Building a Sustainable Rural Healthcare Workforce: Recruit & Retention

The State of South Dakota is seeking proposals from qualified healthcare providers to design and implement a comprehensive workforce recruitment, retention, and deployment program aimed at building a sustainable rural healthcare workforce. The award will fund a cost‑reimbursement contract that covers incentive payments to individual providers, infrastructure for training and analytics, and consulting services to develop and monitor workforce strategies. Successful contractors must administer incentives tied to a five‑year service commitment, report monthly expenses, and demonstrate measurable improvements in staffing shortages across rural communities. • Design and execute recruitment incentives (sign‑on bonuses, relocation, housing, loan repayment) for individual providers, each linked to a minimum five‑year service obligation. • Develop and deploy general workforce infrastructure (training rooms, simulation equipment, analytics platforms) and provide consulting services for compensation analysis, pay‑equity studies, and workforce planning. • Provide ongoing program management, data collection, and reporting to meet state and CMS requirements, and create a sustainability plan to maintain workforce gains beyond the contract term.