Who We Serve
Partners to Rural & Community Healthcare Leaders
At Stroudwater, we have an all-encompassing devotion to rural & community healthcare and are deeply committed to keeping care local for the 46 million Americans who rely on it.
We pride ourselves on offering our clients the education, expertise, and practical tools to implement our recommendations based on short and long-term goals.
With over 35 years of experience in rural & community healthcare, we are experts in helping our clients achieve growth goals, provide better patient care, preserve access to patient care, operate more efficiently, and hire and retain talent.
Northeast
“We really needed the expertise that the Stroudwater team brought to us to achieve the goal that we set out to accomplish. It calmed our fears knowing that Stroudwater was an expert in what they were doing so we could focus on other issues going on within the hospital.”
Anna M. Anna, CEO
Tyrone Hospital
Southeast
“As with many small, Rural and Community Hospitals, Alleghany Health does not have the in-house expertise to support complex initiatives such as Price Transparency. Stroudwater responded immediately to our call for assistance and worked with us tirelessly to address the reported violation. With Stroudwater’s constant guidance and support, we were successful in correcting the issue and having a posting that meets CMS requirements.”
Katheryn Doby, Chief Administrative Officer
Allegheny Health Network
Midwest
“The tool was easy to use. We were able to achieve immediate results with little effort and interruption on our end which really made a big difference.”
Shellie Shouse, CFO
Ohio County Healthcare
Southwest
“Stroudwater gave us the foundational knowledge and a roadmap to follow quickly. Stroudwater differentiated this medical staff plan from others in the industry through how well it integrated our larger strategic plan.”
Roland Knox, CEO
Mount Graham Regional Medical Center
West
“Our partnership with Stroudwater accelerated conversations with the board and community by at least a year and a half. Bringing Stroudwater in at the moment we did allowed us to find common ground and get to a decision point much quicker. It’s enabled us to think two steps ahead on the future of our facilities.”
Eric Connel, CEO
North Big Horn Hospital
Rural and Community Hospitals
Rural and Community Hospitals
The challenges faced by rural & community healthcare leaders are unlike those of their suburban and urban counterparts and require a partner that understands the vital role Rural & Community Hospitals play in their communities. Our experience with hundreds of rural & community hospitals each year serves as our inspiration and expertise base in creating solutions for resilient institutions to provide the very best care in their communities for the long haul.
Critical Access Hospitals
Critical Access Hospitals
Critical Access Hospitals are essential to the rural & community hospital framework and require a partner with deep knowledge of the requirements for the designation as well as potential challenges Critical Access Hospitals may face. Each year, our team works with hundreds of Critical Access Hospital leaders on a variety of initiatives like cost report reviews, swing bed optimization, physician compensation, and more.
In 2021, to further support Critical Access Hospital leaders, we developed the annual Regional CAH Virtual Conferences, which provide free education on regulatory and market changes and how local CAHs are addressing those changes in their hospitals.
State Offices of Rural Health
State Offices of Rural Health
Our team partners with State Offices of Rural Health (SORHs) to support the diverse financial, clinical, quality, operational, and strategic needs of hospitals within each state through individual technical assistance and targeted education programs. We have worked closely with State Offices of Rural Health since the inception of the FLEX program in 2000 to provide financial, operational, quality, revenue cycle, pricing transparency, chargemaster reviews, health equity, population health, swing bed optimization, cost report analysis, and financial and operational improvement strategies to SHIP and Flex eligible hospitals.
Our consultants have extensive experience collaborating with states and rural & community hospitals to meet the Small Rural & Community Hospital Improvement Program (SHIP) and Medicare Rural & Community Hospital Flexibility Program (Flex) requirements.
We value our SORH relationships highly and the opportunity they bring us to reach rural healthcare organizations nationwide.
PHysician Practices
PHysician Practices
Our work with physician practices combines our team’s practical experience in contract negotiation, practice management, and regulatory expertise with our deep understanding of the rural & community healthcare landscape. By addressing both the regulatory and financial needs of the practice with the potential operational impacts, we develop solutions that deliver measurable outcomes that benefit a community’s health.
In 2022, our Physician Practice team partnered with the NRHA to develop a first-of-its-kind Physician and Advanced Practice Provider Compensation Survey to better understand compensation in the rural market, develop benchmark data, and use this to inform the larger discussion around provider strategy.
In the same year, our team partnered with NOSORH to produce the Independent RHC Institute which provided key education on maximizing efficiency and driving operations for independent RHCs. This eight-part series was available to independent groups who rarely get access to education.
Health Systems
Health Systems
Health Systems with a rural footprint need a partner who understands the regulatory and operational challenges that hospitals and physician practices in rural America face and how that affects not only the local healthcare delivery but also the overall health system. With our rural expertise, we work with community health systems and large multi-billion-dollar systems with a significant rural presence or significant rural impact to understand the unique value that a rural affiliate provides to the community. We collaborate with health system leadership to optimize their rural affiliates and understand the value levers for a rural health system like cost-based payments, cost-report optimization, access to the 340B program, swing bed programs and optimization, and rural health clinic and Critical Access Hospital designations.