MDNews - Cleveland-Akron-Canton

NewHealth Collaborative: A recipe for Success By Mark Terpylak, DO O U R H E A LT H C A R E S YS T E M today is like every other system ��� designed for the exact results it achieves: unsustainably high costs; extremely variable access, quality and service; and poorly aggregated outcomes across the entire population. NewHealth Collaborative, a clinicianled Accountable Care Organization in Akron, Ohio, is committed to creating processes that deliver the right care, at the right time, at the right place, and at the right cost. Our goal is to transform the current ���sick care��� system to a ���well care��� system that rewards primary care, prevention and wellness. The Collaborative���s guiding principles are based on Dr. Don Berwick���s Triple Aim: improving the experience of care, better health for populations, and reducing per-capita costs. Our focus is on effective integration and coordination of health care. Transparency is crucial in achieving this, including transparency in terms of our objectives and clinical outcomes. We are creating a true partnership among providers, hospitals and payers. Transparency equals open communication with everyone involved. The Collaborative is a work in progress, and there are three important ���ingredients��� to our ���recipe���: Clinical Communication Center, Care Management, and Patient-Centered Medical Home. In October 2012, the Clinica l Communication Center went live with its first Collaborative provider group. The Clinical Communication Center is not your traditional after-hours answering service staffed with non-clinical personnel; rather, 16 | Cleveland/Akron/Canton MD News it is an extension of the Collaborative provider���s practice. It is enhanced call management for Collaborative providers through nurse triage functionality and connectivity to electronic health records. The Clinical Communication Center increases integration and coordination of health care. The Center���s nursing staff can assist patients in getting the right care at the right place, whether that may be over the phone, in a provider���s office or the emergency department. The second key ingredient to the Collaborative���s success is our Care Management team concept that extends beyond primary care providers. We are identifying and implementing strategies for enhanced management of high-risk patients in the ambulatory and community settings. The challenge to the coordination of chronic care lies partly in the need to sustain vigilant monitoring of health indicators to optimize an individual���s treatment plan. There also is the need to develop strong, meaningful collaborative relationships with patients and families that help in day-to-day health management. We also are looking to integrate behavioral health care for patients in primary care. The last of the ingredients is the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model. R. James Dom Dera, MD, medical director of the PCMH for NewHealth Collaborative, says it best: ���The PCMH is not a place, but that���s a common misconception. It���s a redesign of how primary care is organized and delivered, making it more team-based and highly coordinated. It puts the needs of the patients first. The patient is the center of our universe.��� ��� MDNEWS.COM ��� JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2013 The PCMH model includes the following: + Enhanced access + Use of data for population management + Care management + Pat ient sel f- c a re supp or t a nd community resources + Tracking and coordination of care + Continuous quality improvement The patient IS the center of our universe. The Collaborative uses the foundational activities described above within the framework of the Triple Aim to transform the delivery of health care to its patients. Communication is key ��� solid communication between the Collaborative and its participating providers, between primary care and specialists and between providers and patients. ���Ideally, nothing will look different to our patients,��� explains Rodney Ison, MD, NewHealth Collaborative chair. ���All they���ll know is that each provider will know more about them than they did before. You won���t go to see your family doctor and tell him you were in the ER three weeks ago and find out he had no idea.��� Dr. Mark Terpylak is president of NewHea lt h Collaborative, a n Accountable Care Organization with more than 400 physicians who manage 40,000 patient lives in Summit and surrounding counties. ���

• Cover