The Pulse

International leaders from the UK, Ireland and the US are meeting for a two-day symposium in Dublin (30 April – 1 May 2018) to

As organizations embark on transformation, a well-developed strategic plan serves as the framework for insuring planned changes contribute to reaching goals and measures of success.

Webinars are a dime a dozen. So, when HealthTeamWorks decided to enter this space, we wanted to do things a little different.

Early in March, nine Care Managers from across the Kansas City metro attended our first “Care Manager Training: Solutions. Strategies. Success” session in Lenexa, Kansas. We spent two and one-half days engaging in learning activities focused on defining the role, integrating into the existing care team, and establishing care management processes.

In an era where healthcare costs are high, it is essential that primary care practices address utilization of the hospital and provide appropriate follow-up and preventative services for the patients.

Many practices seek NCQA recognition to ensure their patients get the best care at the right time. Participation in this program demonstrates a provider's commitment to follow specific guidelines to improve their patients’ health.

Here are some lessons learned from one of our clients, a provider system that is working with practices to achieve NCQA recognition*:

If you’ve spent any time in your career as a trainer, you’ve heard the words: “It’s a training issue”.  More often than not, it’s not a training issue, but something else.

There is a misconception that attending a training event or activity will resolve performance issues or magically transform an employee’s skills or competencies. In fact, the training event is only the beginning.

From achieving recognition to hitting milestones in a value-based plan to optimizing workflow processes, HealthTeamWorks® helped several practices meet a variety of different and important goals throughout the past year. Here are some shared key learnings in application

In July 2011 HealthTeamWorks began training Quality Improvement Coaches, Practice Facilitators, and Practice Managers in methods of successful practice facilitation using principles of Quality Improvement. Since then, we have hosted over 200 participants from healthcare practices and systems from around the country.

HealthTeamWorks is a nationally recognized leader in healthcare transformation with over 20 years of experience helping medical practices, physician organizations and integrated delivery networks (IDNs) improve their performance in delivering value-based services. Through partnership and innovation, their subject matter expertise and service solutions have helped providers improve clinical quality outcomes, patient experience, and provider vitality, while reducing escalation in per capita cost of medical care.

If HealthTeamWorks Solution Center is your ‘Go To for How To’, a significant element has to be interacting with others across the country.

The Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative (TPCi) is a national initiative funded by The Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) to prepare clinicians to be successful in new value-based compensation models by providing onsite facilitation and coaching and clinical health information technology support.

Paul Grundy, MD, MPH FACOEM FACPM, the “godfather” of the Patient Centered Medical Home movement and member of the Institute of Medicine, was hired by HealthTeamWorks as the Global Director of Healthcare Transformation.

Transformation is defined as thorough and dramatic change. There is no doubt that health care has required thorough change to shift from fee-for-service (FFS) to value-based payment. As practices and healthcare system begin to change, buy-in for the changes is essential for everyone. From patients, front office staff, back office staff, interdisciplinary team members, providers & the medical neighbor, we cannot change alone. 

Much like evidence-based medicine and clinical care pathways, there is much to gain by following a “what works” approach to network design and development. Based on years of experience studying and building effective value-based networks of physicians, HealthTeamWorks has identified 7 proven levers or drivers of change and performance.

I am excited to share with you our expanded workforce development trainings and workshops. Over the past few months, our training team has been busy not only providing a series of trainings, but they have also been cooking up exciting new offerings for 2018.

To prepare for the shift to pay-for-performance, many primary care practices are participating in formal quality improvement initiatives. Each of these initiatives requires clinical quality measure reporting. Many payers require reporting on selected clinical quality measures too. Practices are reporting burnout associated with these increased demands and limited resources. A solution to alleviate some of the burden is by proactively identifying overlap in CQMs.

Keeping pace with the many changes in healthcare can be overwhelming. Having connections to people with visibility to trends and best practices across many regions, as well as to peers applying solutions in real time, can greatly accelerate change.