Rural Health Financial Services, Inc. was formed in 1987 as a response to the Washington State mandated budget process and the need for financial support other than that provided by accounting firms. For the first two (2) years, our primary focus was on the budgeting process and assisting hospitals with various accounting projects.

In 1989, the company was approached by the University of Washington to participate in a Community Health Services Development, CHSD, project which focused on the role of the community in the healthcare environment. Our portion of the project was to develop a financial review process that would evaluate the financial health of the healthcare delivery system so that a strategic plan could be developed to stabilize the financial viability of the rural health system. Since 1989, over 100 such financial reviews have been conducted through the CHSD project and similar type projects throughout the country.

When asked, "What does your company do?" Our response is to say that our primary focus is to work with struggling rural healthcare systems and restructure them so that they can be operationally viable. We have developed a set of re-engineering techniques to work with hospitals, as a catalyst for change, developing the financial and organizational tools to reverse their situation, and bringing back accountability and responsible to the system. Our approach is to work with the client, developing a set of work plans so that the process is a joint effort so that when the project is completed the healthcare system self-sustaining with very little outside assistance. This re-engineering process has been conducted sixteen (16) times in various parts of the country and as of this date, all of the hospitals that we have assisted are still in existence.