SNI BULLETIN April 17, 2008
Your portal to quality improvement in public hospitals
SNI LogoDear Subscriber,

You have received the SNI Bulletin, the California Health Care Safety Net Institute (SNI)
e-newsletter. This email was sent to you by SNI. To ensure delivery directly to your inbox please add sni_info@caph.org to your address book today.

In this SNI Bulletin:

SNI and Partners Launch Palliative Care Initiative

Patient Visit Redesign at Comarr Clinic Achieves Revenue Gains

SEED Teams Improve Diabetes Care: Year One Clinics Show the Way for 19 New Teams

CAPH Organizations Recognized on National Stage for Spreading Excellent Diabetes Care at Institute for Healthcare Improvement Summit

SFGH Physician to Lead California Diabetes Program

UCSF Program Improves Medication Safety in California

Studies Find Links between Health Care Experience and Race/Ethnicity

Kaiser Permanente Offers Discount for CAPH Members to Attend KP National Quality Conference

Upcoming Events

SNI Hiring Senior Program Associate: Position Open Now

 
 

SNI and Partners Launch Palliative Care Initiative

SNI is collaborating with the California HealthCare Foundation on a $2.5 million, 3.5 year initiative to develop new sustainable palliative care (PC) programs in two-thirds of public hospitals by 2011. Activities will include planning, implementation, and expansion grants for new and existing palliative care programs, as well as trainings, convenings, and consultation with palliative care experts. CAPH members will be able to apply through an RFP process from Summer 2008 through Spring 2009. UCSF’s Palliative Care Leadership Center will also provide technical assistance related to program development (PC trainings are also available now; visit their website for more information.) 

Contact: Wendy Jameson

Patient Visit Redesign at Comarr Clinic Achieves Revenue Gains

Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabiliation Center's Comarr Clinic in Los Angeles County is experiencing great success in the current Patient Visit Redesign collaborative, projecting more than $300,000 in additional revenue from their three redesign patient care teams. Through the collaborative, Comarr Clinic has achieved an average patient visit time of 32 minutes, seeing 2.4 patients per hour. Recognizing the work and achievement at Comarr, administration also provided a grant for $80,000 that enabled them to hire a nurse manager to support their redesign efforts and also obtain much-needed equipment, like lift machines and new computers. With plans to spread to four more clinics throughout Rancho's network, there's no stopping them!

Contact: Hunter Gatewood

SEED Teams Improve Diabetes Care: Year One Clinics Show the Way for 19 New Teams

As the SEED diabetes improvement program enters its second year, SNI has already seen great results from the Year One’s improvement teams.

San Mateo Medical Center ’s Fair Oaks Clinic has seen improvements in all 10 patient care and outcome measures they are tracking. For example, 85% of their pilot population has received a foot exam in the past year, and 90% are on medication for cardiovascular risk reduction.  Team leader Sona Aggarwal, MD, says, "It has been inspiring to see that simple practice changes actually produce results for our patients.  It has motivated us to continue to look for potential improvements in our day-to-day work."

The team from Long Beach Comprehensive Health Center in LA County ’s Harbor-UCLA network has also shown great success.  Team leader Peter Chen, Pharm D, says, "With the utilization of our registry and process changes in place, it is much easier to identify and perform needed care…. Implementing a Self-Management tool has also assisted with our success in that it invites the patient to be an active part of the team."

Contact: Hunter Gatewood or visit the SEED webpage

CAPH Organizations Recognized on National Stage for Spreading Excellent Diabetes Care at Institute for Healthcare Improvement Summit

SNI’s Hunter Gatewood was invited to speak April 1 at IHI’s 9th Annual Summit on Redesigning the Clinical Office Practice as a co-presenter with Diane Stewart of the Pacific Business Group on Health on “Spreading Better Care Across California."  The Summit was a great opportunity to showcase the achievements of CAPH-member primary care clinics in improving care for patients with diabetes.  The dedicated work of SEED Spread Leaders in each county, challenge grants to achieve county-wide registry solutions, and structures to engender active senior leader support were some of the spread structures discussed.  The presentation slides are available on the IHI website. Contact: Hunter Gatewood

SFGH Physician to Lead California Diabetes Program

Dean Schillinger, MD, primary care physician at San Francisco General Hospital and faculty member at UCSF, has been named chief of the California Diabetes Program. In his new role, Schillinger will guide policy and be the leading diabetes expert for the state of California. He will continue to carry out his clinical work and research to improve the health of vulnerable, low-income populations at SFGH and UCSF.

“The opportunity to lead the California Diabetes Program, while continuing to treat high-risk patients with diabetes and pre-diabetes in a general county hospital, is exactly the kind of connection needed to improve communication, prevention, treatment, and policy for the populations most affected by this disease and to help more than one person at a time,” says Dr. Schillinger. SNI extends a warm congratulations to Dr. Schillinger on his appointment to this well-deserved position and looks forward to continued work with him.

UCSF Program Improves Medication Safety in California

Developed by University of California San Francisco’s Integrated Nurse Leadership Program, an initiative to teach nurses to follow six best practice procedures has resulted in improved medication administration and reduced errors by 56.8%, UCSF announced. “Our research shows that they [front-line clinical staff] can deliver tremendous results when equipped with the right skills, authority and executive support,” said INLP Director Julie Kliger. Participants included CAPH member, San Francisco General Hospital. These results were published in a recent issue of AHA News Now.

Studies Find Links between Health Care Experience and Race/Ethnicity

Researchers at Harvard University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that minorities are more likely than white patients to rate their health care experience as fair or poor. The study used granular racial/ethnic categories versus the broad categories typically found in disparities research to capture the unique experiences of minority groups. To view the article in its entirety, click here.

In another study presented at the American Heart Association’s Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, findings show that Black and Hispanic patients with diabetes, in addition to those with lower economic status, are less likely than whites or those with higher incomes to monitor their blood glucose levels. The full article can be found here.

Kaiser Permanente Offers Discount for CAPH Members to Attend KP National Quality Conference

Kaiser Permanente is offering CAPH members a reduced conference fee of $200 to attend the Second Annual KP National Quality Conference that will be hosted June 2-5 in San Jose. The theme this year is “Transformation – Harnessing Talent, Tools, & Technology for Total Health.” To see the conference agenda, click here. For registration information, visit the SNI Calendar. Contact: Afiya Palmer

Upcoming Events

May 15 Application deadline for the The California HealthCare Foundation’s Health Care Leadership Program.  Access the RFA here.

June 17 The Specialty Care Access Initiative Roundtable on Protocols and Guidelines will be held in Sacramento at the Holiday Inn Capitol Plaza. For more information, contact Sarah Brooks.

August 8-9 Addressing Health Disparities, UCSF’s Network for Multicultural Health cultural competence workshop, will be held in San Francisco. 

September 8-9 IHI’s Engaging with Physicians in a Shared Quality Agenda seminar. To apply for a Kaiser Permanente/SNI-CAPH scholarship for this conference, click here.

SNI Hiring Senior Program Associate: Position Open Now

SNI is looking to hire a new full-time Senior Program Associate. The new position will require close work with SNI staff, clinicians, and administrators at California’s public hospital systems and will manage grant-funded programs focused on improving quality and efficiency in areas including specialty care access, as well as, potentially: inpatient quality, health information technology and the patient-centered medical home. For more information or information on how to apply, visit the SNI homepage.


Please do not reply to this email. To get quick answers to your questions please visit:
www.safetynetinstitute.org.
 To unsubscribe to future emails click here and type "unsubscribe" in the subject line.


California Health Care Safety Net Institute 70 Washington Street, Suite 215 Oakland, CA 94607
Copyright California Health Care Safety Net Institute 2008. All rights reserved.