Data Collection Tool for State Offices of Rural Health Grant Program

The State Offices of Rural Health Grant Program (SORH) is authorized by Section 338J of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 254r). The purpose of SORH is to assist States in strengthening their rural health care delivery systems by helping to support a focal point for rural health within each State. The program provides funding for an institutional framework that links rural hospitals, providers and communities with State and Federal resources to help develop long term solutions to rural health problems. The average annual award for each State based grantee is $150,000. The law provides for a Federal-State partnership, requiring a State funding match of $3 for each $1 of Federal funding. Over the past 16 years, this program has leveraged in excess of $200 million in State matching funds for rural health. For SORH, program performance measures were drafted to provide data useful to the program and to enable HRSA to provide aggregate program data required by Congress under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993. ORHP seeks to collect information from grantees on their efforts to provide technical assistance to clients within their State. SORH grantees would be required to submit a Technical Assistance Report that includes: 1) The total number of technical assistance encounters provided directly by the grantee; and, 2) the total number of clients that received direct technical assistance from the grantee. Submission of the Technical Assistance Report would be done via e-mail to ORHP no later than 30 days after the end of each twelve month budget period.