In 2008, CentraCare, a clinic in Becker, Minn, was not pleased with its percentage of patients who were receiving optimal care. Just 5% of their diabetes patients were receiving proper care as outlined by state guidelines. The scores, created by the Minnesota Aligning Forces for Quality Alliance, MN Community Measurement, evaluate doctors, care facilities, and hospitals on a variety of indicators of good health, including the number of people who successfully manage their diabetes condition. These scores were released for just this purpose: benchmarking the current state of care...
The Puget Sound Health Alliance and the State of
To date, the Maine AF4Q alliance has focused its consumer engagement efforts on informing people that quality measures are publicly available and can be used to select a health care provider and educating and encouraging consumers to use information available through the consumer-friendly and popular public reporting website, www.GetBetterMaine.org. Now, the Maine AF4Q alliance is conducting a statewide, sustained consumer campaign that engages Maine people to take specific actions needed to improve their own...
Oregon’s Patients and Families as Leaders program works with five health care organizations to include patients in all levels of health care decision-making. The program now includes over 70 patient and family advisors. Providence Medical Group, one of the participating health care organizations, has enrolled a number of patient and family advisors, including Margie Turner.
Margie has had a range of health care experiences - both good and bad. So when she was asked to join Providence Medical Group’s Patient & Family Advisory Council to help improve care for others,...
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Electronic health records (EHRs) are considered an essential ingredient of care coordination by Medical Homes; however, detailed descriptions of how it actually happens in real life are rarely found. eHealth Initiative, working with sanofi-aventis and Health & Technology Vector (H&TV), recently concluded an exploratory project to understand how eHRs can be used to improve care coordination for complex patients. The project provided a multi-dimensional picture of this one element of transforming primary care to the medical home. It began with an operational definition of, and...
As the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model of care for primary care physicians continues to gain momentum in the nation as a way to promote high quality and cost effective care, a new group of primary care practices in Cincinnati began a two year program to transform their practices. The first two cohorts will be wrapping up their program in September. Nineteen of these practices have achieved National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) recognition which can position them for higher reimbursement as well as guide patients...