Clinically Integrated Network News
Table of Contents
Call to Action
February is National American Heart Disease Awareness month. Some risk factors for heart disease and stroke can be decreased or even prevented.
The Clinically Integrated Network (CIN) has provided an automated measure to help provide feedback to providers and care teams to gauge how well a patient’s blood pressure is controlled. If a patient’s blood pressure is greater than 140/90, standard workflow calls for a second set of vitals to be taken (A link to the workflow may be found here. Please note this link is only accessible to Parkview Health providers.)
Additionally, patients who have uncontrolled blood pressure or have an elevated reading are encouraged to follow-up with a BP only recheck visit, when appropriate.
Success Story
Dr. Kashyap
With COVID on the rise and continuing to be a factor in the delivery of care, as many have experienced firsthand, there have been several obstacles to overcome. Dr. Kashyap and his team have seen great success with the increased use of video visits.
While the use of video visits solves one problem, it creates others, including the challenge of capturing blood pressure and completing labs, which normally occurs during the office visit. Dr. Kashyap and team responded by contacting patients via phone more frequently to ensure that they were following up with orders at offsite locations, finding alternative options to monitor their blood pressure, and helping to schedule other tests where accessing care can be challenging, such as mammograms.
Dr. Kashyap and his team have done an outstanding job of educating patients and emphasizing the importance of preventative screenings. Their follow-up on outstanding orders and assisting patients with scheduling other care is reflected in their overall CIN scores throughout 2021.
Outstanding Value Based Care Quality Performance
Each Value Based Care (VBC) contract varies to some degree in sections and measures; however, generally speaking, there are three main components to each of the contracts. The Quality section includes measures focusing on annual visits, preventative care (e.g. breast and colon cancer screenings, nephropathy screenings), and chronic care management (e.g. statin use, A1c management, med adherence, etc.). Another common section within a contract is “Utilization” or “Efficiency,” which focuses on measures such as readmissions, admissions, ED utilization, SNF utilization, etc. Lastly, there is a Cost of Care component, which evaluates our performance to manage the patient’s care costs.
That said, the focus of this recognition is on the first section outlined above, the Quality portion of our United Health Care VBC contract. Despite challenges presented by COVID, our CIN providers were the highest performing Quality group for United Health Care in Indiana in 2020. (Note: 2020 numbers were not finalized until September 2021.) This is a testament to the many physicians, care teams and support folks who all work together for the betterment of our patients. Great job!
Provider Relations Highlight
Kathie and Melody, CIN provider relations specialists (PRS), would like to recognize Primary Care Section Chiefs Dr. Chris Frazier and Dr. Janet Prendergast for their continued engagement and support. Both regularly participate in meetings with their respective section providers and share ideas on opportunities with workflows, challenges and next steps. Their peer-to-peer involvement has been instrumental in improving CIN provider performance.
Kathie would also like to recognize Cardiology for their responsiveness and collaboration. When opportunities are presented to Dr. Roy Robertson, Mike GeRue and Doug Martin, they always make a point to review the information and pull the right folks to the table to work toward making the necessary changes for improved performance. We appreciate the Cardiology team!
Frequently Asked Questions
When will year-end scores be shared with providers?
The CIN Quality & Performance Improvement Committee (QPIC) reviewed and approved year-end scores on Feb. 8 and an email was sent to providers on Feb. 11.
In the Know
CIN Quality Measure selection and automation process
In order to ensure relevant and meaningful measures are chosen for each respective specialty, it is the CIN’s process to work with a physician lead in each specialty to determine future measures. Once measures are chosen, the CIN works with the physician and others in the specialty to complete what we call measure specifications.
Measure specifications include all the information that is necessary in order to capture the appropriate and intended data. This would include information such as scenarios we want to exclude from the data, the specific codes or procedures to utilize, flowsheets or dot phrases, etc. Once that is captured, our tech gurus work with Information Services (IS) and Business Intelligence (BI) to automate the measures. Both IS, BI and the CIN have their own processes for validating the data based on the specifications that were completed with the physician lead. When measures are automated, the CIN pulls historical performance (assuming it is not a new workflow) and uses it as a baseline to suggest a measurable goal for the upcoming year. When measurable goals are agreed upon and approved, that is reflected on the CIN scorecard. Of course, there are more steps “behind the curtain” but does anyone really want to know how sausage is made?!
If you’re a visual person, please see below:
New additions to Governance Committees
Throughout 2021, we had several additions to our Governance Committees, including;
Dr. Craig McBride to QPIC, Dr. Reena Thapa to QPIC, Dr. Sampath Ethiraj to QPIC, and Dr. Carol Garrean to the Board of Managers.
Additionally, we have two new provider relations specialists, Aisha Robinson and Marissa Wilson, who will provide ongoing support to physicians and care teams with CIN quality measures.
Clinically Integrated Network's Governance Structure
Board
Thomas Gutwein, MD - Sectretary
Thomas Curfman, MD
Raymond Dusman, MD
Carol Garrean, MD
Michael Grabowski, MD
Alan McGee, MD
David Stein, MD
Mitch Stucky, MD
David Jeans
John Bowen
Quality & Performance Improvement (QPIC)
Fen-Lei Chang, MD
Harin Chhatiawala, MD
Paul Conarty, MD
Sampath Ethraj, MD
Michele Helfgott, MD
James Ingram, MD
Greg Johnson, DO
Vijay Kamineni, MD
Craig McBride, MD
Jeffrey Nickel, MD
Andrew O'Shaughnessy, MD
Jason Row, MD
Ronald Sarrazine, MD
David Stein, MD
Reena Thapa, MD
Anusha Valluru, MD
Administrative Team
Vice President Enterprise Management - Joni Hissong
Director, Clinically Integrated Network - Nicole Krouse
Supervisor, Clinically Integrated Network - Katrina Koehler
Finance Committee
Raymond Dusman, MD
Scott Karr, MD
Jason Row, MD
Greg Johnson, DO
David Jeans
Contact Us
The CIN team on Pulse
As a reminder, the CIN site on Pulse, Parkview Health’s intranet, includes a number of resources, including past newsletters, Collaborative Learning Sessions, a “meet the team” section and much more.
Please note if you are an independent group outside of Parkview Health, you will be unable to access this information. Your Provider Relations Specialist is happy to provide you with any requested materials.
If you have questions or suggestions about measures, appeals, scorecards or other CIN tools, please contact your provider relations specialist.
If you would like to join or have general questions about Parkview Care Partners, please contact Nicole Krouse, CIN director, at 260-266-3709 or Nicole.Krouse@parkview.com.