Patient Centered Medical Home Collaborative

The Washington Patient-Centered Medical Home Collaborative (PCMHC) – in partnership with the Washington Department of Health, is a learning collaborative aimed at providing education and support to primary care practices that improve patient health outcomes by:

• Transforming primary care delivery
• Integrating quality improvement and data collection methods into practice
• Increasing efficiency and satisfaction for both patients and the health care team
• Incorporating population-based strategies for patient management
• Developing and applying strategies to expand and sustain improvements to care

Program:
In early 2009, the WAFP actively recruited primary care practices(family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatricians)  to participate in the collaborative and by May the same year, there were 33 primary care practices  participating in the collaborative.  The program focus is on the implementation of four quality improvement strategies to meet evidence based clinical measures for diabetes.  These measures are consistent with the Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance, (AQA), and the National Commission for Quality Assurance (NCQA), and the National Quality Forum (NQF).  The four strategies include:

• Use of a registry
• Use of condition specific decision support tools
• Creation, use, and monitoring of practice wide protocols
• Education and support of patients in performing self-management of their disease

The second phase or long-term program focus is to assist primary care practices in transforming how care is delivered by adopting practice characteristics identified in the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC). The Collaborative believes that, if implemented, the patient centered medical home will improve the health of patients and the viability of the healthcare delivery system Physician.  http://www.pcpcc.net/joint-principles

Benefits:
Each participating practice will have a Quality Improvement Coach (QIC) to assist in the implementation of the measures.  Practices will report on non-protected data measures, and receive performance feedback.  In addition, successful implementation can assist physicians and practices in:

• Becoming recognized by NCQA as a Physician Practice Connections - Patient Centered Medical Home (PPC-PCMH)
• Collecting additional payment from Medicare’s Patient Quality Reporting Initiative, and
• Receiving continuing medical education (CME) credit from many professional societies

WAFP & Beacon Community of Inland Northwest Health Services

The Washington Academy of Family Physicians (WAFP) is a sub-awardee of The Beacon Community of the Inland Northwest (BCIN) project. BCIN plans to improve management of chronic diseases, especially adult Type 2 diabetes, through the meaningful use of health information technology (HIT) across mostly rural, Eastern Washington and Northwest Idaho.

WAFP will provide Coaching services in support of these efforts and work closely with other BCIN partners.

Who are the BCIN Partners?
Led by INHS, other BCIN partners include Community Choice, the Washington State Department of Health, the Critical Access Hospital Network, SAIC and the North Central Washington Health Collaborative.

Twenty-five hospitals, 18 federally-qualified health centers and more than 3200 physicians, as well as pharmacies and long term care agencies across the region have indicated interest in collaborating on the BCIN.

What is the BCIN?
The BCIN is one of 15 communities across the country selected by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services to serve as pilot communities to demonstrate the value of HIT in improving health outcomes.

Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the cooperative agreement (Award Number 90BC0011, CFDA 93.727) will allow the BCIN to increase care coordination for patients with diabetes in rural and urban communities across 14 counties in eastern Washington and northern Idaho. This will be accomplished by

1. Extending health information exchange throughout the region to provide a higher level of connectivity and communication between health care providers;
2. Establishing common processes for managing and coordinating care for individuals with diabetes; and
3. Implementing tools for tracking and reporting quality measures associated with diabetes.

http://www.inhs.info/BCIN/June/index.html

Clinical Performance Improvement Network (CPIN)

The Washington Academy of Family Physicians has partnered with the Washington State Medical Association, and the Puget Sound Health Alliance to create the Clinical Performance Improvement Network (CPIN), an educational program designed to assist physician practices focus efforts on quality improvement.

The goal of CPIN is to offer opportunities for medical practices to collaborate with one another, sharing best practices, proven innovations, tools, and resources to stimulate accelerated and efficient implementation into practice settings. The initial target audience is medium and small-sized primary care practices with a focus on evidence-based care, especially for chronic conditions and preventive services..

CPIN offers learning network events bimonthly or quarterly, either in person or via web conferences. The sessions are scheduled for early morning, over the lunch hour, or at other times to accommodate individuals with busy practice schedules. Event duration ranges from 60-90 minutes, with the general format being formal presentations on a range of topics from local or national provider organizations, with ample time reserved for discussion and networking (for in-person meetings). AMA Category 1 CME credit and AAFP Preferred CME credit will be available for most sessions at no cost to participants.  http://www.wsma.org/CPIN#about

Washington & Idaho Regional Extension Center (WIREC)

WAFP is actively involved in supporting program communications for the Washington & Idaho Regional Extension Center (WIREC), WIREC provides technical assistance, guidance, vendor-neutral EHR adoption services, & information to healthcare professionals to help them achieve meaningful use of EHRs and qualify for CMS incentives. Primary care practices may qualify to receive WIREC services at no charge, resulting from Recovery Act funds awarded to WIREC from the US Department of Health and Human Services. There are a limited number of slots available to Recovery Act-funded participants.http://www.wirecqh.org/

Health Information Exchange in Washington State: “OneHealthPort”

WAFP serves on the Provider Outreach and Health IT Advisory Council, and is involved in the Health Information Exchange progress in Washington State.

Project Background
The health industry in the Evergreen State has been working for years to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs. One of the main barriers to progress has been the inability to easily share health information between and among health organizations. Because patient information is fragmented across hundreds of enterprises, it is difficult for any one enterprise to significantly improve their performance without engaging their trading partners.

Technology and business solutions need to be created that allow organizations to appropriately share data externally, while also enhancing use of information internally. Clearly, there is a need for comprehensive Health Information Exchange (HIE).

http://onehealthport.com/HIE/start.php (getting started)