Quality Programs
PHP is committed to continuous quality improvement through the development of clinical strategies such as the Planned Care Model and Electronic Health Records initiatives. Providers want to reduce unnecessary paperwork and outdated office protocols in order to focus on what patients want: high quality, reliable, patient-centered care. The Department of Practice Quality is dedicated to assisting our physician partners in adopting these innovative, cutting edge strategies.
The Department of Practice Quality, provides a catalyst for the adoption of best practice for our physicians, both in clinical care and system design through the following core strategies:
PHP’s Department of Practice Quality helps doctors work more effectively to improve the performance of their clinical and operational processes. Practice Coaches work with providers and key office personnel to critically examine work flow issues with the primary goal of enhancing the patient experience and improving quality of care delivery. Utilizing various tools including registries and techniques for continuous quality improvement, PHP assists practices to manage populations of patients with specific disease states.
To contact the PHP Department of Practice Quality, click here
Quality Initiatives
Quick Links:
Chronic Care Population Strategies
PHP believes that caring for patients with chronic illnesses is the cornerstone of primary care and will become an increasing demand on the primary care physician’s office in the future. The Department of Practice Quality collaborates with our primary care providers to implement proven strategies for efficient care of patients with chronic disease. PHP recognizes that patients are becoming better educated and sophisticated, and will demand that their PCP have a proven track record of delivering high quality care. We recognize that healthcare payers are also concerned with efficient, proactive healthcare. A key offering of the Practice Quality Department is The Planned Care Model initiative which provides the framework for high quality patient care.
The Planned Care Model includes these six system components for people with chronic illnesses:
- Patient Self Management Goals
- Decision Support (evidence-based medical guidelines)
- Clinical Information Systems (registries)
- Delivery System Design (reworking office workflow)
- Organization of Health Care (mission and goals)
- Community Resources
The implementation of the Planned Care Model into the physician’s office workflow and care delivery is a proven strategy to improve the quality of care delivered to patients in both adult and pediatric settings.
If you are interested in how PHP supports the Planned Care Model in an adult setting, click here. If you are interested in how PHP supports the Planned Care Model in a pediatric setting, click here
Core Components of the Program:
Clinical Excellence Outcomes
Demonstrated quality is the price of admission in the information age. Clinical Excellence is becoming increasingly measurable and publicly reported by health plans, payers and oversight agencies. Primary care physicians and other providers must prepare for quality transparency, and to respond to the plan’s published data when it occurs. We intend for every PHP affiliated practice to achieve clinical excellence in chronic care management, and to achieve better reimbursement and market share advantages as a result. Having systems to manage chronic care is becoming a business advantage as payers begin to reward quality. Through PHP’s data extraction and management expertise, we can help ensure a fair and accurate measurement of physicians’ performance.
The Department of Practice Quality has a proven track record of demonstrating excellence in clinical outcomes in the primary care setting in the Denver Metro area. PHP demonstrates excellence in clinical outcomes reporting through the following initiatives:
Workflow Assessment and Improvement
In order to create a positive care experience for patients and satisfied providers and staff, it is important to look at the system in which care is provided. In the busy environment of clinical office practice, it is often difficult to take time to examine current office workflow and understand if they are working efficiently and effectively to achieve the desired outcome.
PHP assists physician offices by examining office workflow in detail, identifying bottlenecks and duplicate work and creating new, better process steps in order achieve the delivery of effective, efficient clinical care, and satisfied patients, providers and staff.
PHP’s Delivery System Redesign Program includes the following core components:
- Baseline office assessment providing information on office culture, readiness for change and office processes
- Evaluation of the patient experience and the average time a patient spends in a practice
- Training on Lean methodology
- Assistance in understanding and creating new, better workflow steps in order to eliminate barriers, bottlenecks, and “waste”
- Assistance in defining roles and distributing tasks among team members
- Training around the use of planned interactions with your patients to support evidence-based care
- Assistance implementing systems to ensure timely access to information and regular follow-up by the care team
- Opportunity to learn from best-practice workflow models
Clinical Information System Tools
Patient Care Registry
PHP has developed a web-based application to provide support to practice groups in monitoring patient care. The Patient Care Registry is a tool designed to track the health of patients with a defined chronic condition such as diabetes, asthma, or cardiovascular disease. This registry captures pertinent clinical and statistical information over time and enables clinicians to better identify and treat the patient’s specific condition. It also allows the clinician and PHP to track aggregate outcomes and trends of targeted populations and monitor the practice group’s performance over time. PHP’s Practice Quality Department currently makes the Patient Care Registry available to every PPP practice along with curriculum and training designed to facilitate implementation of the chronic care model and delivery system concepts.
- Track the practice’s patients with targeted disease states
- Add and edit visit data in the database
- Produce Patient Reports to assist with patient self-management
- Produce Provider Summary Reports
- Produce Lists of Patients who may need proactive management
Diabetic Registry Link: http://pcr.phpmcs.com Asthma Registry Link: http://registry.phpmcs.com
Community Partnerships
Improving Performance in Practice (IPIP) Initiative
In 2007, Physician Health Partners entered into a partnership with Colorado Clinical Guidelines Collaborative to measurably improve and sustain clinical outcomes through practice re-design. Colorado Clinical Guidelines Collaborative (CCGC) has received grant funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Amendment 35 (Tobacco money) and the Colorado Trust to fund the Improving Performance In Practice (IPIP) Grant. This initiative utilizes the principles of the Planned Care Model and office redesign to support physicians in creating systems to manage patients with diabetes and asthma. The goal is to improve quality scores on nationally accepted performance parameters.
Program Goals & Objectives
IPIP seeks to integrate quality improvement techniques and tools in the primary care setting to support improvements in clinical care. This includes incorporating population-based strategies into the delivery of care to targeted disease states.
Practice Benefits include:
- National recognition for managing chronic conditions
- Ability to compare your practice information to others across the nation
- Access to national and international consultants specializing in office system re-design, Lean Training/Toyota Production Systems, Group Visits, Advanced or Open Access
- CME Credits and COPIC points for participation
Asthma Initiative
Background
With the increase in patients suffering from chronic diseases, providers are searching for methods to improve the care of their chronically ill patients. Colorado Pediatric Partners (CPP) and Physician Health Partners (PHP) have been working collaboratively with The Children’s Hospital (TCH) and Colorado Asthma & Allergy to design a standard of care and a patient registry that will be an effective tool for pediatric providers to track and treat their asthmatic patients. CPP and TCH are using the theories of the Planned Care Model as the paradigm of care to be implemented in CPP practices. The objectives of this collaboration are:
- Reduce ER visits and hospitalizations for asthmatic patients
- Change direction from acute care to planned care with a focus on quality
- Develop systems to improve the quality of care
- Develop systems to improve the reimbursement for pediatric physicians
- Improve the communication between PCPs and specialists to improve the quality of care
Core components of the program are:
- Planned Care Model Curriculum: Teach the concepts of the chronic care model through learning sessions at the primary care office.
- Practice Assessment: survey tools are distributed and tabulated to identify practice readiness for change, chronic disease guidelines and office systems
- Practice Redesign Team: Assistance from the Quality Staff (Practice Coach) to implement the components of the Planned Care Model
- Use of a patient care registry to track patient and population targets for quality improvement
Diabetes/Cardiovascular Disease Initiative
Background
With the increase in patients suffering from chronic diseases, providers are searching for methods to improve care of their chronically ill patients. Physician Health Partners (PHP) and Primary Physician Partners (PPP) implemented the Planned Care Model in March of 2005 to address the need to improve care provided to diabetic patients across the physician network. Cardiovascular disease will be added to the overall quality initiative in September of 2007. Improving the care to patients with these chronic diseases is a strategy for PHP to make a difference in health care. The Planned Care Model focuses on workflow redesign, self-management goals, electronic tracking tools, and community support to improve the care of patients with chronic conditions.
The objectives of this initiative are:
- Change direction from acute care to planned care with a focus on quality
- Develop systems to improve quality of care
- Increase the number of physicians in the network who have obtained the 90th percentile of quality, as measured by national standards
- Provide the initial steps toward clinical integration
Core components of the program are:
- Planned Care Model Curriculum: Teach the concepts of the chronic care model through learning sessions at the primary care office.
- Practice Assessment: survey tools are distributed and tabulated to identify practice readiness for change, chronic disease guidelines and office systems
- Practice Redesign Team: Assistance from the Quality Staff (Practice Coach) to implement the components of the Planned Care Model
- Use of a patient care registry to track patient and population targets for quality improvement
NCQA Physician Recognition Initiative
Physician Health Partners (PHP) and Primary Physician Partners (PPP) are dedicated to developing and maintaining a network of physicians focused on providing high quality services to patients by promoting best practices, effective clinical care, and system redesign. The Physician Recognition Programs are collaborative efforts between the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and specialty societies like the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association. Each recognition program is built upon evidence-based measures associated with quality of care standards for patients with those conditions.
PHP has adopted the NCQA Physician Recognition Programs clinical parameters for Diabetes and Heart/Stroke as our benchmark for provider excellence.
If you are interested in applying and pursuing certification, please contact: Karen Frederick Gallegos, Quality Manager (303) 256-1602 or at kfrederick@phpmcs.com.
PPP Practice Health Project
In 2002, the PHP and Primary Physician Partners (PPP) Boards of Directors instituted and endorsed the Practice Health Project for all PPP member practices. Since the initiation of this program, over 250 site visits and thousands of chart reviews have been performed at participating practice sites. The objectives of the project include:
- Updating all practices in the IPA annually on new initiatives and goals of the Board of Directors, procedural changes, and practice recommendations.
- Measuring practice performance to reach IPA determined bonus parameters.
- Reviewing individual practice performance data in comparison to their peers and the IPA as a whole.
All findings, comments and suggestions are presented in an informative, objective and constructive manner. It should be noted, however, that practice bonus structure may be affected either positively or negatively depending on the outcomes of these reviews.