On November 20, 2025, a 4-part series on Emergency Department Transfer Communication (EDTC) launched under the South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations (SDAHO) Rural Health Initiatives arm, in collaboration with the South Dakota Department of Health’s Office of Rural Health and Emergency Services Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) Program.
Led by Michelle Jury, BSN, RN, CPHQ, Clinical Improvement Consultant with SDAHO, the series focuses on 5 of the 8 elements of the Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Project’s (MBQIP) quality measure. These elements are:
- Home Medications
- Emergency Provider Note
- Mental Status Assessment
- Tests Performed
- Test Results
These areas were chosen as a focus for the series due to showing the greatest opportunity for improvement in South Dakota hospitals. The goal for the measure is 100%.
The series will continue to be held virtually over the next 4-5 months with critical access hospitals (CAHs) and includes education, collaboration and networking about the measure specifications, successes and challenges. “This measure is very important for patients that visit our South Dakota hospitals’ emergency departments and then move on to another location that continues to care for them. It focuses on making sure the documentation for items like home medications, emergency provider notes and tests that were performed while in the emergency room get communicated to the receiving facility, which gives them the information they need to provide the best care possible.” Michelle Jury
In 2003, an expert panel convened and found that emergency department care was an important area to focus on quality. From 2005-2014 the measure was piloted across the United States and the results of the pilot showed there was room for improvement in the area of emergency department transfer communication. Stratis Health
The MBQIP project is a quality improvement activity under the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP). The goal of MBQIP is to improve the quality of care provided in critical access hospitals (CAHs), by increasing quality data reporting by CAHs and then driving quality improvement activities based on the data. National Rural Health Resource Center
“We sincerely hope this series will provide the clarification, tools and networking critical access hospitals need to meet the measure consistently, resulting in the best possible outcomes for patients in South Dakota,” Jury said.
To learn more about MBQIP, click here or visit the Rural Health Initiatives page on the SDAHO website at sdaho.org.
