(SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced Tuesday that PeaceHealth is one of 39 health care collaborative networks selected to participate in the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative (TCPI)

Burwell announced a total of $685 million in awards to 39 national and regional health care networks and supporting organizations to help equip more than 140,000 clinicians nationwide with the tools and support needed to improve quality of care, increase patients’ access to information, and reduce costs. The Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative is one of the largest federal investments designed to support doctors and other clinicians in all 50 states through collaborative and peer-based learning networks.

PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center (PHKMC) was selected to participate in this 4-year grant program receiving $3,656,522 the first year of the grant to provide technical assistance support to help equip clinicians in the Pacific Northwest (Alaska, Washington and Oregon).

Secretary Burwell released the awards in conjunction with a roundtable discussion Tuesday with Members of Congress and health care leaders on the transformation taking place across our nation to move our health care system to one that rewards value over volume.

"Supporting doctors and other health care professionals change the way they work is critical to improving quality and spending our health care dollars more wisely," said Secretary Burwell. "These awards will give patients more of the information they need to make informed decisions about their care and give clinicians access to information and support to improve care coordination and quality outcomes."

As a Practice Transformation Network, PeaceHealth will support 577 clinicians to expand their quality improvement capacity, learn from one another, and achieve common goals of improved care, better health, and reduced cost.

"We at PeaceHealth are pleased that our continued efforts toward improving health in all the communities we serve through innovative approaches have been recognized by CMS via this TCPI grant award. Our goals are clear -- enhancing our care delivery model resulting in improved health outcomes while reducing unnecessary health care expenditures. This grant will support that on-going work consistent with PeaceHealth's mission," said Ken Tonjes, CAO and CFO of PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center.

In addition, these practices are critical to the work PeaceHealth is doing to support population health.

"This grant allows us to build upon the lessons learned from our Ketchikan colleagues who streamlined these practices through a previous CMS grant. It also provides resources for expanding the practices throughout PeaceHealth communities in Oregon and Washington," said Mike Metcalf, President of PeaceHealth Medical Group.

The new grant project will continue to transform the care delivery provided by PeaceHealth Medical Group with both primary care and specialty providers, working in tandem to integrate clinical findings, health metrics data and chronic disease registry outcomes to identify high risk patient populations, validate success of interventions, and determine opportunities for further intervention. By working to manage care, provide proper clinical follow-up, and remove barriers to appropriate care--the goals of improving clinical outcomes--improving overall individual and community health, and preventing unnecessary health expenditures will be achieved. The newly awarded grant will build upon the learnings of PHKMC's three-year Health Care Innovation Award (HCIA) grant, which completed in June 2015. Michele Budd, VP of Ambulatory Services in Ketchikan, will continue to provide leadership for this new grant.

The initiative is one part of a strategy advanced by the Affordable Care Act to strengthen the quality of patient care and spend health care dollars more wisely. It aligns with the criteria for innovative models set forth in the Affordable Care Act:

• Promoting broad payment and practice reform in primary care and specialty care,
• Promoting care coordination between providers of services and suppliers,
• Establishing community-based health teams to support chronic care management, and
• Promoting improved quality and reduced cost by developing a collaborative of institutions that support practice transformation.

Summary of PeaceHealth Ketchikan's project abstract states, "The network aims to engage nearly 600 employed clinicians through the implementation of team-based care models within the practices. These teams will work in tandem to integrate clinical findings, health metrics data and chronic disease registry outcomes in a shared effort to identify high risk populations, validate success of interventions, and determine opportunities for further intervention. Through the network, the teams will improve management of care transitions to ensure proper clinical follow-up and remove barriers to appropriate care. The goals behind this evolution are to improve clinical outcomes, improve overall individual and community health, and prevent unnecessary health expenditures."

On the Web:

Transforming Clinical Practices Initiative
http://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/Transforming-Clinical-Practices/

Edited by Mary Kauffman, SitNews

Source of News:

PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center
www.peacehealth.org/ketchikan

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
http://www.hhs.gov

SitNews ©2015
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Ketchikan, Alaska

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