Certain practice changes can help physicians deliver higher quality care at lower costs, but many physicians don’t have the time, staff or resources to make the necessary transformations or ensure that they take hold. Find out how one health care system is using a peer-based learning network to establish effective long-term changes.
“When I came to the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC),” said John Hickner, MD, department chair and professor of family medicine at UIC, “I saw that we had a long way to go in terms of a modern practice model. I’ve been working here steadily for the last three years, figuring out ways for us to improve.” Once you know that changes are necessary to keep your practice moving forward, it’s often difficult to find the time, staff and resources to make sure those changes can actually occur.
The Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative is a four-year program of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to help physicians meet new quality mandates, make practices more efficient and produce better outcomes for patients. The program includes a federal grant that provides the resources for practice transformation networks (PTN)—peer-based learning networks designed to coach, mentor, and assist physician practices and health care systems.
“When I heard about the federal grant that was available, I immediately raised my hand to try to participate and help,” Dr. Hickner said. “I contacted Northwestern and got involved as a steering committee member for the group here in Illinois.”
UIC is a part of the Great Lakes Practice Transformation Network, a regional group that encompasses Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. But what specific kind of assistance can a PTN offer?
An extra set of hands
Once a practice or health care system joins a PTN, they add to their team a highly-skilled and trained quality improvement advisor (QIA) to work directly with physicians and other team members to assist with the transformation and improvement process.
Dr. Hickner and his colleagues are currently in the process of hiring their QIA. “These people will be facilitators and connectors to the resources,” Dr. Hickner said. “I call it an ‘extra set of hands.’”
UIC is now in the beginning stages of the PTN process, planning for what is to come. “The first short-term goal is to create awareness of the resources that will be available through this PTN,” Dr. Hickner said. “If the doctors and practice members don’t know that there’s somebody there to help, then they won’t know to call on them.”
“The second short-term goal,” he said, “is to hire a really good [QIA] who will assist our practices with whatever projects are their priority, keeping in mind that the grant’s intention is to prepare us for the new quality measures that are coming down the pike from CMS.”
“Long term,” he said, “is the same as what everybody’s goal is here in the United States right now in primary care—and that is to create highly efficient models that are productive and will generate better health outcomes for patients and more joy of practice for physicians while saving the health care system money.”
“I think having some outside perspective will be very useful,” said Ariel Leifer, MD, assistant professor of clinical family medicine at UIC. “It takes an enormous amount of energy to make change and then sustain the change, and I hope this person will help with that. I feel that sometimes we put a lot of thought into making a change, and if there is not 100 percent agreement with the faculty, then the effort stalls or is abandoned.”
The Great Lakes Practice Transformation Network offers five examples of how an on-demand network QIA can assist physician practices, no matter which regional network they join. These networks can help physicians:
- Enhance participation in the Physician Quality Reporting System
- Establish a chronic care management program and leverage new Medicare billing code changes
- Understand upcoming payment changes under the new Medicare Merit-Based Incentive Payment System
- Gain exclusive access to many free continuing medical education credits and other opportunities through support and alignment networks
- Receive a readiness assessment to create a customized road map to help better direct the PTN resources to reaching their practice goals
If you’re thinking about joining a PTN and utilizing the extra set of hands, Dr. Hickner has some advice: “You’ve got nothing to lose, and you may actually get some benefits, so give it a try.”
