Today our Chief Medial Executive Dr. Michael Soman announced the American Medical Group Association (AMGA) honored Group Health Physicians work with its 2010 Acclaim Award. He said this “acknowledgment is especially meaningful because it goes well beyond typical awards for individual improvement projects. The Acclaim Award is about delivery system transformation. It’s a huge validation for a broad, dramatic body of innovative work spanning many years. So before I go any further, I want to say thank you, and well done!”
Read more about this honor and how Group Health “blew the judges away” on Group Health’s In Our View Blog.
Group Health Physicians Recognized for Innovation
By Katie McCarthy | Posted in Group Health, Health Care Quality, Medical Home | Tags: awards, Medical Home, quality — | Comments (0)
Group Health to be featured in T. R. Reid documentary
T.R. Reid
Group Health continues to capture the national spotlight for its innovations in health care. The most recent occurrence was last week, when a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) crew spent time filming at Group Health for a documentary about America’s best-kept health care secrets.
The documentary crew was led by T.R. Reid, well-known health care reform author and filmmaker. On one day, he spent sunrise to sunset at Factoria Medical Center, the pilot site of our medical home model. Reid and the crew shadowed clinicians, staff, and patients throughout the day to show how Group Health is providing quality care while keeping costs down. (more…)
By Group Health | Posted in Group Health, Health Care Quality, Health Care Reform, Medical Home | Tags: documentary, Health Care Reform, PBS — | Comments (0)
Medical home pays off, improving primary care and cutting cost at 2 years
Links:
If you have trouble viewing the YouTube video please click here: Medical Home Year 2
Health Affairs, May 2010: The Group Health Medical Home At Year Two: Cost Savings, Higher Patient Satisfaction, And Less Burnout For Providers
Health Affairs, May 2010 Report From the Field: Group Health’s Move To The Medical Home: For Doctors, It’s Often A Hard Journey
Group Health patients visit ERs and hospitals less in Health Affairs study
In a two-year evaluation at Group Health Cooperative, transforming primary care into a “patient-centered medical home” model paid off. Published in the May 2010 Health Affairs, the evaluation compared the medical home prototype to Group Health’s other medical centers, showing:
- The quality of care was higher, patients reported having better experiences, and clinicians said they felt less “burned out.”
- Patients had 29 percent fewer emergency visits and 6 percent fewer hospitalizations, resulting in a net savings of $10 per patient per month.
- For every dollar Group Health invested, mostly to boost staffing, it recouped $1.50.
This evaluation prompted Group Health to spread the medical home to all 26 of its medical centers, (more…)
By Katie McCarthy | Posted in Group Health, Medical Home, Research | Tags: health reform, Medical Home, primary care — | Comments (0)
CNN features Group Health as doing health care right
If you are having trouble viewing video go to: CNN’s Video
Elizabeth Cohen, CNN’s Health Correspondent, spent two days with Group Health at our Factoria Medical Center shadowing Dr. Eric Seaver and featuring Group Health overall as a place where health care is done right.
This coverage follows a recent commentary about the significance to health reform of Group Health’s Medical Home in Journal American Medical Association (JAMA) and the policy journal Health Affairs ‘ April article on our electronic medical records. Plus we’ll be represented at a National Press Club forum with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius next week when Health Affairs unveils its special issue on “Reinventing Primary Care.”
Exciting times at Group Health!
By Katie McCarthy | Posted in Electronic Medical Records, Group Health, Health Care Reform, Medical Home | Tags: cnn, health reform — | Comments (0)
Medical Home Year 2 Findings Video
Featured video of Dr. Rob Reid, MD, PhD, an associate investigator at Group Health Research Institute and lead author of the year two medical home evaluation in the May 2010 Health Affairs journal. For more on the study and results go to: http://ghcnews.org/?p=1036 .
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Health Affairs, May 2010: The Group Health Medical Home At Year Two: Cost Savings, Higher Patient Satisfaction, And Less Burnout For Providers
Health Affairs, May 2010 Report From the Field: Group Health’s Move To The Medical Home: For Doctors, It’s Often A Hard Journey
Want better health information technology? Ask patients how they want it
Health Affairs report shows value of patient-centered IT at Group Health
If you can’t see the youtube video below, go to: http://ghcnews.org/?p=932
Hopes are high that health information technology will support care between office visits, boost efficiency and convenience, and help patients lead healthier lives. An evaluation in the April Health Affairs suggests how to make the most of this new approach: Routinely ask patients how they like it and what they want.
“It’s crucial to ask patients whether the health information technology they use is meeting their needs promptly and appropriately and honoring their values and preferences,” said lead author James Ralston, MD, MPH, an associate investigator at Group Health Research Institute and an internist at Group Health Cooperative.
Group Health was an “early adopter” of health information technology that directly engages patients online. (more…)
By Katie McCarthy | Posted in Electronic Medical Records, Medical Home, Research | Tags: Electronic Medical Records, health information technology — | Comments (1)
Dr. Jim Bergman and Aubrey Davis honored for commitment to health care
Congratulations to James (Jim) Bergman MD, of Group Health’s Factoria Medical Center for receiving the honor as the Outstanding Health Care Professional from Seattle Business Magazine at the event last night.
Dr. Bergman is instrumental in implementing a new way for doctors to practice medicine, called the medical home. He was the first physician to practice at Factoria in 1988 and over the years he’s been a key figure in Group Health going from paper and pencil, to keystrokes and e-mailing patients.
Dr. Bergman was in good company, past Group Health CEO and Trustee, Aubrey Davis was also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his commitment to shaping health care in our region and nation. (more…)
By Katie McCarthy | Posted in Group Health, Medical Home | Tags: Aubrey Davis, Jim Bergman, Seattle Business — | Comments (0)
Medical home gives patients better primary care at no more cost
Pilot is first to show broad improvements for patients and providers
SEATTLE—A one-year evaluation at Group Health Cooperative is the first to demonstrate the measurable benefit to both patients and staff when a primary care practice adopts a “patient-centered medical home” model. This model gives patients more time with doctors, more preventive care, and improved collaboration among caregivers. Tomorrow the American Journal of Managed Care will publish the results—including significantly fewer emergency room visits and hospitalizations.
Much national attention is focused on the medical home model as a way to help solve the U.S. primary care shortage, improve health outcomes, and control costs. A medical home provides expanded primary care that is personalized, focused on prevention, actively involves patients in making decisions about their care, and helps coordinate all their care and get their health needs met.
The new study provides some of the nation’s first empirical evidence of the benefits of this new type of care using research that compared a random sample of the 9,200 patients at Group Health’s medical home pilot to a control group. At one year, patients at the medical home:
- Had 29 percent fewer emergency room visits, 11 percent fewer hospitalizations that primary care can prevent, and 6 percent fewer in-person visits
- Reported higher ratings on six scales of patient experience
- Used 94 percent more e-mail, 12 percent more phone, and more group visits and self-management support workshops
- Received better health care, including needed screening tests, management of their chronic illnesses, and monitoring of their medications
“A medical home is like an old-style family doctor’s office, but with a whole team of professionals,” explained evaluation leader Robert J. Reid, MD, PhD, an associate investigator at Group Health Center for Health Studies and Group Health’s associate medical director for preventive care. “Together, they make the most of modern knowledge and technology—including e-mail and electronic medical records—to give patients excellent care and reaches out to help them stay healthy.
Now 25 medical home projects are (more…)
Commonwealth Fund case study points to “continuous innovation” at Group Health Cooperative
SEATTLE — A Commonwealth Fund case study notes that Group Health Cooperative is structured with incentives aligned “to launch innovations and organize services in ways that make the most sense operationally and clinically.”
The case study, along other profiles looking at medical systems that have the attributes necessary for a high performing health care system, has been in the works for more than a year. Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis notes recent interest on Capitol Hill in cooperative structures, pointing to Group Health as a “shining example” of the model, while also praising other integrated systems.
“As the nation looks at how to create better health care, medical systems like Group Health that have pioneered a different approach, can provide some of the answers,” said Group Health President and CEO Scott Armstrong. “Most important is setting up incentives that pay for quality care and keeping patients healthy rather than paying for the most care.”
Here are the six attributes The Commonwealth Fund has identified, as experienced at Group Health: (more…)
