GREAT Health will create stabilizing conditions for long-term success as the state transitions to value-based care across payers and delivery systems via the Achieving Healthcare Efficiency through Accountable Design (AHEAD) model.

Objective 1: Implement innovations in health care delivery that improve health outcomes and quality of life.

Initiative 1: Transforming for a Sustainable Health System in Rural Georgia: Under this initiative, the state will prepare rural healthcare facilities and Georgia to succeed in the CMS driven AHEAD Model for hospitals and AHEAD primary care programs to align with the vision of rural progress.

Objective 2: Focus on root causes of disease to prevent illness and coordinate care for enhanced chronic disease management.

Initiative 2: Strengthening the Continuum of Care in Rural Georgia: Nine strategies, which focus on improving behavioral health programs; enhancing infrastructure related to emergency response to mitigate trauma risks; improving public health initiatives related to inter-hospital transportation and strengthening newborn screenings; expanding support for acquired brain injury survivors; creating a nutrition and weight management eligibility category to Georgia’s Planning for Healthy Babies demonstration program; and increasing access to nutrition services for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Objective 3: Provide sustainable access to healthcare.

Initiative 3: Connecting to Care to Improve Healthcare Access in Rural Georgia: Six strategies that align with the vision of increasing access in rural places to ensure residents have more opportunities for primary, specialty, dental, and behavioral healthcare.

Several strategies use technology to expand access to care, including deploying mobile health units; integrating telehealth point-of-care pods; implementing and expanding telehealth for specialty care access; expanding access to provider-to-provider consultations through telehealth for pediatric psychiatry and postpartum behavioral health; and enhancing public health telehealth infrastructure. Georgia is also proposing to improve access to maternal care by placing obstetric carts in rural, non-delivering emergency departments and implementing patient bundles to improve quality outcomes. Furthermore, Georgia is enhancing the state’s legislatively established Rural Hospital Stabilization Grant Program to create a track specifically aligned to the RHT Program goal of increasing access.

Objective 4: Recruit and retain a healthcare workforce that is empowered to make decisions that engage patients for improved outcomes.

Initiative 4: Growing a Highly Skilled Healthcare Workforce in Rural Georgia: Five strategies that are grounded in increasing and incentivizing healthcare providers to work in rural Georgia and directly associated with the GREAT Health vision for rural populations in rural places. Implementation of Georgia’s graduate medical education (GME) strategy includes incentives for physicians, doctoral-level providers, and GME programs to strengthen the primary care workforce. The state is also focused on increasing access to paramedics through an emergency medical services (EMS) scholarship program. Additionally, a partnership with the Area Health Education Centers (AHECs) will allow GREAT Health to engage with future doctors and nurses, and telehealth technology will be utilized to train and mentor all provider types in dementia care best practices. The proposal also includes several strategies to address critical nursing shortages, focusing on improvements in clinical faculty recruitment and retention, enhancing clinical training, and identifying and motivating the next generation of nurses.

Objective 5: Integrate technology that improves care delivery and gives providers and patients real time, secure access to health data information.

Initiative 5: Leveraging Technology for Healthcare Innovations in Rural Georgia: Scaling up innovation with a focus on improving care delivery in alignment with the vision of advancing rural progress. There are eight technology-based strategies incorporated into the GREAT Health Program. The state will partner with the Advancing Access to Robust Care and Health in Rural Georgia (ARCHER) Tech Catalyst Fund to invest in the development of rural technology. This collaborative effort will focus on four components: rural healthcare needs delivery, company scouting and validation, investment in rural deployment, and long-term monitoring and impact assessment of deployed technology. Additionally, under this initiative Georgia will dedicate resources to improving cybersecurity, enhancing electronic medical record (EMR) systems to ensure rural hospitals, clinics, and facilities use data to drive population health initiatives, streamlining the Medicaid eligibility system, and deploying a consumer facing product that engages patients in wellness and preventive health actions. Funds are also dedicated to integrating robotic technology in rural places to increase access to surgical services and contribute to surgeon recruitment and retention. Georgia will also engage in a behavioral health technology assessment that can inform future behavioral health innovations.