How to Build Technology Into a Strong CalRHT Grant Application

California's Rural Health Transformation Program creates an important opportunity for rural hospitals, clinics, Tribal health programs, health districts, and regional partners to redesign how care is delivered. But a successful application should not simply list technology products.

The strongest proposals begin with a rural healthcare problem, define a measurable outcome, and then show how technology will help participating organizations achieve and sustain that outcome.

Under the CalRHT Transformative Care Model Accelerator Partner opportunity, applicants are expected to address rural access gaps, support regional collaboration, demonstrate implementation readiness, and establish a credible pathway to measurable improvement in at least one Transformative Care Model metric. Technology and virtual care can strengthen an application when they directly contribute to those primary outcomes.

Start With the Outcome—not the Software

Before selecting technology, applicants should identify the change they intend to produce. Examples may include:

• Increasing colorectal cancer screening
• Improving hypertension or diabetes control
• Expanding first-trimester prenatal care
• Increasing telehealth visits or electronic consultations
• Reducing delays in specialty referrals
• Improving coordination between rural clinics, hospitals, and specialists

Once the outcome is clear, the application can explain what prevents the organization from achieving it today. Common barriers may include fragmented records, fax-based referrals, limited specialist access, disconnected care teams, incomplete patient outreach, documentation burden, and difficulty measuring results.

Technology should then be presented as part of the care-delivery model, not as a standalone purchase.

Technology Components Applicants Can Include

Interoperability and Connected Care

Interoperability can help participating organizations exchange clinical information, obtain relevant outside records, return consultation results, and coordinate care across a regional network.

An application may include:

• EHR and clinical-system integration
• Health information exchange or QHIO connectivity
• Connection to national exchange networks
• Laboratory, imaging, pharmacy, and referral interfaces
• Electronic delivery of consultation and procedure reports
• ADT notifications and other event-based alerts
• Shared scheduling, transfer coordination, or call-coverage workflows

The Accelerator Partner guide specifically identifies interoperable technology and stronger continuity across regional networks as components of rural transformation.

Applicants should describe not only what will be connected, but also how the connection will improve the selected clinical outcome. For example, retrieving prior colonoscopy reports may help validate colorectal screening gaps and avoid unnecessary duplicate procedures.

Telehealth and Electronic Consultations

Technology can expand access to specialty care without requiring every rural patient to travel long distances.

Applicants can consider:

• Provider-to-provider eConsults
• Tele-specialty consultations
• Virtual prenatal or chronic-care follow-up
• Remote monitoring
• Pre-visit record preparation
• Electronic referral triage
• Shared documentation between the rural provider and specialist

Telehealth should be tied to measurable results such as consultation volume, referral completion, reduced wait times, fewer unnecessary transfers, or improved access within targeted rural communities.

AI-Enabled Clinical Workflows

The Accelerator Partner guide recognizes training and technical assistance for technology-enabled care, including artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies. It also permits significant IT advances intended to improve efficiency, cybersecurity, and patient outcomes.

Potential AI-supported components may include:

• Summarizing external medical records for clinician review
• Organizing longitudinal clinical histories
• Identifying potential care gaps for provider validation
• Supporting pre-visit preparation
• Ambient clinical documentation
• Drafting referral or care-coordination summaries
• Prioritizing incomplete follow-up activities

Applications should preserve clinical oversight. AI should support—not replace—physician judgment, clinical validation, or required decision-making.

Referral and Care-Coordination Infrastructure

Regional hub-and-spoke projects often need a shared workflow that connects rural "spoke" clinics with hospital or specialty "hubs."

Technology can help track whether a referral was:

• Received
• Clinically reviewed
• Scheduled
• Completed
• Awaiting testing or pathology
• Returned to the referring provider
• Closed with a follow-up plan

This creates a stronger proposal because the applicant can explain how regional partners will share implementation responsibilities, improve referral pathways, and reduce fragmentation—factors HCAI considers when reviewing partnership structures.

Population Health and Outcomes Reporting

Applicants should plan how they will establish a baseline, monitor adoption, and report progress throughout the grant.

A technology workstream may include dashboards measuring:

• Eligible rural population served
• Baseline and post-implementation clinical rates
• Patients with identified care gaps
• Outreach and referral completion
• Telehealth and eConsult utilization
• External records retrieved
• Results returned electronically
• Referral turnaround time
• Provider adoption
• Geographic reach
• Technology utilization and uptime

This is especially important because applications must explain how progress will be measured and reported, and grant payments may be tied to startup, output, outcome, and reporting milestones.

Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Governance

Every technology component should include a clear plan for:

• HIPAA-compliant information exchange
• Role-based access
• Data-sharing agreements
• Patient matching
• Security-risk management
• Audit logging
• Business-associate responsibilities
• Incident response
• Data retention and reporting

Cybersecurity should be incorporated from the beginning rather than treated as a final technical task.

Training and Change Management

Technology does not transform care unless clinicians and staff use it consistently.

Applicants should include:

• Workflow assessment
• Clinical and administrative training
• Super-user development
• Go-live support
• Adoption monitoring
• Refresher training
• Technical assistance
• Post-implementation optimization

For EHR Modernization applicants, HCAI expressly identifies implementation, configuration, data migration, interoperability development, training, change management, and post-go-live support as allowable categories. (HCAI)

Put Technology Throughout the Application

Technology should not appear only in the budget. It should be reflected across the application:

• Project overview: Explain how technology addresses the rural access gap and contributes to the selected clinical metric.
• Partnership structure: Identify the technology partner, clinical partners, rural sites, responsibilities, funding allocation, and required interfaces.
• Operational capability: Describe existing IT infrastructure, data governance, security, telehealth capacity, staffing, and implementation experience.
• Implementation plan: Establish quarterly milestones for design, integration, testing, training, go-live, adoption, measurement, and reporting.
• Sustainability plan: Explain how licenses, connectivity, technical support, staffing, and reporting will continue after grant funding ends.

How Long Health Can Support CalRHT Applicants

Long Health works with rural healthcare organizations as a technology and implementation partner—not as the owner of the applicant's clinical model.

As a California-designated Qualified Health Information Organization and Carequality Implementer, Long Health can support:

• QHIO and nationwide health information exchange
• EHR and workflow integration
• External clinical-record retrieval
• AI-powered clinical summaries
• Care-gap and population-health workflows
• Telehealth and eConsult enablement
• Electronic referrals and closed-loop tracking
• ADT notifications
• Staff training and implementation support
• Grant-aligned dashboards and outcomes reporting

The rural organization and its clinical partners remain responsible for defining the care model, delivering services, overseeing clinical decisions, and achieving the selected outcome. Long Health provides the connected technology, implementation support, and measurement infrastructure needed to put that model into operation.

Planning a CalRHT application? Contact Long Health at CalRHT@longhealth.io or visit longhealth.io to discuss how technology can strengthen your rural transformation strategy.

Applicants should review the current HCAI grant guide, RFA, FAQs, budget workbook, and addenda before finalizing eligibility, scope, or allowable expenses.