The Small Rural Hospital Improvement (SHIP) Grant Program provides funding to small rural hospitals to assist with activities related to any or all of the following:

• implementation of PPS
• compliance with provisions of HIPAA
• the reduction of medical errors
• quality improvement

To be eligible for funding, a small rural hospital (defined as "49 available beds or less", as reported on the hospital's most recently filed Medicare Cost Report) must be located outside a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), be located in a rural census tract of a MSA as determined under the Goldsmith Modification or Rural Urban Commuting Areas, or be located in an area designated by any State law or regulation as a rural area or as a rural hospital. Mississippi currently has 45 hospitals that are eligible for SHIP funding.