Care Transformation: Care Team Roles and Realignment
CP43 - Care Transformation: Care Team Roles and Realignment
CP43 - Care Transformation: Care Team Roles and Realignment
Poster Type: Innovation
Category: Workforce
Issue or Challenge: Community Health Care is working to transition to value-based care and alternative payment models. Care team transformation and the reevaluation of staff roles and responsibilities is a critical part of this transition. In addition, provider and staff administrative and clerical tasks are a large contributor to burnout, leading to lower job satisfaction and engagement. CHC established a centralized team for medication, referral, diagnostic and document management that focused on medical assistants working to the top of their license. Many administrative and clerical tasks were shifted from patient-facing staff members to this centralized team, increasing staff satisfaction while improving patient care.
Description of Innovation: A Patient Access Center (PAC) was developed to address medication management (medication refills and prior authorizations), referrals (tracking and closure), diagnostics (prior authorizations, scheduling and tracking), chart updates and document management. These tasks were all originally part of each care team members’ responsibilities, which led to multiple workflows and inconsistencies as patient facing staff were interrupted often during the day. PAC shifted this work to a centralized team of MA experts without patient facing responsibilities. Medication refills are now automatically routed to the team who follows an algorithm to refill medications or reassign back to the provider when indicated. Referrals ordered as part of a visit are automatically routed to the PAC team for processing and tracking to completion. Similarly, diagnostics are automatically routed to the team for tracking and any necessary prior authorizations. Patient charts are updated by PAC team members via a validated algorithm to ensure updated chronic problem lists, medication lists, immunization records, as well as medical/surgical histories. Lastly, PAC team members process and scan documents into patient charts as they arrive, so they are available to the care teams when needed.
Impact or Result: Mediation Management: An average of 2,500 medications are refilled per month by the PAC team which is ~46% of all refills. This has decreased each providers’ after-hour work time 4-6 hours per week. Referrals: The PAC team processes ~4,500 referrals per quarter and tracks these for completion. Diagnostics: The PAC team processes ~3,500 diagnostics per quarter and ensures prior authorization completion and timely processes. Chart Updates: PAC team members follow an algorithm to update patient charts for all consultant referral notes. This improves patient safety with more accurate charts and increases UDS measure documentation compliance. Soon, ER and hospital notes will also be part of this algorithm.Document management: The PAC team scans ~20,000 documents per month into charts. Overall: The average number of items in each MA inbox decreased from 21 in August 2020 to 8 in December 2020. Provider engagement increased 7% and nursing staff engagement increased 10%.
Replicating this Innovation: We suggest approaching a transition like this as a partnership between leadership and key stakeholders. We formally documented all care team members’ tasks in order to determine which tasks should remain with the care team and which could be transitioned to the centralized team. We then did multiple time studies to determine the expected amount of work produced per centralized PAC team member (number of completed medication refills/hour for example). We then prioritized the parts of the PAC team and transitioned one aspect at a time, transferring 2-3 FTEs every few months to the centralized team.
Author(s):
Rebecca Hayes, MD, MEHP, CMO - Pediatric and Internal Medicine Physician, Community Health Care
Theresa Jennings, DNP, ARNP, FNP-c, Family Nurse Practitioner, Clinical Assistant Professor, Community Health Care, Inc; University of Iowa College of Nursing
Poster Type: Innovation
Category: Workforce
Issue or Challenge: Community Health Care is working to transition to value-based care and alternative payment models. Care team transformation and the reevaluation of staff roles and responsibilities is a critical part of this transition. In addition, provider and staff administrative and clerical tasks are a large contributor to burnout, leading to lower job satisfaction and engagement. CHC established a centralized team for medication, referral, diagnostic and document management that focused on medical assistants working to the top of their license. Many administrative and clerical tasks were shifted from patient-facing staff members to this centralized team, increasing staff satisfaction while improving patient care.
Description of Innovation: A Patient Access Center (PAC) was developed to address medication management (medication refills and prior authorizations), referrals (tracking and closure), diagnostics (prior authorizations, scheduling and tracking), chart updates and document management. These tasks were all originally part of each care team members’ responsibilities, which led to multiple workflows and inconsistencies as patient facing staff were interrupted often during the day. PAC shifted this work to a centralized team of MA experts without patient facing responsibilities. Medication refills are now automatically routed to the team who follows an algorithm to refill medications or reassign back to the provider when indicated. Referrals ordered as part of a visit are automatically routed to the PAC team for processing and tracking to completion. Similarly, diagnostics are automatically routed to the team for tracking and any necessary prior authorizations. Patient charts are updated by PAC team members via a validated algorithm to ensure updated chronic problem lists, medication lists, immunization records, as well as medical/surgical histories. Lastly, PAC team members process and scan documents into patient charts as they arrive, so they are available to the care teams when needed.
Impact or Result: Mediation Management: An average of 2,500 medications are refilled per month by the PAC team which is ~46% of all refills. This has decreased each providers’ after-hour work time 4-6 hours per week. Referrals: The PAC team processes ~4,500 referrals per quarter and tracks these for completion. Diagnostics: The PAC team processes ~3,500 diagnostics per quarter and ensures prior authorization completion and timely processes. Chart Updates: PAC team members follow an algorithm to update patient charts for all consultant referral notes. This improves patient safety with more accurate charts and increases UDS measure documentation compliance. Soon, ER and hospital notes will also be part of this algorithm.Document management: The PAC team scans ~20,000 documents per month into charts. Overall: The average number of items in each MA inbox decreased from 21 in August 2020 to 8 in December 2020. Provider engagement increased 7% and nursing staff engagement increased 10%.
Replicating this Innovation: We suggest approaching a transition like this as a partnership between leadership and key stakeholders. We formally documented all care team members’ tasks in order to determine which tasks should remain with the care team and which could be transitioned to the centralized team. We then did multiple time studies to determine the expected amount of work produced per centralized PAC team member (number of completed medication refills/hour for example). We then prioritized the parts of the PAC team and transitioned one aspect at a time, transferring 2-3 FTEs every few months to the centralized team.
Author(s):
Rebecca Hayes, MD, MEHP, CMO - Pediatric and Internal Medicine Physician, Community Health Care
Theresa Jennings, DNP, ARNP, FNP-c, Family Nurse Practitioner, Clinical Assistant Professor, Community Health Care, Inc; University of Iowa College of Nursing
Speaker(s): Author(s):
A Multi-Network, Nationwide Survey of EHR Satisfaction in CHC Users
CP44 - A Multi-Network, Nationwide Survey of EHR Satisfaction in CHC Users
CP44 - A Multi-Network, Nationwide Survey of EHR Satisfaction in CHC Users
Poster Type: Innovation
Category: Workforce
Issue or Challenge: The Arch Collaborative is an initiative by KLAS, a healthcare information technology (IT) research company, to gather insights on electronic health record (EHR) satisfaction through a nationwide survey of providers. Until now, the survey has focused on academic and private medical centers. AllianceChicago, a health center controlled network (HCCN), partnered with six other HCCNs to distribute the survey nationwide to gain insight into CHC EHR user satisfaction. In total, 126 of the 148 invited health centers used the survey and received 3,517 responses that will inform intervention strategies to improve EHR user satisfaction and address provider burden.
Description of Innovation: The Arch Collaborative survey has provided KLAS and medical institutions with a wealth of knowledge on EHR satisfaction. Because the survey has been given to providers who use a variety of EHR systems in academic and private medical centers, KLAS has distilled the responses into common elements that are associated with EHR satisfaction regardless of software brand. Before now, this survey had not been deployed to CHC providers, and the user habits of the CHC community were unknown. Our project aimed to fill that gap by partnering with other HCCNs across the country to deploy the survey to our respective network of health centers with a result of 126C HCs using the survey for a total of 3,517 responses from their clinical staff. AllianceChicago and its six partner HCCNs now have a robust data set of EHR usage and satisfaction rates that focus specifically on the unique needs of CHC users. This data will be used to inform EHR satisfaction interventions specifically for CHC users, to fulfil the HCCN grant goal of optimizing the provider experience and promoting joy in work while reducing provider burnout.
Impact or Result: This project was the result of a collaboration between seven HCCNs to reach a scale of CHCs larger than many other previous projects or initiatives. Concordantly, there is now a collaborative reaching 126 CHCs around the country focusing on the specific EHR needs of their providers. Each HCCN received data for their own network CHCs; the collaborative is currently in the process of compiling data from each of the seven HCCNs to analyze any larger trends that may be occurring across CHCs.
Replicating this Innovation: Each of the seven HCCNs involved in this project received their own data after the survey deployment; however, we are now discussing a plan to integrate all our data into a much larger data set to get nationwide insights on EHR use and satisfaction in CHCs. Eight additional HCCNs across the country expressed interested in joining the second iteration of our survey this coming year or are making plans to replicate the survey within their own network. All were open to and interested in exploring the idea of pooling the data set to contribute towards stronger CHC-to-CHC benchmarking.
Author(s):
Rebecca Silverman, MPH, Quality Improvement Advisor, AllianceChicago
Poster Type: Innovation
Category: Workforce
Issue or Challenge: The Arch Collaborative is an initiative by KLAS, a healthcare information technology (IT) research company, to gather insights on electronic health record (EHR) satisfaction through a nationwide survey of providers. Until now, the survey has focused on academic and private medical centers. AllianceChicago, a health center controlled network (HCCN), partnered with six other HCCNs to distribute the survey nationwide to gain insight into CHC EHR user satisfaction. In total, 126 of the 148 invited health centers used the survey and received 3,517 responses that will inform intervention strategies to improve EHR user satisfaction and address provider burden.
Description of Innovation: The Arch Collaborative survey has provided KLAS and medical institutions with a wealth of knowledge on EHR satisfaction. Because the survey has been given to providers who use a variety of EHR systems in academic and private medical centers, KLAS has distilled the responses into common elements that are associated with EHR satisfaction regardless of software brand. Before now, this survey had not been deployed to CHC providers, and the user habits of the CHC community were unknown. Our project aimed to fill that gap by partnering with other HCCNs across the country to deploy the survey to our respective network of health centers with a result of 126C HCs using the survey for a total of 3,517 responses from their clinical staff. AllianceChicago and its six partner HCCNs now have a robust data set of EHR usage and satisfaction rates that focus specifically on the unique needs of CHC users. This data will be used to inform EHR satisfaction interventions specifically for CHC users, to fulfil the HCCN grant goal of optimizing the provider experience and promoting joy in work while reducing provider burnout.
Impact or Result: This project was the result of a collaboration between seven HCCNs to reach a scale of CHCs larger than many other previous projects or initiatives. Concordantly, there is now a collaborative reaching 126 CHCs around the country focusing on the specific EHR needs of their providers. Each HCCN received data for their own network CHCs; the collaborative is currently in the process of compiling data from each of the seven HCCNs to analyze any larger trends that may be occurring across CHCs.
Replicating this Innovation: Each of the seven HCCNs involved in this project received their own data after the survey deployment; however, we are now discussing a plan to integrate all our data into a much larger data set to get nationwide insights on EHR use and satisfaction in CHCs. Eight additional HCCNs across the country expressed interested in joining the second iteration of our survey this coming year or are making plans to replicate the survey within their own network. All were open to and interested in exploring the idea of pooling the data set to contribute towards stronger CHC-to-CHC benchmarking.
Author(s):
Rebecca Silverman, MPH, Quality Improvement Advisor, AllianceChicago
Speaker(s):