/ en Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:01:56 -0500 Mon, 09 Dec 24 16:30:32 -0600 /news/headline/2024-12-09-aha-podcast-gift-time-how-behavioral-health-integration-giving-back-workforce <p>In this conversation, Dylan Panuska, clinical psychologist and manager of behavioral health integration with Endeavor Health, showcases examples of how workforce productivity, retention and patient satisfaction are positively impacted by a key factor: integration. <a href="/advancing-health-podcast/2024-12-09-gift-time-how-behavioral-health-integration-giving-back-workforce" target="_blank">LISTEN NOW</a>.</p><div></div> Mon, 09 Dec 2024 16:30:32 -0600 Clinical Integration /aha-center-health-innovation-market-scan/2024-11-26-3-ways-reimagine-care-delivery-support-your-workforce <div class="container"><div class="row"><div class="col-md-8"><p><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/3-Ways-to-Reimagine-Care-Delivery-to-Support-Your-Workforce.png" data-entity-uuid="54a3e4b8-bf9a-46df-b9ad-b8b87d4b5b3e" data-entity-type="file" alt="3 Ways to Reimagine Care Delivery to Support Your Workforce. The cover of the 2025 Health Care Workforce Scan." width="100%" height="100%"></p><p>Hospitals and health systems continue to focus on enhancing support and fostering resilience among a thinly stretched, post-pandemic workforce. Facilities across the country are investing in artificial intelligence (AI) technology and tech skills development to alleviate burden and enhance flexibility. Many also are reimagining care delivery models.</p><p>The recently released <a href="/aha-workforce-scan">AHA 2025 Health Care Workforce Scan</a> provides a comprehensive review of these and other issues, including:</p><ul><li>Engaging clinicians in technology strategies.</li><li>Boosting access through partnerships, training and upskilling.</li><li>Rethinking engagement to build a more flexible, engaged workforce.</li></ul><p>The workforce scan is based on the latest reports, studies and other data sources and offers valuable insights into the workforce landscape, as well as practical guidance from experts and peers to help your organization navigate the future of the health care workforce.</p><h2><span>Embrace Technologically Integrated Care Models</span></h2><p>Amid high provider burnout and financial pressure, hospital leaders are embracing technology, including AI, as a transformative tool. More established technologies like virtual care, telesitting and remote patient monitoring continue to support front-line staff and expand access in integrated care models. These tools show promise in boosting staff retention, efficiency and care quality.</p><p>AI applications are expanding rapidly across many clinical and operations areas. Ohio-based University Hospitals Health System, for example, has deployed an AI platform with more than 30 care pathways to quickly identify conditions like pulmonary embolism, coronary artery calcification and intracranial hemorrhaging. Others are using AI to produce faster results in cancer screenings. And generative AI, while still being evaluated for its accuracy and optimal uses, is reducing clinician workloads in clinical documentation and creating patient summaries.</p><p><strong>Leaders have found value through other applications, including:</strong></p><ul><li><strong>Personalizing treatment:</strong> Machine learning can automate complicated statistical work and discover which characteristics indicate that a patient will have a particular response to a given treatment.</li><li><strong>Identifying infection risks:</strong> AI applications can help predict when a patient’s immune system may have an overwhelming and potentially dangerous response to an infection. AI also can assess dozens of variables at one time, track a patient’s vital signs to detect sepsis risk earlier and enable clinicians to respond more quickly.</li><li><strong>Enhancing disease detection:</strong> AI can help automate time-consuming tasks like tracing tumors and measuring amounts of fat and muscle.</li></ul><h2><span>3 Technologically Integrated Care Models to Explore</span></h2><h3><span>Sentara Health</span> <span>|</span> Norfolk, Virginia</h3><p>Research shows that nurses who feel overworked or unable to finish their tasks are more likely to burn out and quit. Sentara Health developed the Patient Acuity Nursing Tool (PANT) to improve nurse-patient assignments by objectively assessing nursing workloads and patient acuity.</p><p>Traditional methods relied on the clinical judgment of charge nurses and patient census data, often leading to imbalanced workloads. The PANT algorithm, created by an interdisciplinary team at Sentara, integrates real-time patient data to distribute nursing tasks equitably. The health system has implemented it across 100 inpatient units, supported by training materials and orientation programs. The tool helps charge nurses make more informed assignments, reduces nurse burnout and enhances patient care by providing a validated measure of nursing workload.</p><h3><span>Stanford Medicine</span> <span>|</span> Palo Alto, California</h3><p>Stanford Medicine researchers implemented an AI-based model at Stanford Hospital that predicts patient deterioration and facilitates better collaboration between physicians and nurses. The model analyzes real-time patient data every 15 minutes and sends alerts to care teams when a patient is at risk of decline.</p><p>While the model isn’t perfect, with about 20% accuracy in predicting actual deterioration events, it led to a 10.4% decrease in deterioration events among high-risk patients. The AI model serves as a communication facilitator, prompting important conversations among clinicians that might not otherwise occur due to busy schedules.</p><h3><span>Ochsner Medical Center</span> <span>|</span> Jefferson, Louisiana</h3><p>The Medical Center used data science to improve patient safety. It created a neural network model using information from 250,000 hospital stays to predict Clostridioides difficile infections. The data revealed that stomach acid-reducing medicines increased infection risk more than expected.</p><p>Now, Ochsner’s system flags high-risk patients, giving pharmacists the opportunity to advise its doctors on medication use (often suggesting using these medicines less or stopping them). This new approach cut C. difficile infections by half, prevented 166 infections and saved $4 million in two years.</p><h2>3 Things to Think About</h2><ol class="red"><li class="red">How will you integrate AI within your existing technology infrastructure, particularly the electronic health record?</li><li class="red">How will you monitor and evaluate the performance and impact of AI technologies over time, including potential unintended consequences or biases?</li><li class="red">How can you proactively identify and alleviate issues that add to clinical burden?</li></ol><p><a href="/aha-workforce-scan"><strong>Download the 2025 AHA Health Care Workforce Scan.</strong></a></p></div><div class="col-md-4"><p><a href="/center" title="Visit the AHA Center for Health Innovation landing page."><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/logo-aha-innovation-center-color-sm.jpg" data-entity-uuid="7ade6b12-de98-4d0b-965f-a7c99d9463c5" alt="AHA Center for Health Innovation logo" width="721" height="130" data-entity- type="file" class="align-center"></a></p><p><a href="/center/form/innovation-subscription"><img src="/sites/default/files/2019-04/Market_Scan_Call_Out_360x300.png" data-entity-uuid data-entity-type alt width="360" height="300"></a></p></div></div></div>.field_featured_image { position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } .featured-image{ position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } h2 { color: #9d2235; } ol.red li.red::marker { color: #9d2235; font-weight: bold; } Tue, 26 Nov 2024 06:15:00 -0600 Clinical Integration /news/headline/2024-10-30-aha-leadership-dialogue-series-delicate-dance-integration-tom-priselac <p>In this Leadership Dialogue conversation, Tom Priselac, president and CEO emeritus of Cedars-Sinai, discusses overseeing 30 years of growth and integration at the health system, and the perspectives required to integrate across multiple care areas. <a href="/advancing-health-podcast/2024-10-30-leadership-dialogue-series-delicate-dance-integration-tom-priselac">LISTEN NOW</a> </p><div></div> Wed, 30 Oct 2024 15:25:09 -0500 Clinical Integration /advancing-health-podcast/2024-10-30-leadership-dialogue-series-delicate-dance-integration-tom-priselac <p>Health system integration is one of the many ways hospitals can meet the mission of advancing health, and there can be wide-ranging benefits – from enhanced economies of scale to pooled capabilities. In this Leadership Dialogue conversation, Tom Priselac, president and CEO emeritus of Cedars-Sinai, discusses overseeing 30 years of growth and integration at the health system, and the perspectives required to integrate across multiple care areas. </p><hr><div></div><div class="raw-html-embed"><details class="transcript"><summary> <h2 title="Click here to open/close the transcript."><span>View Transcript</span><br>  </h2> </summary> <p> 00:00:00:18 - 00:00:33:06<br> Tom Haederle<br> Integration - when a hospital joins a health system to benefit from enhanced economies of scale and pooled capabilities - is one of the many ways that hospitals meet the mission of advancing health. Bringing formerly independent hospitals together under a new administrative umbrella can be a delicate dance and must be done carefully for the arrangement to work and the integration to benefit all care providers and their patients. </p> <p> 00:00:33:08 - 00:00:58:05<br> Tom Haederle<br> Welcome to Advancing Health, a podcast from the ���������� Association. I'm Tom Haederle with AHA Communications. In this month's Leadership Dialogue series podcast hosted by Dr. Joanne Conroy, president and CEO of Dartmouth Health and the 2024 board chair of the ���������� Association, we glean some great insights on the value and challenges of running an integrated health system from one of the foremost experts. </p> <p> 00:00:58:07 - 00:01:13:18<br> Tom Haederle<br> Tom Priselac is president and CEO Emeritus of Cedars-Sinai, where he retired in September after more than 30 years of overseeing its growth from a regional hospital to one of the largest and most influential health systems in the country. And now, to Dr. Conroy. </p> <p> 00:01:13:21 - 00:01:38:24<br> Joanne Conroy, M.D.<br> It's great to be with you. I'm Joanne Conroy, CEO and president of Dartmouth Health and the current chair of the ���������� Association Board of Trustees. I'm looking forward to our conversation today with my friend and colleague, Tom Priselac, who will share his insights on running an integrated health system. He's been at it for 30 years and he is an expert on this topic. </p> <p> 00:01:38:27 - 00:02:11:15<br> Joanne Conroy, M.D.<br> He knows his stuff. Tom is president and CEO emeritus of Cedars-Sinai Health System, and despite having just transitioned into retirement last month, he was kind enough to join us today. Tom led the transformation of Cedars-Sinai from a regional hospital into a renowned academic health system. He has spent much of his career championing the important role of health systems and, of course, advancing health for those patients and communities served by Cedars-Sinai. </p> <p> 00:02:11:18 - 00:02:28:22<br> Joanne Conroy, M.D.<br> So welcome Tom, who knows this topic better than anyone. And we'll start with a broad question to frame the discussion. How do you define what it means to be a health system, and what are the benefits and what are some of the challenges? </p> <p> 00:02:28:24 - 00:02:52:15<br> Tom Priselac<br> Well, I think for me, what it means to be a health system is essentially each of the institutions that become a part of the health system, asking themselves whether it's the founding institution as it was in our case, or affiliate organizations that have become part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System or the organizations with which we have joint ventures, which is another vehicle we've used to build our system. </p> <p> 00:02:52:17 - 00:03:30:16<br> Tom Priselac<br> I think it really comes down to each of the institutions asking that core question, what is the path forward for my institution that will allow that institution to best serve its community and carry out its mission? As we've gone through the development of the system in whatever structural form, we've always made that an important part of the consideration of, in the case of Cedars-Sinai, asking the question of given the mission of Cedars-Sinai as both a major academic medical center and a full service community hospital to about 3 million people in Los Angeles. </p> <p> 00:03:30:18 - 00:03:57:05<br> Tom Priselac<br> The whole purpose in creating the system, and this is literally embedded in the mission statement of the organization. The system exists to optimize the ability of the member institutions better serve their community. That aspect of what I just described applies whether the integration has been horizontal or whether it's been vertical, with integration of our physician network over the years. </p> <p> 00:03:57:08 - 00:04:27:26<br> Joanne Conroy, M.D.<br> I think that's incredibly important because health systems are there to really serve their members and their communities, because we don't always actually take care of patients at the health system. They're actually taken care of at the member sites. So when you talk about the commitment to quality and the commitment to excellence, when you bring in new members, that's a delicate balance between imposing something on a member versus creating it together. </p> <p> 00:04:27:26 - 00:04:31:15<br> Joanne Conroy, M.D.<br> So, you know, what's been your approach to really try to manage that? </p> <p> 00:04:31:17 - 00:04:53:28<br> Tom Priselac<br> That's a great question. And the characteristic you just described of what I guess I would call co-creating the vision of what it means to be part of a system and be a system. That philosophy of doing it in a co-creating way, as opposed to a kind of a top down. We know the answer in your local community way. </p> <p> 00:04:54:00 - 00:05:26:11<br> Tom Priselac<br> The former is very much the path that we have taken. And the same is true whether that's the development of partnerships and affiliations with hospitals or other health systems, or again, with the multiple physician organizations that have become part of our physician network. We do a lot of due diligence on the front end to number one, make sure there's a very much aligned set of core values that whether, again, whatever the entity is, that's becoming part of the system. </p> <p> 00:05:26:13 - 00:05:56:06<br> Tom Priselac<br> We really start there and spend a lot of time on that question. And we spend a lot of time talking through the philosophy of the institution, which is to take advantage of economies of scale and economies of capability. An important element, I think, that doesn't necessarily always get the same attention. And making sure that there's a common understanding between us and the incoming organization about what that means for them. </p> <p> 00:05:56:08 - 00:06:15:08<br> Tom Priselac<br> Back to the point I just made, how the approach that we take in that regard is going to allow that organization to better fulfill its mission, and how that affiliate becoming a part of the institution will allow Cedars-Sinai to better serve its mission. </p> <p> 00:06:15:10 - 00:06:38:23<br> Joanne Conroy, M.D.<br> Let's talk a little bit about recruiting clinicians, because I think there's been a little bit of a shift. I know that historically, when there was an academic medical center, you know, people didn't want to leave what was the comfortable academic medical center to actually provide services outside of that organization. I think over the last ten years that's become a little bit easier. </p> <p> 00:06:38:25 - 00:06:59:22<br> Joanne Conroy, M.D.<br> How do you actually use this concept of a health system to actually better recruit clinicians? I can tell you our parking is horrible here. So a number of our clinicians are happy to work at our other hospitals, where the operating room is a little bit more efficient, and the parking lot always has spaces. So how do you manage that with your health system? </p> <p> 00:06:59:24 - 00:07:24:28<br> Tom Priselac<br> Well, with regard to physicians being recruited here at Cedars-Sinai, first of all, it starts with what's the primary career interest of the physician being recruited? For those for whom their primary career interest is more research related. You know, the conversation there centers around things like access to diverse populations, which is now finally being recognized as how important that is on the on the research agenda. </p> <p> 00:07:24:28 - 00:08:09:01<br> Tom Priselac<br> And so, Los Angeles being one of the most diverse cities on the planet, we offer that kind of opportunity to academic physicians. And then secondly, with those physicians who have a more primary clinical orientation, the opportunity for the existence of the system, especially for the physicians who are providing the tertiary and quaternary services. The conversation really stems around how the existence of the system can facilitate the ability of Cedars-Sinai to be increasingly the place where more tertiary and quaternary services, which are of particular interest to that particular physician or surgeon, would be of most interest. </p> <p> 00:08:09:01 - 00:08:18:21<br> Tom Priselac<br> And so, there's an effort to try to align the purpose of the system with what the professional interest of the clinician or researcher involved. </p> <p> 00:08:18:23 - 00:08:47:02<br> Joanne Conroy, M.D.<br> How do you actually manage? And this is not uncommon for a new member hospital to actually look to the largest member of the organization to help them establish a new service or expand a service. Where are those decisions made in a health system? And there's got to be some investment because they're hard to stand up, and they're not always as maybe as efficient as it may be at a higher volume institution. </p> <p> 00:08:47:04 - 00:09:14:05<br> Tom Priselac<br> That process actually starts during the due diligence effort. And we try to take a very respectful approach with regard to clinical integration between Cedars-Sinai and the affiliates. We're very respectful of the capabilities and quality of the medical community and the local affiliate, and very consciously avoid trying to suggest that we're going to come in and fix a problem. </p> <p> 00:09:14:07 - 00:09:53:24<br> Tom Priselac<br> It's really a question of how can Cedars-Sinai and our clinical capability complement what already exists in the institution and builds on it for the benefit of that local community? By the way, you know, implementing that really gives emphasis to the importance of the individual who serves as the CEO of that affiliate organization, because that CEO has to have the kind of trusted and trusting relationship with their medical staff to be able to hopefully guide them through both an understanding and not just an acceptance, but a welcoming of the kind of relationship that I just described. </p> <p> 00:09:53:24 - 00:10:28:18<br> Tom Priselac<br> So, you know, and what we would typically do is our clinical leadership engaging with clinical leadership from the respective affiliate. And essentially, I guess you could call it going through an inventory. Before we actually proceed with the affiliation, there's a very clear understanding of where the priorities will be and how that would go about, how that might be executed via physicians that would be recruited here to Cedars-Sinai and then providing those services on some basis in the affiliate. </p> <p> 00:10:28:20 - 00:10:51:00<br> Tom Priselac<br> But in other situations, what we've done is we've taken the recruitment ability that an academic medical center has to be able to help those local communities be more successful in recruiting a more experienced and more capable physician or surgeon, depending on the specialty service involved. </p> <p> 00:10:51:02 - 00:11:21:29<br> Joanne Conroy, M.D.<br> You know, health systems, as we get larger, have a much broader community responsibility. And I know we are investing in transportation, housing, child care, really in a much broader footprint than necessarily one facility. What are the type of things that communities come to you and want your partnership on that actually benefit the broader health of the community? </p> <p> 00:11:22:01 - 00:12:03:12<br> Tom Priselac<br> One is the clinical capability. And so part of the strategic planning of the system is answering the question, how are we going to raise the clinical capability in each of the respective affiliates through whatever physician recruitment approach along the lines of what I just mentioned. So the clinical capability questions there, for some of the affiliates, being part of an organization that has the kind of balance sheet that the larger organization has, whether that's allowing the institution to be more cost effective and have better access to resources because borrowing costs might be lower, is maybe an example on that side. </p> <p> 00:12:03:14 - 00:12:50:11<br> Tom Priselac<br> In some of the relationships the research capability of the institution and how that can facilitate the availability of clinical trials, especially in an area like cancer, which may be of more interest and need in one community versus another. And then finally, each of our institutions as not for profits, all have community benefit missions. You know, over time, one of the things that that we carry out is the integration effort on the community benefit side as much as anything else, to just make sure that as each of the institutions approach their individual community benefit missions, we're doing it in an aligned way and looking for the commonalities of what kind of community benefit activities would be </p> <p> 00:12:50:11 - 00:13:22:04<br> Tom Priselac<br> most impactful over the geographic footprint of the system. And the example I would give in that regard in Los Angeles today, we're all familiar with the challenge of homelessness - in America in general and certainly here in Los Angeles. And so in the area of community benefit work related to homelessness, whether it's grantmaking or programming that might go on in each of the institutions, and sharing information, sharing knowledge about best practices and what we have found to be the most effective strategies in that regard. </p> <p> 00:13:22:06 - 00:13:49:15<br> Joanne Conroy, M.D.<br> Yeah, you're right. You know, every single community just seems to have their own specific challenges. Talk a little bit about quality and patient safety. How do you, you know, bring people together and have them kind of co-create a quality safety culture? You know, I've said that the system is there. Its role is to monitor, but the quality is really kind of owned by the combined organizations. </p> <p> 00:13:49:15 - 00:13:56:04<br> Joanne Conroy, M.D.<br> So how have you kind of structured bringing people together and what do you think has been the most effective? </p> <p> 00:13:56:06 - 00:14:29:18<br> Tom Priselac<br> Yeah. So I guess I'd begin by reflecting the overall philosophy we've taken, which is the purpose of the system, is to assure the optimal success of each of the individual members. We're very much interested in strengthening and not disempowering the local hospital or the affiliate hospital, especially issues like quality. When we bring organizations into the system, part of that due diligence is to make sure we're satisfied it's already a high quality institution. </p> <p> 00:14:29:21 - 00:14:51:21<br> Tom Priselac<br> And the question is, how can becoming part of that system help make it better? We've taken the approach of in certain areas to pursue a more what I would call a shared services approach. And in others, we're using what we call a collaborative approach. And with regard to how we approach managing for quality, we use the collaborative structure. </p> <p> 00:14:51:26 - 00:15:31:00<br> Tom Priselac<br> What does that mean? What that means is that we've gone through a process of, on the one hand, identifying a set of common measures of what quality means across the system and making sure that each of the institutions have focused work that is addressing what those commonly identified quality goals are for each of the institutions, but also leaving room for the local institution to continue to pursue quality priorities that are relevant and unique to that particular institution. </p> <p> 00:15:31:02 - 00:16:00:25<br> Tom Priselac<br> We establish what I'll call a common language, a common platform for measurement, agree on how that measurement is going to take place, and then essentially we use the collaborative model and the knowledge sharing that goes on in the collaborative discussions among each of the management teams from the respective institutions to be able to advance the individual and therefore the collective performance of the system. </p> <p> 00:16:00:27 - 00:16:34:19<br> Joanne Conroy, M.D.<br> You know, you bring up a good point that, you know, you can't actually run it centrally. But one thing that is very evident when there's an issue is the resources when you can pull everybody from across the system to address an issue are incredibly powerful. I think we had an organization once that was going through a very rough Joint Commission visit. And I think on day two, half the system swooped in there to actually assist the team that was there and say, how can we help you? </p> <p> 00:16:34:22 - 00:16:51:15<br> Joanne Conroy, M.D.<br> And, you know, it's interesting you don't appreciate the power of the system until you actually need to use it. And it's often just all of a sudden, instead of having two people on your team, all the sudden you look behind you and you have 100. It makes people both confident and much more effective. </p> <p> 00:16:51:18 - 00:17:16:24<br> Tom Priselac<br> That's an example of what I meant earlier about systems bringing economies of capability or scaling capability within the institution. In a lot of the public policy discussions there's really a lack of appreciation, I think, from people outside of health care delivery about what that means and how that can enhance the ability of an institution to provide high quality care. </p> <p> 00:17:16:26 - 00:17:41:24<br> Joanne Conroy, M.D.<br> Well, Tom, I want to thank you for giving us some of your time today. We really appreciate your valuable insights and your expertise, and we wish you the best in retirement. But I have a feeling your dance card is going to be pretty full. Probably already is with people that want you to give them advice about, you know, building a health system that serves the needs of the communities. </p> <p> 00:17:41:27 - 00:17:43:27<br> Joanne Conroy, M.D.<br> Thank you Tom, again. </p> <p> 00:17:43:29 - 00:17:45:09<br> Tom Priselac<br> Thanks, Joanne. </p> <p> 00:17:45:11 - 00:17:53:22<br> Tom Haederle<br> Thanks for listening to Advancing Health. Please subscribe and rate us five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. </p> </details></div> Tue, 29 Oct 2024 23:03:00 -0500 Clinical Integration /advancing-health-podcast/2024-09-11-retention-key-satisfaction-and-productivity-integrated-clinicians-maine-behavioral <p>Health care leaders are learning that removing silos between physical and mental health care not only benefits patients, but also helps with the recruitment and retention of desperately needed behavioral health specialists. In this conversation, Stacey Ouellette, director of Behavioral Health Integration with Maine Behavioral Healthcare, discusses the positive impact integrated care has had on workplace productivity and satisfaction, and how it's made their teams more connected across the organization.</p><hr><div></div><div class="raw-html-embed"> <details class="transcript"> <summary> <h2 title="Click here to open/close the transcript."> <span>View Transcript</span><br>   </h2> </summary> <p>00:00:00:18 - 00:00:29:05<br> Tom Haederle<br> Behavioral health specialists are in short supply pretty much everywhere. But health care leaders are finding out that knocking down the traditional walls between physical and mental health care not only benefits patients, but also helps with the recruitment and retention of the behavioral health specialists that so many providers and patients need more of.</p> <p>00:00:29:07 - 00:01:00:28<br> Tom Haederle<br> Welcome to Advancing Health, a podcast from the ���������� Association. I'm Tom Haederle with AHA communications. These days, integrating physical and behavioral health care is increasingly a seamless part of the overall care experience, what health professionals call a "warm handoff" between physical and behavioral health providers for those patients who need both. This integration is good for patients and is also a significant factor in keeping many health care workers, both in physical and behavioral health, engaged and much happier in their jobs.</p> <p>00:01:01:00 - 00:01:20:23<br> Tom Haederle<br> In today's podcast hosted by the AHA's Rebecca Chickey, senior director of Behavioral Health Services, we hear from Stacey Ouellette, director of Behavioral Health Integration with Maine Behavioral Health Care, on her organization's experience with the positive impact integrated care has had on workplace productivity and satisfaction.</p> <p>00:01:20:25 - 00:01:49:13<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> Thank you Tom. Indeed, it is an honor to be here with Stacey today from Maine Health and Maine Behavioral Health. We are going to discuss the value of integration. I know you've heard this from me before, but she's here with us today specifically to talk about how integrated physical and behavioral health care can improve workforce productivity and perhaps even more important, worker satisfaction.</p> <p>00:01:49:15 - 00:02:20:12<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> We all know that hospitals and health systems have been struggling to recruit and retain qualified workers across a variety of clinical areas, but in behavioral health, that was a challenge even prior to the COVID pandemic. So, Stacey, can you share with the listeners what are some of the specifics that you've experienced around the challenges of recruiting and retaining health care workers in behavioral health?</p> <p>00:02:20:14 - 00:02:46:29<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> Yeah, absolutely so it's always been a little bit of a challenge. The work pool is not that deep really. But definitely with the pandemic it worsened. It wasn't uncommon for us as a program in Maine Behavioral Health Care to have a few positions vacant at a time. But when the pandemic hit, it jumped up quickly to around 20, we're a program of about 100,</p> <p>00:02:46:29 - 00:03:16:23<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> so put that into context there. But it was a shock really, having that many positions to recruit for. And the challenge was there just weren't many applicants out there. And the ones that were out there, you know, that we interviewed, were really looking for that work-life balance. So as a program, we needed to at the time consider how we were, you know, bringing people in and providing them with this sort of work-life balance so that we could keep them right?</p> <p>00:03:16:24 - 00:03:45:29<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> Retention is key. Some of those vacancies were due to growth, not because everybody was leaving. So the demand grew at the same time. And so we needed to, continuously work on recruitment so that we could have the adequate staffing to support the needs and the practices. In terms of the retention piece, really trying to lean in to integrated care can offer people in the role.</p> <p>00:03:46:01 - 00:04:11:12<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> I'll often hear, you know, having access to the primary care provider, it just makes the job better. It makes it easier because you can really coordinate that care. And it's the care team working together for the sake of the patient. Having the role integrated into their primary care and or specialty care practices that we're in can definitely make a difference in terms of that satisfaction with the work.</p> <p>00:04:11:14 - 00:04:39:12<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> So if I may, integration in primary care is something that I think has really caught on across the United States. While it is not in every community or every county, it is something that we're seeing grow each and every day, thankfully, because as we know, particularly early on in an individual struggling with a psychiatric or substance use disorder, often they're seeking care from their primary care physician first.</p> <p>00:04:39:14 - 00:05:03:02<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> So it's very important that that primary care office have access to behavioral health clinicians so that they, too, can be more excited about their job each and every day, as well as feel more comfortable in providing the holistic care that the patient needs. But I'm wondering, you mentioned specialty care. I hear a little bit about this across the country.</p> <p>00:05:03:04 - 00:05:15:08<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> Would you mind sharing what specialties you have gone into? Sometimes people consider pediatrics as a specialty, while others define it as primary care. So what does that mean for Maine Health?</p> <p>00:05:15:10 - 00:05:45:04<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> For us currently, yes, we are in all of the pediatric practices. We are also in practices such as neurology, cardiology, weight management programs, aka bariatrics, pain management programs. So a lot of the diabetes and endocrinology, a lot of the specialties, where patients get their care outside of the primary care home, we're starting to integrate into as well.</p> <p>00:05:45:05 - 00:06:19:28<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> Women's health is another one that we're in. And so it's just it's the same, just that we're integrated into these specialties, providing that support there. Similar to that of primary care you mentioned, you know, you alluded to the patients and trusting their provider. Right? So when the provider identifies or the patient identifies a concern or a need and they're able to do a handoff, a warm handoff with the behavioral health clinician right there on site, it just gains access to care, right?</p> <p>00:06:19:28 - 00:06:35:29<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> And that trust is there because the provider recommended it and usually patients trust their providers. So by us entering some of these specialty practices we're also to be able to support the patients there at those sites as well.</p> <p>00:06:36:01 - 00:06:56:28<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> I'm going to add a little bit of a personal story here because, phrase that you said a "warm handoff" has a really strong meaning for me. My older son, who is now doing incredibly well and in fact is going diving in Bali in October - not that I'm nervous about that at all - but, nonetheless, he's doing much better.</p> <p>00:06:56:28 - 00:07:20:06<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> But he suffered a major depressive episode while he was in undergraduate school. And, you know, he was screened and diagnosed with depression. The handoff was to send a 19 year-old male in college an email with the contact information for two therapists that they wished him the best of luck to see if he could get an appointment.</p> <p>00:07:20:08 - 00:07:59:02<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> That is the opposite of a warm hand off just for those of you wondering. I have a great depth and appreciation for the true value and importance of a warm handoff. Meeting the next person, knowing that you are, not just being put on hold per se. So what I'm hearing, if I can summarize to date: there are a number of important success factors related to integrating physical and behavioral health as it relates to recruiting and retaining qualified health care workers, particularly in the behavioral health field, but also in other specialty areas.</p> <p>00:07:59:04 - 00:08:26:20<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> I think you alluded to this, that, primary care physicians or the clinicians in many of the specialties that you mentioned: cardiology, neurology, women's health. I don't want to assume so I'm going to ask you to validate this: Have you also heard from those clinicians who are not trained in behavioral health that is something that they value that has added value and, improve their satisfaction, in their day-to-day work.</p> <p>00:08:26:22 - 00:08:50:10<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> We as a program, do a provider satisfaction survey every year to 18 months to get some feedback on how things are going. And that is one of the questions that we ask overall, you know, their satisfaction as well as does having an integrated clinician in their practice help make their job easier? And unanimously, all pretty much agree with that,</p> <p>00:08:50:10 - 00:09:02:28<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> strongly agree with that concept that having an integrated clinician in the setting helps make their jobs easier, but also just it helps support them, right? And managing the complexities of the patients.</p> <p>00:09:03:00 - 00:09:43:01<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> For the listeners, I'm going to read a statistic, related to the real challenges and struggles for all health care workers in terms of recruitment and retention. Since 2020, one in five health care workers have quit their jobs. And surveys suggest that up to 47% of health care workers not just behavioral health, but health care workers in general, because this integrated care impacts not just behavioral health care workers, but even more so the other clinicians who often struggle because they may not have recent training in how to diagnose or screen for anxiety disorder or bipolar disorder.</p> <p>00:09:43:04 - 00:10:23:18<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> But 47% of health care workers plan to leave their positions by 2025. And we all know that the recruitment costs, the turnover costs, are significant and often that leads to other sort of hidden cost. And that is the domino effect, when one person leaves an organization, then several others may follow. So just emphasizing not only is this important for each individual who's happier, more satisfied in the work that they do every day, but this can have a positive impact on the bottom line of hospitals and health systems across the country.</p> <p>00:10:23:21 - 00:10:45:21<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> I'm going to put you on the spot here a little bit, Stacey, and ask you to personalize this. I mean, we've seen a lot of studies, for instance, the University of Michigan's Behavioral Health Workforce Research Center, you know, they've come out and they've said, when we've done this research, it's, you know, increased employee productivity. It's stabilized primary care physicians workloads.</p> <p>00:10:45:28 - 00:11:16:03<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> It better allows them to refer patients more effectively and in a timely fashion. But sometimes research seems so impersonal when the listeners are sitting here thinking, could I really do this at my organization? Can you share just a story or two about how you have seen this play out? I know you've talked generally, but how if you, you know, maybe a personal story of how this has impacted, or maybe quotes that you've heard from clinicians at Maine Health.</p> <p>00:11:16:06 - 00:11:40:27<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> One quote that always will stay with me is from that provider satisfaction survey, where one provider, said, this is better than Christmas morning, having behavioral health in our practice because they have access to that support. You know, we've worked to make ourselves available and accessible to support the primary care or specialty care teams and managing the complexity of the patients.</p> <p>00:11:41:00 - 00:12:04:23<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> They're in the moment. And so when we're able to respond, when a patient presents with a concern...we hear time and time again, that just helps them to feel confident, right? The medical providers to feel confident like they know how to respond. Their response might be let's get the behavioral health clinician and get them connected to you so that they can they can help us out.</p> <p>00:12:04:25 - 00:12:26:02<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> I have personally been working, when I worked in one practice was pulled in this will stick with me for probably a very long time, but I was pulled in for a warm handoff. Patient was suicidal, and together the medical provider and I had a conversation with the patient. I did some assessing. We made a safety plan. Patient.</p> <p>0:12:26:09 - 00:12:54:05<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> I provided some education, some validation as to why this person was feeling this way and together as a team, patient included in that team, we all felt good about next steps, and patient left with a plan and came back and continued some treatment. And I think like those examples just demonstrate how having integrated behavioral health in the practices can help improve productivity of the whole care team, right?</p> <p>00:12:54:10 - 00:13:24:03<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> Can help improve confidence and competence in the work that we do. And to the patient, it hopefully helps with patient satisfaction, right? Like it improves their confidence. Like this team's got me, right? They they're all wrapped around. They're working together. They all are on the same page. So those types of examples just demonstrate how integrating behavioral health can have an impact on multiple individuals and outcomes.</p> <p>0:13:24:05 - 00:13:48:25<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> That's phenomenal. Thank you. And thank you for making it personal to you as well. Truly meaningful. Well, as we begin to look towards the end of our podcast here, I'm going to ask two questions. One is thinking back over the last several years as you built out this integrated care system, what are a couple of the things that you think made this successful?</p> <p>:13:48:28 - 00:14:05:10<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> Where do I start? You know, what do I what are the two anchors that I need to have in place in order to replicate what Maine Health has done? What would you say, to the listeners? And the other one is, do you have a call to action for the listeners?</p> <p>00:14:05:12 - 00:14:38:17<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> Use a team, right? So identifying perhaps a provider champion to help support the initiation of this, have leadership on board, which requires perhaps educating, informing of how integrated behavioral health care can be useful for the organization. Give them resources and studies that have demonstrated utility of the role within the primary care settings. It is a whole team approach. It is the medical champion.</p> <p>00:14:38:17 - 00:15:10:01<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> It's behavioral health. It's your billing and finance folks at the table and being flexible, really being willing to try things and adjust. Doing perhaps like a PDSA cycle, so that you can learn and grow and adjust. I would say use resources out there. There's a lot of great people doing this work across the country. The Collaborative Family Health Care Association, CFHA is one group that I, belong to, and they have helped me tremendously</p> <p>00:15:10:01 - 00:15:29:15<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> just as a collective group. They help with questions, they help provide guidance. There's a lot of people out there doing this, so you're not alone. Use your resources. Connect to people, ask questions. People doing this usually really love to share and help others because we believe in it.</p> <p>00:15:29:17 - 00:16:09:01<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> I will add on, you added, you may have to educate, and one of the reasons we're doing this podcast is to continue to draw attention to an issue brief that we released, the AHA released last fall. Basically, the short version of the title is "Integration - The Time is Now." It's only four pages. It has almost 30 references of evidence-based research, showing the multiple ways in which integrating physical and behavioral health can provide value in a multitude of ways, just as you have shared many of them with us here today.</p> <p>00:16:09:01 - 00:16:30:03<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> So I would point to that as an educational resource and an easy read. Four pages. Most of us can do that, and, you know, skim that in a minute. So thank you so much, Stacey, for, again, as I started for your willingness to share your time and expertise, you are doing champions work. We greatly appreciate it.</p> <p>00:16:30:05 - 00:16:36:17<br> Rebecca Chickey<br> I know our listeners do too. You've just inspired someone to start on this journey. So thank you.</p> <p>00:16:36:19 - 00:16:38:05<br> Stacey Ouellette<br> Thank you.</p> <p>00:16:38:07 - 00:16:46:16<br> Tom Haederle<br> Thanks for listening to Advancing Health. Please subscribe and rate us five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.</p> </details> </div> Wed, 11 Sep 2024 06:00:00 -0500 Clinical Integration /education-events/dual-impact-utilizing-advances-patient-monitoring-clinical-workflows-case-reviews <p><strong>The Dual Impact: Utilizing Advances in Patient Monitoring for Clinical Workflows & Case Reviews </strong><br><em>A Case Study with the University of Michigan Health System </em><br><br><strong>Wednesday, September 11, 2024 </strong><br><em>1 - 2 p.m. Eastern; noon - 1 p.m. Central; 10 - 11 a.m. Pacific  </em> <br> </p><div class="webreplay"> .webreplay{ border: solid 2px #777; padding: 15px 5px; margin: 0 0 10px 15px; } @media (min-width:360px){ .webreplay{ min-width: 290px; float: right; } } <h2 class="text-align-center"><small>On-demand Webinar</small></h2> MktoForms2.loadForm("//sponsors.aha.org", "710-ZLL-651", 4010);</div><p><br>Hospital systems are faced with multiple challenges impacting their fiscal bottom line. Top among the challenges are manual workflows and supplies (such as physical strip exports), managing large volumes of bedside data at a reasonable cost, and how to inform the best care for the patient that aligns with hospital best practices and clinical documentation needs. Often different software and devices are needed to execute a solution, adding up costs and increasing the demand for staff training for each new solution.  </p><p> </p><p>Michigan Medicine (University of Michigan Health) deployed a single source of truth, the Sickbay Clinical Platform, that aggregates data from its bedside devices with a cloud-based technology. The solution not only gave the hospital access to near real-time data from anywhere in the facility but provided its team with retrospective data down to the second for a patient’s entire journey (including from the EHR).  </p><p>In this webinar, Michigan Medicine shares its approach to reducing manual workflows and utilizing streamlined bedside data, and the impact of having retrospective data for case review. Attendees will learn how Michigan Medicine deployed a novel approach to patient monitoring and its considerations for impacts on staff and patients alike.   <br><br><strong>Attendees Will Learn:  </strong></p><ul><li>How implementing a single monitoring solution across multiple units reduced impact on staff and manual workflows.  </li><li>Michigan Medicine’s approach to bedside data for clinical care.  </li><li>The unanticipated benefits of unified near-real-time device data.     <br> </li></ul><p><strong>Speakers from University of Michigan Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan: </strong><br><br>Rob Wonnacott <br><em>Manager, Nursing Information Systems</em> <br><br>Daniel Ehrmann, MD <br><em>Pediatric Cardiologist </em><br><br>Carolyn Vitale, MD <br><em>Pediatric Cardiology, Medical Director of Pediatric Cardiac ICU  </em><br><br><strong>Moderators from Medical Informatics Corp: </strong> <br><br>Megan Sisson, RN BSN <br><em>Senior Clinical Engagement Specialist </em><br><br>Jenny Mathison, RN, BSN <br><em>Clinical Engagement Specialist</em> <br> </p> Wed, 17 Jul 2024 09:26:13 -0500 Clinical Integration /concord/case-studies/post-acute-analytics <div></div><div> /* Banner_Title_Overlay_Bar */ .Banner_Title_Overlay_Bar { position: relative; 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font-size: .8em; } <div class="col-md-10 col-md-offset-1 sp_Resource1_holder"><div class="text-align-center col-sm-4 col-md-3"><a href="/system/files/media/file/2024/07/paa-responsible-ai-clinical-decision-making.pdf" target="_blank" title="Responsible AI: Clinical Decision Making"><img src="/sites/default/files/2024-07/paa-responsible-ai-247x320.jpg" alt="Cover image" width="247" height="320"></a> </div><div class="col-sm-8 col-md-9"> Scan </h3> --><h2><span>Case Study</span> <a href="/system/files/media/file/2024/07/paa-responsible-ai-clinical-decision-making.pdf" target="_blank" title="Responsible AI: Clinical Decision Making">Responsible AI: Clinical Decision Making</a></h2><p>Amid recent investigations into a major healthcare organization and heightened scrutiny of AI use in Medicare Advantage (MA) denials, PAA emphasizes the importance of transparent and accountable AI systems in healthcare.</p><p>The Anna™ platform empowers payors and providers to efficiently manage patients through real-time alerts and clinical insights derived from documentation. Anna’s™ AI and Machine Learning (ML) enhance resource optimization by enabling clinicians to review clinical documentation more efficiently, offering data-driven recommendations for optimal care transitions.</p><p><a class="btn btn-wide btn-primary" href="/system/files/media/file/2024/07/paa-responsible-ai-clinical-decision-making.pdf" target="_blank" title="Responsible AI: Clinical Decision Making"><span>Read Case Study</span></a><span> </span></p></div></div></div> /* y-hr3 */ .y-hr3{ clear: both; } .y-hr3 div:nth-child(2) { border-top: solid 2px lightgrey; margin: 50px 0px; height: 0px } /* y-hr3 // */ <div class="row y-hr3"><div class="col-md-3"> </div><div class="col-md-6"> </div><div class="col-md-3"> </div></div><div class="row spacer"><div class="col-sm-8 col-md-offset-2"><div><a href="https://www.paanalytics.com?utm_source=aha&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=aha-concord-portcos&utm_term=2024&utm_content=casestudy" target="_blank" title="Learn to Live"><img src="/sites/default/files/2024-07/logo-paa-concord_834x313.jpg" alt="Post Acute Analytics logo" width="417" height="157"></a><h3><a href="https://www.paanalytics.com?utm_source=aha&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=aha-concord-portcos&utm_term=2024&utm_content=casestudy" target="_blank" title="Post Acute Analytics">Post Acute Analytics</a></h3><p>Post Acute Analytics' solutions revolutionize patient care by replacing traditional processes that lead to longer acute stays, prior authorization denials, and repetitive manual work. Anna™ utilizes Responsible AI that is transparent and ties to established medical criteria, fostering seamless collaboration among care providers. PAA’s platform not only enhances efficiency but also results in improved patient outcomes, reduced costs, and eliminates the inefficiencies associated with manual workflows. With Post Acute Analytics, providers use a data-driven process to create more coordinated, cost-effective, and efficient episodes of care.</p><p>To learn more about Post Acute Analytics <a href="mailto:cdurard@paanalytics.com?subject=I%20would%20like%20to%20learn%20more%20about%20your%20solution&body=I%20would%20like%20to%20learn%20more%20about%20the%20work%20your%20company%20is%20doing%20with%20hospitals%20and%20health%20care%20providers." title="contact Steven Reilly">contact Carrie DuRard</a>.</p></div></div></div> /* y-hr3 */ .y-hr3{ clear: both; } .y-hr3 div:nth-child(2) { border-top: solid 2px lightgrey; margin: 50px 0px; height: 0px } /* y-hr3 // */ <div class="row y-hr3"><div class="col-md-3"> </div><div class="col-md-6"> </div><div class="col-md-3"> </div></div> Mon, 15 Jul 2024 11:55:47 -0500 Clinical Integration /aha-center-health-innovation-market-scan/2024-07-02-4-takeaways-coming-shift-health-services-demand <div class="container"><div class="row"><div class="col-md-8"><p><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/4-Takeaways-on-Coming-Shift-in-Health-Services-Demand.png" data-entity-uuid="cc5ff1a8-a784-4924-96b8-17d95e977efd" data-entity-type="file" alt="4 Takeaways on Coming Shift in Health Services Demand. A business man stands on a raised path that forks into three arrows pointing in different directions." width="100%" height="100%"></p><p>The coming decade will present significant challenges for hospitals and health systems as they strive to meet a shifting demand for services.</p><p>Rising volumes will require a greater focus on managing patient flow and reducing emergency department (ED) bottlenecks as providers seek to reduce wait times for those needing beds.</p><p>The evolving landscape will be led by an aging population, increased incidence of chronic disease and a higher demand for mental health services — all of which will cause inpatient and outpatient volumes to rise, notes the <a href="https://vizientinc-delivery.sitecorecontenthub.cloud/api/public/content/47212a11b76244d2b3bc7f0e0db086e5" target="_blank" title="Sg2: 2024 Impact of Change® Forecast Highlights">Sg2 2024 Impact of Change report</a>.</p><p>The report’s disease-based forecasting model analyzes patient-level data across service lines and sites of care for more than 27,000 unique disease and procedure combinations, helping organizations understand their care delivery opportunities in the decade ahead.</p><h2><span>Assessing Inpatient and Outpatient Volumes</span></h2><p>Inpatient utilization can be expected to rise 3% to 31 million annual discharges while inpatient days will increase 9% to 170 million, the report states. This will impact patient flow in a variety of ways.</p><p>Growth in medical discharges, meanwhile, will outpace surgical discharges as patients age and are increasingly comorbid, exacerbating pressures in the ED to find patient beds.</p><p>Similar trends will impact the outpatient setting, leading to a 17% jump in these volumes to 5.82 billion. Robust growth is forecasted in outpatient surgical services, driven by expanded capabilities and patients’ procedural needs and chronic care required to manage ongoing conditions like dysrhythmia and dementia.</p><h2><span>4 Takeaways on Coming Care Trends</span></h2><h3><span>1</span> <span>|</span> Double down on integrating primary and behavioral health care.</h3><p>Inpatient behavioral health discharges and outpatient volumes are projected to grow 8% and 26%, respectively, over the next decade. This increased demand will place additional pressure on already constrained access points such as primary care and psychotherapy services.</p><h4>Takeaway</h4><p>Data show that up to 75% of primary care visits can include a mental health component, said Stephanie Snider, Sg2 director, in a recent <a href="https://sg2.podbean.com/e/2024-impact-of-change%C2%AE-primary-care/" target="_blank" title="Sg2 Perspectives: 2024 Impact of Change® Primary Care podcast">podcast</a>. This can include everything from disease management that brings stress to a patient to conditions like anxiety, depression or substance use.</p><p>This means providers will need to double down on the progress they have made in integrating primary care, specialty care and behavioral health to identify patient needs at the earliest stage. Offering more co-located spaces for primary care and behavioral health services also could make care more seamless for patients or offering a virtual hub to connect rural and other patients to services.</p><h3><span>2</span> <span>|</span> Target your virtual care services.</h3><p>The shift to virtual care will continue despite adoption headwinds. By 2034, nearly one in four (23%) evaluation and management visits will be delivered in a virtual setting, the report states. Behavioral health virtual visits will see strong growth and make up a larger portion of psychotherapy visits over the next decade, with 50% of psychotherapy visits delivered virtually by 2034.</p><h4>Takeaway</h4><p>Achieving seamless care coordination and verifying that patients can access your virtual care portal easily can help ensure that patients — particularly those with chronic conditions — stay actively engaged in their care. Hospitals typically will see more uptake in virtual services that are consultative in nature — think chronic disease, notes Tori Richie, senior director of intelligence at Sg2. Surgical-related services, such as orthopedic or spinal conditions, will have less virtual uptake.</p><h3><span>3</span> <span>|</span> Hone your home care strategies.</h3><p>Further enabled by virtual capabilities, home health is expected to grow 22%. As the aging, high-acuity patient population continues to require longer stays in the hospital (with 9% inpatient growth forecast), organizations must be intentional about how they plan their inpatient and outpatient service-line strategies, the report states.</p><h4>Takeaway</h4><p>Organizations should be asking key questions now to inform their future home-care strategies, Richie suggests. How many bed days could be saved by a robust care-at-home program? Lessons learned in the near term as hospitals and health systems refine their home care offerings as a key component of transitional care and interventions in older patients with chronic diseases will pay dividends in the long term.</p><h3><span>4</span> <span>|</span> Expect a slowdown in bariatric surgeries.</h3><p>A 15% decline in inpatient bariatric surgeries is forecast in the next decade, fueled in part by scaled adoption of pharmaceuticals designed to help patients lose weight and/or reduce blood glucose levels.</p><h4>Takeaway</h4><p>It’s worth noting that an increase of 13% is expected in commercial and self-paid bariatric surgical volumes moving to the outpatient setting.</p></div><div class="col-md-4"><p><a href="/center" title="Visit the AHA Center for Health Innovation landing page."><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/logo-aha-innovation-center-color-sm.jpg" data-entity-uuid="7ade6b12-de98-4d0b-965f-a7c99d9463c5" alt="AHA Center for Health Innovation logo" width="721" height="130" data-entity- type="file" class="align-center"></a></p><p><a href="/center/form/innovation-subscription"><img src="/sites/default/files/2019-04/Market_Scan_Call_Out_360x300.png" data-entity-uuid data-entity-type alt width="360" height="300"></a></p></div></div></div>.field_featured_image { position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } .featured-image{ position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } Tue, 02 Jul 2024 06:15:00 -0500 Clinical Integration /news/headline/2024-06-26-aha-podcast-optimizing-whole-person-care-through-integration <p>With the advent of technology and integrated clinics, Henry Ford Health System is leading the way in serving its growing communities. In this conversation, Cathrine Frank, M.D., chair of psychiatry and behavioral health services at Henry Ford Health System, shares how they utilize a virtual team approach to provide reachable care, and how innovations like a patient tracking registry are benefiting the whole person.  <a href="/advancing-health-podcast/2024-06-26-optimizing-whole-person-care-through-integration">LISTEN NOW</a> </p> Wed, 26 Jun 2024 14:56:43 -0500 Clinical Integration /news/perspective/2024-04-26-integrating-mental-and-physical-health-better-support-patients-and-communities <p>Seventy years ago, George Brock Chisholm, M.D., the first director-general of the World Health Organization, famously stated that “without mental health there can be no true physical health.”</p><p>Those words continue to ring true today. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and it is a time to raise awareness of and reduce the stigma surrounding behavioral health issues. It’s also a time to recognize how mental illness and addiction can affect all of us — patients, providers, families and our society at large.</p><p>Hospitals and health systems play an important role in the conversations we have around mental health care, including creating partnerships that address behavioral health issues in nontraditional ways. Many hospitals are creating new innovations around how behavioral health disorders are identified and treated — through the integration of physical and behavioral health services, changes in their emergency departments, and inpatient and outpatient settings. These <a href="/system/files/media/file/2023/09/AHA-BH-Integration-TimeisNow-whitepaper-september-2023.pdf" download="file" target="_blank">strategies</a> improve the overall value of health care and can lead to improvements in patient outcomes, quality of care and total costs.</p><p>Behavioral health remains a top priority for the AHA as it cuts across each pillar in our <a href="/strategy" target="_blank" title="2022-2024 Strategic Plan">2022-2024 Strategic Plan</a>. During Mental Health Awareness Month and throughout the year, the AHA is engaged in a number of efforts to bolster support for behavioral health for individuals, care providers and communities.</p><p>Advocacy Efforts: We continue to work with Congress and federal agencies to implement policies to better integrate and coordinate behavioral health services with physical health services. Such policies include developing alternative payment models and bundled payments that incorporate behavioral and physical health services and financially supporting implementation of team-based care models. In addition, we are advocating to:</p><ul><li>Hold commercial health insurers accountable for covering behavioral health services in accordance with parity laws. </li><li>Enhance the behavioral health workforce by expanding the types of providers eligible for reimbursement and improving payment rates for behavioral health services. </li><li>Eliminate Medicare’s 190-day lifetime limit for inpatient behavioral psychiatric admissions. </li><li>Repeal the Medicaid Institutions for Mental Disease exclusion, which prohibits the use of federal Medicaid funds to cover inpatient mental health services for patients aged 21 to 64 in certain freestanding psychiatric facilities. </li><li>Increase targeted funding for facilities that provide pediatric mental health services and invest in the pediatric behavioral health workforce. </li><li>Reauthorize key programs in the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, which would extend expiring payments, grants and other programs for substance use disorder. </li><li>Reauthorize the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act through 2029 to provide grants to help health care organizations offer behavioral health services for front-line health care workers.</li></ul><p>Resources for Hospitals: At the same time, the AHA continues to <a href="/advocacy/access-and-health-coverage/access-behavioral-health" target="_blank" title="AHA Behavioral Health Resources">develop and share resources</a>  that support mental and behavioral health as we lead efforts to:</p><ul><li>Increase hospitals and health systems’ integration of physical and behavioral health services in acute inpatient, emergency department and primary care. </li><li>Further initiatives by hospitals and health systems, community partners, social service agencies and others to expand access to a continuum of behavioral health services in a region. </li><li>Reduce stigma and suicides, fatal drug overdoses and alcohol-related diseases, while addressing the unique stigmas of specific age groups, cultures and other demographics. </li><li>Prevent suicide through behavioral health initiatives, awareness and intervention. </li><li>Support the mental health and well-being of the health care workforce.</li></ul><p>Please visit our <a href="/mental-health-awareness-month" target="_blank" title="May is Mental Health Awareness Month">Mental Health Awareness Month webpage</a> for more tools and resources as we continue our work to integrate physical and behavioral health, and advance health in America.</p> Fri, 26 Apr 2024 09:58:09 -0500 Clinical Integration