these hospitals in ensuring that we are providing quality health care and that improvements are sustainable over time. These agreements are patient-focused. In the short term, they will allow us continued access to crucial funding sources in Medicare and Medicaid. In the long term, they will allow us to address systemic issues, resulting in improved systems, processes and most importantly, improved patient care at Rosebud and Pine Ridge hospitals.

These agreements will strengthen the foundation for immediate and long-term quality improvements at Pine Ridge and Rosebud Hospitals.

These Systems Improvement Agreements are long-term, 12-month binding agreements to develop and ensure sustainable delivery of high-quality health care services in a manner consistent with Medicare health and safety requirements. In this situation, CMS and IHS concluded that more time to implement additional reforms or investments is likely to yield substantial improvement and is in the best interests of beneficiaries.

The Systems Improvement Agreements are a very significant step forward. These agreements are the starting point to support these hospitals to ensure the quality care that IHS patients deserve. The SIAs bring additional technical assistance and other resources to these facilities.

IHS intends to work diligently to make the best use of the technical assistance and resources available under the terms of the SIA, to take advantage of every opportunity to improve quality of care.

We are excited to take these steps forward with respect to both the Pine Ridge and Rosebud hospitals, and we look forward to working with our tribal partners to ensuring the long-term viability of these hospitals in the communities in which they serve and to ensuring that we are providing quality care.

Ms. Smith, a member of the Cherokee Nation, leads IHS, a nationwide health care delivery program responsible for providing preventive, curative and community health care to approximately 2.2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives. Read more

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