News

As part of a year-long series exploring how hospitals and health systems are addressing the care continuum in their strategic and operational plans, Hospitals and Health Networks spoke with Qualis Health's Medical Director for Health Informatics, Jeff Hummel, MD. In the May edition, Dr. Hummel offers his thoughts on the specialized requirements of patient-centered medical homes for their electronic health records.

As of April 15, Qualis Health now processes outpatient imaging authorization requests for the State of Alaska, Department of Health and Social Services, Division of Health Care Services. This service, along with other care management work we perform in collaboration with Alaska Medicaid - Health Care Services, will help the state of Alaska improve the quality and effectiveness of its healthcare.

The 33rd session of the Getting Paid to Use Your EHR series will occur on April 30, 2013. Dr. Jeffrey Wolff-Gee presents on the challenges his organization, Swedish Medical Group, faced in adhering to the "five rights" of clinical decision support as well what they learned. Registration and more information.

Qualis Health will be exhibiting at Booth 15 during the 14th Annual International Summit on Improving Patient Care in the Office Practice & the Community, which takes place April 7-9, 2013 in Scottsdale, AZ. Donna Daniel, PhD, Practice Transformation and Measurement Director, and Michael Garrett, MS, CCM, Vice President of Business Development, will also attend the Summit. Visit the summit website for more information.

In the March issue of the WIREC Insider, Dr. Matta answers our questions about his practice, Pediatrics for You, in Kennewick, WA, including responses about his experiences implementing EHRs and attesting for Meaningful Use. Also featured is part two of four in the HIPAA Omnibus Rule Series, important WIREC webinar information and a list of the most recent providers to reach Meaningful Use.

The February 26, 2013, Safety Net Medical Home Initiative (SNMHI) webinar, Closing the Loop with Referral Management, focused on the implementation of referral tracking, the value of gaining physician leadership and staff buy-in, building a leaner medical home and village and enabling EHR meaningful use. Managing referrals is not only one of the most challenging services offered by primary care, but also one of the most important for continuity of care and patient health. Presented by a speaker from the Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education. Download the webinar slides or visit the SNMHI website.

Steven Burgon, JD, and Margaret T. Stanley, MHA, recently joined Qualis Health's board of directors. Mr. Burgon, the President and Founder of Burgon Law Office, has 20 years of experience working with nonprofit and charitable entities. Ms. Stanley has an extensive background leading public and private sector healthcare organizations, including positions in public policy, administration of health benefits programs and management of healthcare delivery organizations.

On March 14, 2013, Jonathan R. Sugarman, MD, MPH, President and CEO will be giving a presentation entitled Overview of the Safety Net Medial Home Initiative (SNMHI) and its Framework for Practice Transformation to participants in the 2013 National Medical Home Summit in Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Sugarman also serves as a Mini-Summit Chair for the conference. Qualis Health will also be exhibiting at the event. For more details, visit the summit website.

The Seattle Times recently profiled our Whatcom County-based care transitions project, Stepping Stones: Bridging Healthcare Gaps. The piece, titled, "The patient boomerang: Cutting hospital readmissions could save Medicare billions," detailed the impact this work had on reducing Medicare hospital readmissions.

An article in FierceEMR featured a WIREC report describing electronic health record adoption as a "psychological roller coaster" for small physician practices. The paper explains how the process involves unrealistic expectations that reach a peak right before implementation, a plunge into a "trough of disillusionment" and then a recovery phase involving a lot of hard work. Made public by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT late last week, the report outlines WIREC's experiences and challenges in helping its physicians adopt EHRs. The paper was also featured on the American Academy of Family Physicians' website.

WIREC Insider, January issue, features St. Luke’s Health System’s Dr. Mark Chasin giving his perspective on electronic health records (EHRs) and empowering patients. Also read about pertinent Meaningful Use burning questions answered by Health IT Consultant and Meaningful Use Coordinator, Trudy Bearden. You’ll also find upcoming WIREC webinars and more health IT news

This issue of Medical Home Digest is all about integration. It presents effective ways of adding previously separate services—behavioral healthcare and dental care—into primary care delivery. It also discusses successful techniques for incorporating patient and family experience into both individual care plans and practice quality improvement activities. Also included is information on how health information technology can support integration of medical home components and enable practices to provide, track and evaluate patient-centered care. Download the December 2012 Medical Home Digest.

Senior leaders from Qualis Health, including President and CEO Jonathan Sugarman, MD, MPH, and Chief Operating Officer Marci Weis, RN, MPH, CCM, are among the over 1,000 attendees at the 2012 QualityNet conference. A number of our staff members are also at the conference, including Sharon Eloranta, MD; Linda Rowe, LPN, MS, BS; and Selena Bolotin, LICSW, MSW, who are representing Qualis Health on several panels. This year's event is structured to break down "silos" within the healthcare delivery system, promote collaborative learning and hasten the spread of innovations that produce significant, widespread increases in quality.

Learn more about Humboldt County consumer engagement in this Safety Net Medical Home Initiative webinar. Speakers from Aligning Forces Humboldt and Eureka Community Health Center examined Humboldt's patient partner program and explored strategies for building similar programs. These included connecting community-based self-management support to practices, working with patients to improve care, and recruiting and training patient partners. Download the presentation slides or view the webinar recording.

In the November edition of WIREC Insider, read about Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson's visit to Idaho Falls' Rosemark WomenCare Specialists to discuss the clinic's concerns about Medicare reimbursements and the Affordable Care Act. You'll also learn more about the "50% Rule" that governs provider eligibility in the EHR Incentive Program. As always, you'll find plenty of health IT news and resources.

Qualis Health's latest annual Medicare case reviews for Idaho and Washington are now available. As the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for both states, we protect Medicare beneficiaries by investigating individuals' concerns about their care, or when they feel they are being discharged too soon. These annual reports examine case reviews that we have completed on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries in Idaho and Washington. Download the Qualis Health 2011-2012 reports for Idaho and Washington.

Continuing from Deeper Dive on Team Roles Part 1, this webinar from the Safety Net Medical Home Initiative focused on optimizing individual roles to support practice transformation. It included discussion of overcoming obstacles, navigating uncertainty and what's needed to support optimized roles. Speakers from participating sites also shared how they have transformed the roles of clinical pharmacist, registered nurse and medical assistant. Download the presentation slides or view the webinar recording.

Qualis Health, Saint Alphonsus Health System and St. Luke's Health System invite you to share your success with like-minded, mission-oriented healthcare professionals. The Idaho 2013 Annual Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Conference will be held April 4-5, and we are looking for speakers with innovative and informative messages based on the theme "Quality Improvement & Medication Management: Rx for Patient Safety."

Qualis Health has developed a new interactive tool kit to help area agencies on aging and others implement a community-based Care Transitions Intervention (CTI) coaching program. The tool kit is available on the website of the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services' Aging and Disability Services Administration at http://www.adsa.dshs.wa.gov/Professional/ADRC/documents/toolkit/Toolkit.pdf. The tool kit was prepared for organizations that have been, or will be, officially trained in the Care Transition Intervention® (CTI) model, and incorporates materials developed by Eric A. Coleman, MD, MPH. The tool kit is not intended as a substitute for training by the Care Transitions Program®, and does not authorize the user to implement the model independently.

The September issue of the Cardiac Learning & Action Network (LAN) newsletter addresses how EHRs can be used to help identify at-risk patients. This issue also presents techniques to help high-risk patients receive appropriate aspirin therapy.

Qualis Health is an educational collaborator for the Strong for Surgery initiative, which is identifying and improving evidence-based practices for elective surgical patients in four target areas: nutrition, glycemic control/diabetes management, smoking cessation and medication.

At the end of July, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report stating that healthcare providers who partnered with a Regional Extension Center (REC) were more than twice as likely to receive an incentive payment under the Medicare EHR Incentive Program. The August edition of WIREC Insider discusses details of this GAO report as well other news for providers interested in Meaningful Use.

The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) announced today the final rule for Stage 2 of meaningful use in the Electronic Health Records (EHR) Incentive Payments Program. This announcement marks the next step in transforming America's healthcare system to a health IT-enabled one.

This information-packed issue of the Safety Net Medical Home Initiative's Medical Home Digest features a broad array of topics related to medical home transformation and quality improvement. It contains articles on engaging staff in measurement and quality improvement, the role of the RN in direct patient care, and balancing supply and demand in a practice. Also included are two interviews, one reflecting on how to keep the patient voice at the center of care and another on Group Health's patient-centered approach to managing phone calls.