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Featured Podcast:
Creating a Multi-Channel, Multi-Media Wellness Communication Strategy That Motivates and Engages Employees and Health Plan Members
Heath Shackleford
Length: 6:18
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Posted: May 7, 2008
When Nashville healthcare firm Healthways decided to offer internally all the health and
wellness programs it develops for customers, it provided an opportunity to improve the user experience externally, explains
Heath Shackleford, senior director of marketing and communications. In communicating the wellness programs to its own
employees, Healthways amplified the message around privacy, underscoring that the company held employees' privacy in the
highest regard. In tandem with its internal communications team, Healthways tied its wellness message to the corporate
mission: "Creating a healthier world, one person at a time." And Healthways senior leadership went to marathon lengths to
support the effort.
Shackleford, along with Donna Shenoha, vice president and senior consultant of health and welfare at
Wachovia Corporation, will provide the inside details on the innovative strategies that their organizations use to promote
their wellness programs that engage and motivate participants during a May 21, 2008 webinar, Creating a Multi-Channel,
Multi-Media Wellness Communication Strategy That Motivates and Engages Employees and Health Plan Members. For more
information, please visit: Creating a Multi-Channel, Multi-Media
Wellness Communication Strategy That Motivates and Engages Employees and Health Plan Members
Most Recent Podcasts:
Driving Improvements in Health Coaching Outcomes Through Physician Collaboration and Coordination
Posted: May 1, 2008
In this podcast, Margaret Moore, CEO of Wellcoaches Corporation, discusses the effects a physician's health choices and behaviors can have on a patient's compliance with health coaching efforts, the role of a medical fitness coach in primary care, and the impact positive psychology can have on health coaching.
In the Institute of Lifestyle Management's online program to teach physicians the basics of health coaching, the virtual patient is a doctor himself, explains Dr. Edward Phillips, founder and director of the institute. Physicians who have completed this training say the background enhances their relationships with patients and relieves stress, since it helps them accept that they are not directly responsible for patients' poor health choices. Dr. Phillips, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School where the institute is based, hopes this subject will one day be covered thoroughly in medical schools. And his message to health plans seeking improved health coaching outcomes: engage the physician in the process, because as the person "sitting knee to knee" with the patient, the physician is ideally positioned to help the patient process all health messages.
In this podcast, Dr. Rick Botelho, professor of family medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center, discusses collaborating with health coaches and the impact that has on his practice, patients' responses to this new blend of treatment and the direction that health coaching is headed.
Moore, Dr. Phillips, and Dr. Botelho will describe how health plans and disease management companies can enhance physician involvement in health coaching during a May 15, 2008 webinar, Driving Improvements in Health Coaching Outcomes Through Physician Collaboration and Coordination. For more information, please visit: Driving Improvements in Health Coaching Outcomes Through Physician Collaboration and Coordination.
Building a Diabetes Medical Home: The Impact on Practice Work Flow, Patient Outcomes and Healthcare Costs
Dr. James Barr
Length: 6:10
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Roberta Burgess
Length: 3:40
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Posted: March 5, 2008
In another validation of the benefits of the patient-centered medical home model, a unique data exchange between the largest insurer in New Jersey and an 850-physician organization resulted in a member-specific profile for each diabetes patient accessible at the point of care. Partners in Care Medical Director Dr. James Barr describes the fine points of the one-year pilot that joined the disease management efforts of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey with those of Partners in Care physicians to dramatically improve compliance levels and clinical outcomes for patients with diabetes.
Roberta Burgess, nurse case manager for Community Care Plan of Eastern North
Carolina through Heritage Hospital in Tarboro, N.C., describes the contents of Community Care Plan's provider toolkits and patient diabetes action plans, both key communication vehicles in its diabetes medical home project. She also details the duties of case managers, who form another vital link in the disease management chain that saved North Carolina $231 million in healthcare costs in 2005 and 2006.
Dr. Barr and Burgess provided the inside details on how they have implemented the medical home model to improve outcomes for diabetes care during a March 19, 2008 webinar, Building a Diabetes Medical Home: The Impact on Practice Work Flow, Patient Outcomes and Healthcare Costs. For more information, please visit: Building a Diabetes Medical Home: The Impact on Practice Work Flow, Patient Outcomes and Healthcare Costs
The Role of Retail Clinics in the Healthcare Continuum: Creating Strategies and Partnerships To Meet Consumers' Demand
Dr. Thomas N. Atkins
Length: 4:15
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Dr. Steven Goldberg
Length: 4:12
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Posted: February 15, 2008
In this podcast, Dr. Thomas Atkins, medical director of Sutter Express Care, drugstore-based medical clinics that are part of Sutter Health's network of hospitals and doctors serving northern California, discusses how to establish locations for retail clinics, the sharing of clinic information with PCPs and the impact retail clinics can have on reducing non-emergent ED as well as healthcare costs.
In this podcast, Dr. Steven Goldberg, corporate medical director at Humana, which includes MinuteClinic in its provider network, discusses the impact retail clinics have had on reducing non-emergent ED use and the overall cost of healthcare, shares some feedback his organization is getting from members now that they have the option of visiting a retail clinic in place of their primary care physician, and offers some advice to health plans contemplating the inclusion of clinics in its network.
Dr. Atkins and Dr. Goldberg examined the strategic implications of retail clinics on healthcare provider and payor organizations and presented two case studies on how their organizations are responding to this growing marketplace trend during a February 20, 2008 webinar, The Role of Retail Clinics in the Healthcare Continuum: Creating Strategies and Partnerships To Meet Consumers' Demand. For more information, please visit: The Role of Retail Clinics in the Healthcare Continuum: Creating Strategies and Partnerships To Meet Consumers' Demand
Emerging Trends & Opportunities for Healthcare Organizations To Leverage Web 2.0
Posted: January 28, 2008 Page views, favorited, embedded...this is the lexicon of Susan Reid, internet marketing manager for UAB Health System of Alabama, which is experiencing so much success with its foray into Web 2.0 technologies that it has reallocated some of its former print communications budget for Internet marketing, video and interactive tools in 2008. UAB Health System has posted more than 100 videos on YouTube, including the frequently viewed "UAB Emergency Room Rap" and a series of patients' "My Story" videos. UAB's recruitment and marketing areas report heightened interest in UAB employment opportunities generated by the YouTube placement.
In this podcast, John Sharp, project manager for IT Web services with Cleveland Clinic, discusses Web 2.0 technologies and how his organization monitors employee-generated content and encourages participation, and gives recommendations to healthcare organizations just getting started with Web 2.0 technologies.
MUSC has no shortage of clinicians willing to contribute content for its podcasts and videos, says Dave Bennett, MUSC's director of web resources services. He credits Dr. Linda Austin, a practicing psychiatrist who is also MUSC's assistant dean of communications, with facilitating an "instant synergy" between clinicians and communicators. Most of MUSC's several hundred physicians contribute to the Web site's multimedia tools, which have been heard in more than 150 countries and include a children's health issues podcast sponsored by a national retailer. In an audio interview full of advice for prospective Web 2.0 adopters, Bennett covers the value of social media in driving traffic to your Web site and consumers to your doorstep as well as production issues and analytical tools related to podcast and video creation.
Reid, Sharp, and Bennett provided in-depth case studies on their organization's Web 2.0 strategy
during a February 13, 2008 webinar, Emerging Trends & Opportunities for Healthcare Organizations To Leverage Web 2.0. For more information, please visit: Emerging Trends & Opportunities for Healthcare Organizations To Leverage Web 2.0
Building an Advanced Medical Home to Improve Chronic Care Outcomes
Posted: January 15, 2008
The solid relationships that patients build with ACCESS Plus providers and office staff, many of whom live in the neighborhood, keep them coming back in for care, explains Dr. Lonnie E. Fuller, medical director for the Pennsylvania Medicaid ACCESS Plus Primary Care Case Management and Disease Management (PCCM-DM) program. "Road shows" put on by ACCESS Plus's Regional Advisory Committee foster dialogue among consumers, providers and community organizations and provide a running issues list for the organization. Dr. Fuller also notes that disease management and telephone triage line efforts are reducing unnecessary trips to the ER.
Marketing the medical home to the commercial population will be a challenge, says Dawn Bazarko, UnitedHealthcare's senior vice president of clinical innovation, since it will result in a fundamental change to the healthcare service model. Organizations must name and market the medical home features for members, taking care to distinguish it from the "gatekeeper" HMO approach that many found undesirable and care-restrictive in the past. The medical home approach has much to offer patients, Bazarko explains, including the opportunity to have a genuine service relationship with physicians and to obtain improved coordination of care for clinical and behavioral comorbidities.
Dr. Fuller and Bazarko examined medical home projects in action during a January 29, 2008 webinar, Building an Advanced Medical Home To Improve Chronic Care Outcomes. For more information, please visit: Building an Advanced Medical Home To Improve Chronic Care Outcomes
Physician Quality Reporting in 2008: What Every Physician Practice Should Know
Posted: January 7, 2008
Although CMS does not currently require physicians in the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) to have electronic health records (EHRs,) nearly 75 percent of American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) members are already using EHRs, estimates Dr. Bruce Bagley, AAFP medical director of quality improvement. CMS' inclusion of two structural measures for 2008 — one for EHRs and the other for e-prescribing — are more likely CMS' attempt to provide measures that both family physicians and specialists can report on, says Dr. Bagley, as well as support President Bush's mandate that EHRs move forward. Dr. Bagley advises PQRI participants to proactively examine their own reported data to chart a performance improvement plan rather than wait until mid-2008 for feedback from CMS.
In a related podcast, Lorraine Larrance, consulting senior manager with
Pershing Yoakley & Associates, and Sue Kincer, consultant and
certified professional coder with Pershing Yoakley & Associates,
discussed the 2008 PQRI measures, the challenges physicians will face
and the quality improvements that could result for physician practices.
Dr. Bagley, along with Kincer and Larrance, delved into the requirements for PQRI for 2008 and drew upon their past experiences with physician quality reporting to recommend how to succeed in the 2008 program during a January 22, 2008 webinar, Physician Quality Reporting in 2008: What Every Physician Practice Should Know. For more information, please visit: Creating a Physician Quality Reporting in 2008: What Every Physician Practice Should Know
Creating a Culture of Health by Engaging the C-Suite and Employees to Promote Better Health
Posted: November 15, 2007
Gregg Lehman, president and CEO of HealthFitness, discusses the levels of "C-Suite support," employing wellness champs in the workplace, preventing illness versus managing existing illness and the impact C-Suite endorsement can have on an initiative.
Lehman, along with David Sensibaugh, director of integrated health at Eastman Chemical Company, described the key steps in creating a culture of health that engages both the C-suite and employees during a December 4, 2007 webinar, Creating a Culture of Health by Engaging the C-Suite and Employees to Promote Better Health. For more information, please visit: Creating a Culture of Health by Engaging the C-Suite and Employees to Promote Better Health
Health Coaching ROI Metrics and Measurements
Posted: October 24, 2007
It is possible to demonstrate solid ROI after coaching individuals on the verge of serious health issues, says Ted Borgstadt, TrestleTree founder and chairman. He presents a case study on ROI for coaching individuals in pre-diseased states, talks about his organization's psychologist-led training in telephonic health coaching, and presents a four-point plan for evaluating a health coach's performance --- one that can pinpoint an individual's movement in the stages of change in six goal areas.
Some aspects of a health coach's performance are easier to assess than others, says Darcy Hurlbert, health and wellness product specialist at Ceridian LifeWorks. Employees themselves can provide valuable data on the effect of coaching on workforce productivity and absenteeism, she says, and this can be supplemented with administrative data. Satisfaction surveys administered three months post-enrollment can capture employee and member feedback on the coaching experience.
Borgstad, along with Hurlbert, described the types of metrics that can and should be used when evaluating the effectiveness of both health coaching programs and individual health coaches during a November 15, 2007 webinar, Health Coaching ROI Metrics and Measurements. For more information, please visit: Health Coaching ROI Metrics and Measurements
Best Practices in Hospital Discharge to Reduce Preventable Readmissions
Posted: October 5, 2007
Broome County, New York's Community Alternative Systems Agency -- also known as CASA -- has a bird's eye view of every type of care setting, explains its director, Michelle Berry. The program's in-home longterm care assessment looks beyond the individual's physical condition, she says, taking note of social, emotional and environmental factors.
To help patients own their care plans and improve recordkeeping, CASA hopes to soon train the homebound to use a "guest book" that will require visiting caregivers -- nurse, physician, physicial therapist, etc. -- to "sign in" and record the reason for each visit. This hard copy record would be the prototype for an eventual online care record, Berry explains.
Senior citizens put a lot of effort into planning for their retirements and deaths, but don't always plan for the medical emergency that might occur in between those two life events, explains Nora Baratto, manager of the case management department at St. Peter's Hospital's CHOICES program in Albany, New York. That's why the community partnerships her program forges are critical to its success. Her program measures customer satisfaction and delivery at multiple intervals and conducts depression screening for its population during inpatient, outpatient and in-home assessments.
Berry, along with Baratto, described the strategies their organizations have used to improve the hospital discharge process during an October 23, 2007 webinar, Best Practices in Hospital Discharge to Reduce Preventable Readmissions. For more information, please visit: Best Practices in Hospital Discharge to Reduce Preventable Readmissions
Healthcare Trends and Forecasts in 2008
Posted: September 20, 2007
Dr. Peter Kongstvedt, a partner in the health and managed care consulting services division of Accenture, comments on how to effectively use new media in today's healthcare arena, as well as what many healthcare organizations are calling the biggest road block pay for performance initiatives.
Experts from key areas of healthcare examined the trends that are shaping today's healthcare industry. Kongstvedt, commented on health plan trends, Nathan Kaufman, on hospital trends, Dr. Joel Diamond, on trends impacting physician groups and Elizabeth Opland, on trends impacting the wellness and health promotion sector during a October 10, 2007 webinar, Healthcare Trends and Forecasts in 2008. For more information, please visit: Healthcare Trends and Forecasts in 2008
Developing Effective Strategies to Reduce Non-Emergent Emergency Department Use
Posted: August 30, 2007
Dr. Jim Glauber, medical director for Neighborhood Health Plan of Massachusetts, defines ED overuse for his organization and discusses the differences between urgent care and emergent care and when patients should use each.
Dr. Karen Amstutz, regional vice president and medical director at Wellpoint State Sponsored Business, and her colleague Dr. Lakshmi Dhanvanthari, staff vice president and medical director at Wellpoint, discuss how their organization educates patients on appropriate ED use and how health literacy of members is a key element in reducing ED overuse.
Non-emergent care in the ED is expensive and ineffective for health plans, hospitals and consumers alike. Hospitals and health plans nationwide are developing strategies to reduce the reliance on EDs for non-emergent care. Glauber, Dhanvanthari, and Amstutz, provided details on the most effective strategies they’ve implemented to address non-emergent ED use during a September 25, 2007 audio conference, Developing Effective Strategies to Reduce Non-Emergent Emergency Department Use. For more information, please visit: Developing Effective Strategies to Reduce Non-Emergent Emergency Department Use
Building Patient Care Continuity with Prepared Practice Teams
Posted: August 22, 2007
When you ask patients for feedback on care, you may not always like what you hear. Nonetheless, HealthPartners includes patients in program design sessions, and its patient advisory councils have more candidates than the organization can currently use. Beth Waterman, HealthPartners vice president of primary care and clinic operations, describes how patients and others were selected to participate in the two-day rapid design session in 2002 that developed the award-winning prepared practice team model. The prepared practice teams have since been carefully duplicated at more than 20 HealthPartners clinics. A Care Model Process oversight team sends quarterly program updates to all practice teams to ensure the structure and consistency that are program hallmarks.
Waterman described the role of practice teams in her organization during a September 19, 2007 audio conference, Building Patient Care Continuity with Prepared Practice Teams. For more information, please visit: Building Patient Care Continuity with Prepared Practice Teams
Ensuring the Benefits of Public Reporting and Pay-for-Performance Programs Outweigh the Unintended Consequences
Posted: August 16, 2007
Current quality measures focus on patient care upon admittance and end of stay but tend to ignore all aspects of care during the patient's stay, says Dr. Dale Bratzler, medical director of the Hospital Interventions Quality Improvement Organization Support Center. He identifies several areas where improvement may result in better transitions of care, including the patient's discharge from the hospital. He is observing a cultural shift toward the acceptance of quality ratings at healthcare organizations from the top down, and believes that team-based training -- both for medical students and full-fledged doctors and nurses -- will help improve the quality of healthcare for patients.
Bratzler provided a brief overview of the potential unintended consequences of public reporting that could lead to patient harm in both direct and indirect ways. Bratzler also described how avoiding these unintended consequences of performance measurement requires careful attention to the development of measure specifications and setting realistic goals for improvement. Conference participants then had the opportunity to probe for more details and bring to the "table" the areas of concern in their organization during a September 6, 2007 audio conference, Ensuring the Benefits of Public Reporting and Pay-for-Performance Programs Outweigh the Unintended Consequences. For more information, please visit: Ensuring the Benefits of Public Reporting and Pay-for-Performance Programs Outweigh the Unintended Consequences
Pursuing Perfect Care: Improving Chronic Care Outcomes by Treating the Whole Patient
Posted: August 6, 2007
Collaborative patient care models that empower the primary care nurse to communicate patient needs to physicians has not only improved patient care and outcomes but also fostered a cultural change at Hackensack University Medical Center, explains Lenore Blank, a nurse practitioner and administrative manager of HUMC's heart failure and pulmonary hypertension team. Her team is part of Pursuing Perfection, a healthcare quality initiative from the Institute of Healthcare Improvement. As HUMC creates the partnerships mandated by Pursuing Perfection, it is extending the knowledge and benefits they've gained with other organizations -- and reducing hospital readmissions in the process.
Leanne Huminski, chief nursing officer, McLeod Regional Medical Center,
comments on capitalizing on computer technology, McLeod's initiatives for eliminating adverse
drug events (ADEs) and the role information technology is playing in reducing ADEs.
Physician and executive engagement are one of the crucial success factors for clinical improvement, says Donna Isgett, vice president for clinical effectiveness at McLeod Health. Isgett warns that clinical improvement projects can not be a grass roots effort...they must be led by the physicians and the senior-executive team. Isgett describes a simple design process that McLeod uses to guide its clinical improvement principles.
Blank, Michelle Gilbert, Isgett, and Huminski described how their organizations are implementing perfect care processes in heart failure and medication management with details on how they've implemented their programs and the results they are achieving during a August 22, 2007 audio conference, Pursuing Perfect Care: Improving Chronic Care Outcomes by Treating the Whole Patient. For more information, please visit: Pursuing Perfect Care: Improving Chronic Care Outcomes by Treating the Whole Patient
Health Risk Assessments and Health Coaching: How the Web and Consumer's Expectations Are Changing the Landscape
Posted: August 2, 2007
Change a belief and you'll change a behavior, says Allyson Faist, president and CEO of MEDeCoach. There's a formula to the frequency and format of health coach contacts that will engage a client, and ways to handle a client who has received conflicting information from the Internet on a health management issue. An integrated system where the coach and client are on the same IT platform increases the chances for successful, collaborative coaching.
Faist will examine how consumer developments are impacting the collection of health risk data and the health coaching sessions that may result from a health risk assessment (HRA) during a September 26, 2007 audio conference, Health Risk Assessments and Health Coaching: How the Web and Consumer's Expectations Are Changing the Landscape. For more information, please visit: Health Risk Assessments and Health Coaching: How the Web and Consumer's Expectations Are Changing the Landscape
Live Health Coaching Session
Posted: July 19, 2007
In a live coaching demo, "Coach Meg" (Wellcoaches CEO Margaret Moore) helps volunteer client Kathy Smith (not her real name) identify life issues that are keeping her from being her "best self" in managing her thyroid condition and weight issues. You'll hear how Coach Meg builds positive psychology into this real-life health coaching session, which was conducted as part of "Teaching Health Coaches to Integrate Positive Psychology with Physical Health to Improve Disease Management Outcomes," a July 18, 2007 audio conference now available on CD-ROM or via an On Demand re-broadcast on the web. Order the conference CD-ROM or register to listen to the On Demand re-broadcast today.
The Medicaid Population: Identifying, Locating and Engaging a Hard-to-Reach Population for Disease Management Success
Posted: July 12, 2007
In this podcast, Dr. Philip M. Bonaparte, chief medical officer of Horizon NJ Health comments on the success of his organization's fourth ER-based caseworker initiative and the information these caseworkers distribute to patients. Bonaparte also comments on the benefits and drawbacks retail clinics and convenient care clinics are having on the healthcare industry at this stage in their existence.
When it comes to making contact with its Medicaid members in Illinois, field work is the name of the game for McKesson Health Solutions. A presence in emergency departments to reduce unnecessary utilization among members and the placement of communication teams in 24 geographical locations around the state is proving successful for McKesson, explains Caryn Jacobi, McKesson's associate V.P. of operations for Illinois. Other efforts include a 24-hour triage line for members and mailings, phone calls and field visits.
Dr. Bonaparte and Jacobi, described how their respective organizations target and engage Medicaid enrollees for participation and success in disease management programs during a July 25, 2007 audio conference, The Medicaid Population: Identifying, Locating and Engaging a Hard-to-Reach Population for Disease Management Success. For more information, please visit: The Medicaid Population: Identifying, Locating and Engaging a Hard-to-Reach Population for Disease Management Success
Teaching Health Coaches to Integrate Positive Psychology with Physical Health to Improve Disease Management Outcomes
Posted: June 25, 2007
Having supplemented coach training with live coaching demos for many years, Wellcoaches CEO Margaret Moore has found that the demos are a powerful way to bring to light essential coaching skills. Even during a 15-minute demo with a "volunteer client," she says, you can observe a "mini-transformation" and shift in client energy. She usually recruits the volunteer from among the seminar participants, and describes the ideal volunteer and the pre-coaching preparation that is required. She also weighs in with some suggestions for evaluating a health coach's performance.
Moore, described coaching theories and strategies and conducted a live coaching demonstration to illustrate the theories and strategies in action. Conference participants had the opportunity to ask questions on the techniques Moore used during the coaching session following the demonstration during a July 18, 2007 audio conference, Teaching Health Coaches to Integrate Positive Psychology with Physical Health to Improve Disease Management Outcomes. For more information, please visit: Teaching Health Coaches to Integrate Positive Psychology with Physical Health to Improve Disease Management Outcomes
Building a Health Management IT Platform for Health Coaching
Posted: June 4, 2007 Both science and human nature played a part in the success of Healthways' telephonic care support for diabetes patients, explains John Harris, senior vice president of the Health Support Division of Healthways. Even though the program is from Healthways' care management side, he believes that the same results would apply to a coaching effort, since any time a human intervenes with another human, the chances of success go up considerably. According to John, an individual's learning style and risk levels are also factors in determining whether a Web-based or telephonic coaching system would be most effective. John also explains how advances in predictive modeling allow healthcare organizations to find candidates earlier and provide more compelling evidence of the need for a coaching intervention.
Harris and Sean Slovenski, president and CEO, Hummingbird Coaching Services, described how to effectively capture and integrate multiple data sources to identify potential clients for health coaching and how to effectively use that information to achieve health coaching success during a June 13, 2007 audio conference, Building a Health Management IT Platform for Health Coaching. For more information, please visit:
Building a Health Management IT Platform for Health Coaching
Value-Driven Healthcare in Action: A Four-Pronged Approach to Meet Consumer Transparency, Quality and Access Demands
Posted: May 24, 2007
A lack of trust in the use of patient health information and a general reluctance to share patient information with industry competitors are the biggest obstacles to an open exchange of patient health information, says Gary Austin, a healthcare industry consultant on corporate/product strategy and program management. In spite of these roadblocks, the health plans he's met with support a climate of value-based healthcare choices. Many plans have already invested millions to equip physicians with the capability for e-prescribing, and more will underwrite physicians in the use of electronic medical records in the next few years. He envisions that consumer "smart cards" loaded with patient health information will initially be introduced within individual health systems, and eventually be usable between systems. A physician practice's measurements reporting efforts will flourish under a "physician champion" to lead the way, notes Linda Davis, a consultant to the Buyers Health Care Action Group (BHCAG) in Minnesota. Once a transparent reporting effort is underway, it can bring about significant cultural change and raise motivation levels in the naturally competitive provider environment, she adds. Aware of the automated vs. manual reporting methods in use, the BHCAG facilitates the reporting effort via its direct data submission process, which accepts data from practices in many formats. Rewarding members and employees for being savvy medical consumers and shopping is an increasing trend in healthcare, notes Sue Lewis, senior vice president of health and productivity solutions at IncentOne. Companies are leveraging the corporate Intranet, meetings and health fairs to spread the word on incentives to their populations. She has also observed that companies offering consumer-directed health plans are in the best position tax-wise to extend benefits to dependents and retirees. Until patient satisfaction ratings can be evidenced to be linked to outcomes, they should not factor into a provider's quality ratings, says Mark Xistris, director of provider relations & health information for The Alliance, an employer-owned and directed not-for-profit cooperative that helps companies manage the total cost of ensuring the health and well-being of their workforce. His organization, recently named a community leader by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, believes that providers and payors have legitimate concerns about releasing cost information to consumers, who may misinterpret the data without proper guidelines. Austin, Davis, Lewis, and Xistris, examined how their respective organizations are using these four strategies to stay competitive in the fast-growing consumer-driven movement during a May 30, 2007 audio conference, Value-Driven Healthcare in Action: A Four-Pronged Approach to Meet Consumer Transparency, Quality and Access Demands. For more information, please visit: Value-Driven Healthcare in Action: A Four-Pronged Approach to Meet Consumer Transparency, Quality and Access Demands
Strategies to Increase Primary Care Access, Use and Coordination
Posted: May 7, 2007
Involving physicians and nurses in an initiative that teaches patients how to manage their own care may initially increase the demand on an already overtaxed primary care system, says Christopher Wise, administrative director of the Medical Management Center at the University of Michigan (U-M) Health System. But ultimately, the patient who better understands the intricacies of their disease and available care alternatives will actually have fewer reasons to access primary care physicians, he adds. In U-M's model, he explains, social workers and nurses who know the university's health services best function as health navigators, helping the chronically ill find their way through the system. For optimum efficiency and results, the patient's self-management must be linked to a broader aspect of the physician's office and the medical home it provides. Margaret Brennan, administrator for the Primary Care Access Network with Orange County Government, Maureen Kersmarki, board chair of the Primary Care Access Network for Florida Hospital along with Wise, described how their respective organizations have created sustainable partnerships for increasing access to primary care during a May 16, 2007 audio conference, Strategies to Increase Primary Care Access, Use and Coordination. For more information, please visit: Strategies to Increase Primary Care Access, Use and Coordination
How to Structure a Healthcare Performance Improvement Process That Results in Incentive Payments
Posted: March 26, 2007 Already on a quest to accelerate clinical excellence, Memorial Medical Center in Springfield, Ill. was the first hospital to sign on with the CMS/Premier Hospital Quality Improvement Demonstration in 2003. Jim Benté, Memorial's vice president of quality and organizational development, said the initiative was a natural extension of Memorial's focus on safety, quality and clinical excellence. A top performer in the demonstration project, Memorial initiates employees in its culture of quality from the day they're hired, explains Benté. To emphasize this commitment, department and individual goals in this initiative are prominently displayed throughout the hospital.Technology that allows Cleveland Regional Medical Center (CRMC) to conduct concurrent chart reviews also generates reports that guide nurses and physicians in improving the patient experience, explained Liz Popwell, Cleveland County Healthcare Systems' vice president of systems management. A holistic approach to outpatient care -- including proper discharge instructions, disease-specific survival kits, and outpatient care analysis -- has resulted in a 37 percent drop in hospital readmissions. The challenge to maintaining CRMC's top rating in the Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration Project, she said, is ensuring that new staff members are adequately trained in core measures and processes. Robots -- dispensing meds in the pharmacy, assisting in the operating room, and even facilitating remote doctors' rounds -- is just one example of the technology supporting quality initiatives at Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC), explained Regina Berman, administrative director for performance improvement. As the top earner in the CMS/Premier Pay for Performance project for two years running, HUMC has seen a "reverse migration" of patients who used to head to New York for medical care, said Ms. Berman. Its bariatric surgery program draws patients from around the nation, and its cancer center 100 attracts new patients each week. Just 10 miles from the Big Apple, HUMC has been cited by Business Week magazine for its technology initiatives and by New York magazine as one of the top 10 hospitals where physicians would go for their own care. She attributes the success of HUMC to involvement and commitment of front-line staff. Benté, Berman, and Popwell gave us the inside details on how these hospitals have structured their internal processes to support an environment of performance improvement that has led to quality incentive payments from CMS under the Hospital Quality Improvement program during an April 18, 2007 audio conference, How to Structure a Healthcare Performance Improvement Process That Results in Incentive Payments. For more information, please visit: How to Structure a Healthcare Performance Improvement Process That Results in Incentive Payments
Managing Transitions to Care for the Frail Elderly
John Charde
Length: 12:38
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Laurie Russell
Length: 7:06
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Posted: March 26, 2007 The hands-on approach of Enhanced Care Initiatives' "Easy Care" program for the frail elderly is built on human interaction, communication and reinforcement. Nurses act as health advocates, pulling together all aspects of a patient's care and supporting the patient by working for them in the healthcare system. However, technology has its place: a tablet PC is a communication hub for nurses, a web-based patient data collection tool is an information repository, and in-home monitoring tracks meds intake. Dr John Charde, Enhanced Care Initiatives' vice president of strategic development, described how Enhanced Care Initiatives varied programs "touch" the frail elderly. Fall risk assessment is built into XLHealth's health risk assessments for the elderly, explained Laurie Russell, its senior director of health solutions. Members' caregivers and pharmacists also play key roles in XLHealth's fall prevention efforts. More than a year into CMS' Medicare Health Support Program, Russell detailed how her organization's "Ask Your Doctor" report empowers members with the language to address medical conditions during a doctor visit. Charde and Russell explored how to create effective care management approaches for the frail elderly during an April 26, 2007 audio conference, Managing Transitions to Care for the Frail Elderly. For more information, please visit: Managing Transitions to Care for the Frail Elderly
Healthcare for the New Generations: Understanding and Engaging Generation "Xers" and "Yers" Through Tailored Products and Channels
Posted: February 28, 2007 Lee Aase, Mayo clinic’s manager of national media and new media is a self-described borderline Baby Boomer/GenX-er charged with tapping new media channels such as podcasts and streaming video to deliver Mayo’s health information to increasingly younger consumers. Experience has shown that it takes a life event such as the birth of a child or a parent’s illness to get young people thinking about health coverage and care. But sometimes an emergency can be a defining moment. When an uninsured family member suddenly took ill, Lee pressed his organization’s newly launched cell phone health tool into action and averted a costly ER visit. Scott Schroeder, president and CEO of Cohorts, Inc., defines the segments of Generation X and Generation Y and how marketing channels and messages should be influenced by these segments. Aase and Schroeder, along with Aric Hooverson, account director, Grey Worldwide San Francisco and Shelley Patchin, director of advertising, Wellpoint, provided an overview of the media preferences of these generations and the impact these preferences are having on healthcare marketing, products and services during a March 28, 2007 audio conference, Healthcare for the New Generations: Understanding and Engaging Generation "Xers" and "Yers" Through Tailored Products and Channels. For more information, please visit: Healthcare for the New Generations: Understanding and Engaging Generation "Xers" and "Yers" Through Tailored Products and Channels
Utilizing Medical Homes To Create a Patient-Centered Approach to Managing Chronic Conditions
Posted: February 23, 2007 In the patient-centered "medical home" model, patients' families and communities have clear-cut responsibilities, explained Elizabeth Reardon, a consultant with Commonwealth Medicine in Massachusetts. Healthcare organizations can draw parallels from Ed Wagner's chronic care model and learn from the groundbreaking work pediatricians have done to assure continuity of care for children with special healthcare needs. She suggested tactics and resources for drawing families and communities into the medical home model.Reardon, along with Anne Hernandez, director of operations of APS Healthcare and Dr. George Rust, senior consultant for APS Healthcare and Interim Director of the National Center for Primary Care, Morehouse School of Medicine, shared strategies on building an effective medical home project and the impact these programs can have on patient outcomes and satisfaction during a March 7, 2007 audio conference, Utilizing Medical Homes to Create a Patient-Centered Approach to Managing Chronic Conditions. For more information, please visit: Utilizing Medical Homes to Create a Patient-Centered Approach to Managing Chronic Conditions
Essential Elements for Physician Practice PFP Success: Key Steps in EHR Selection and Implementation
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Dr. Jim Morrow
Length: 12:07
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 Dr. Joel Diamond
Length: 5:15
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Posted: February 16, 2007 Implementing an electronic health record (EHR) in 1998 has transformed the way the four-location North Fulton Family Practice in Georgia does business. Dr. Jim Morrow, North Fulton's vice president and chief information officer, described how the EHR has enhanced physician-patient "face time"and care management and improved efficiency, productivity and profitability at the 20-provider practice. He even said that having an EHR has made him a better physician. Dr. Joel Diamond, medical director of Diamond, Fera and Associates, explained how concentrating on people rather than IT and engaging the medical leadership and the rest of the staff at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for successful hospital implementation of an electronic health record and how these lessons can be applied to a physician practice. Diamond also described how his practice achieved a one-year ROI turnaround from its EHR implementation.Dr. Morrow and Dr. Diamond provided physician practices with the key factors to consider when deciding to implement an EHR, along with the critical steps to a successful EHR implementation during a March 21, 2007 audio conference, Essential Elements for Physician Practice PFP Success: Key Steps in EHR Selection and Implementation, please visit: Essential Elements for Physician Practice PFP Success: Key Steps in EHR Selection and Implementation
Managing Transitions to Care for the Dually Eligible Medicare and Medicaid Patient
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Sarah Keenan
Length: 5:55
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Diane Flanders
Length: 8:56
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Posted: February 2, 2007 Beyond the issues one might expect from serving the dual eligible population, the Minnesota Senior Health Options' (MSHO) program also addresses the service barriers that occur in a rural setting. Sarah Keenan, clinical liaison with Medica, described how MSHO responds to these service issues and how the inevitable breakdowns during care transitions are managed through MSHO's "care coordination" efforts, which ensure communication between providers and follow a patient seamlessly through transitions of care. The flexibility inherent in MassHealth's Senior Care Options model empowers providers to offer on-site and community-based care to enrollees, improves the level of service offered to diverse populations and offers participants a seamless transition to the Medicare part D pharmacy benefits. Diane Flanders, director of coordinated care systems for MassHealth, provided an overview of the unique partnership that is designed to keep its seniors as well as possible, and in their homes and communities for as long as possible.Keenan and Flanders described how to create a coordinated care management approach for dual eligibles during a February 14th audio conference, Managing Transitions to Care for the Dually Eligible Medicare and Medicaid Patient. For more information, please visit: Managing Transitions to Care for the Dually Eligible Medicare and Medicaid Patient
Using Web Technologies in Consumer-Driven Healthcare for Transparency, Decision Support and Health Promotion
Posted: January 12, 2007 With the growth of consumer-driven healthcare, the Internet is playing a large role in disseminating information due to its convenience and its ease of use. John Mills, director of product management with HIP Health Plans, and Kim Bellard, vice president of eMarketing with Highmark Inc. discussed the Web-based tools their companies have implemented to improve the healthcare experience for consumers. John Mills introduced some of the web-based initiatives his company has begun to use, and also discussed the impact of having easily accessible information available on the HIP Web site. Kim Bellard discussed how his company’s use of technology helps consumers make informed decisions and their proactive approach to promoting the use of their Web site. Both speakers discussed the benefits as well as the possible challenges and pitfalls of these new ventures, as well as the role that consumer education plays in all arenas of information dissemination. Bellard and Mills examined how healthcare organizations are providing online tools to ensure that consumers have the information they need to not only take more responsibility for their health status, but also to get the right treatment at the right time at the right place during a January 25th audio conference, Using Web Technologies in Consumer-Driven Healthcare for Transparency Decision Support and Health Promotion. For more information, please visit: Using Web Technologies in Consumer-Driven Healthcare for Transparency, Decision Support and Health Promotion
CMS' Voluntary Physician Reporting Program: Preparing for the Feedback and 2007 Updates
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Dr. Bruce Bagley
Length: 5:08
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 Dr. Ronald Bangasser
Length: 13:00
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Posted: December 12, 2006 Dr. Bruce Bagley, medical director of quality improvement with the American Academy of Family Physicians, described his organization's willingness to support physicians as CMS expands its Physician Voluntary Reporting Program (PVRP), the role of electronic medical records in the CMS initiative, and predicted just how long this program will remain voluntary. Participating in PVRP can have a daunting effect on office work flow. Each time CMS adds a measure to PVRP, Beaver Medical Group in Redlands, California has to reconfigure its entire IT system. Dr. Ronald Bangasser, a family practice physician with Beaver, described the impact that sharing quality data with CMS has had on his organization, his predictions for the expansion of the reporting program, and his view of the recently legislated financial incentives CMS will award to participating physicians beginning in July 2007.Dr. Bagley and Dr. Bangasser provided an update on the CMS' voluntary reporting program and what impact the program will have on physician practices in 2007 during a January 9th audio conference, CMS' Voluntary Physician Reporting Program: Preparing for the Feedback and 2007 Updates. For more information, please visit: CMS' Voluntary Physician Reporting Program: Preparing for the Feedback and 2007 Updates
NPI: Strategies for an Implementation Process To Meet the May 2007 Deadline
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Matthew Wallach
Length: 18:16
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 Lynn Somers Syrek
Length: 2:23
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Posted: December 4, 2006 The NPI implementation deadline is less than 175 days away, but only 1.5 million NPIs have been issued to date. Listen to Mat |
Linda Davis
Sue Lewis
Mark Xistris
