E-News to Know

Health Improvement Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati

October 2008

Cincinnati Aligning Forces for Quality Set to Begin New Phase of Diabetes Footprints Campaign

100,000 Consumers to be Reached by End of 2009

Cincinnati Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q), the Collaborative’s groundbreaking effort to drive quality improvements in health and health care that is funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, will begin a new phase of its Diabetes Footprints Campaign in November with the distribution of campaign tool kits to participating organizations. Health plans and hospitals that provide certified diabetes education are among the nearly 100 organizations that will receive consumer decision support tools and additional material aimed to better inform and engage consumers in the management of their disease.

“Through the efforts of these participating groups, we are moving closer to achieving our goal of educating consumers to take more personal responsibility for their treatment, and ultimately advancing the quality of diabetes care overall,” said Craig Brammer, director, Cincinnati Aligning Forces for Quality, and senior research associate, University of Cincinnati.

On an even greater scale, AF4Q’s Consumer Engagement Workgroup has planned a mass distribution to put the Diabetes Footprints decision support tools in the hands of 100,000 consumers with diabetes by the end of 2009.

The support tools were created using results from both national and local research. Focus groups of women in Greater Cincinnati with Type II diabetes, conducted in kind by Procter and Gamble, explored patients’ feelings about their disease, their care and self-management. The goals were to put clear, understandable information into writing, along with easy-to-follow action points patients could use as guidelines for care they should expect at doctor’s visits and for their own self-management.

The support tools are already in use by certified diabetes educators at six sites through Mercy Health Partners certified diabetes education clinics. Support tools have also been disseminated through Speaking of Women’s Health conferences and through several local employers.

Along with the Diabetes Footprints support tools, communication kits will contain the campaign logo, suggestions for use of the tools, and a suggested script for facilitators to use in introducing it to the consumer.

Consumer Engagement is one of five workgroups organized around AF4Q initiatives:

The Quality Improvement Workgroup has established the Primary Care Innovation Group consisting of 11 private practices utilizing a registry to track performance on required measures for diabetes patients.

Efforts to aggregate the registry data via HealthBridge, a Collaborative subsidiary and one of the nation’s largest electronic health information exchanges, will be driven by the Health Information Technology Workgroup.

The Performance Measurement and Reporting Workgroup is engaged to generate web-based performance reporting on diabetes quality of care measures that will be available to both physicians (available by mid-2009) and consumers (by spring of 2010).

A variety of recognition and reward plans, such as pay-for-performance programs, are being researched by the Provider Recognition and Support Workgroup.

A more detailed description of Cincinnati AF4Q’s first-year accomplishments, along with future goals of each workgroup, will be available in its first Report to the Community, to be distributed in October to area health providers, employers and business leaders.

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Bob Arnot, MD, to Provide Keynote Address for 2008 Celebration of Collaborative Leadership

The Health Improvement Collaborative is pleased to welcome world renowned medical journalist and television anchor Bob Arnot, MD, as keynote speaker for its annual dinner on Thursday, November 13. (Click here for additional details about the event.) 

With his extensive experience in far-flung locations around the globe, Dr. Arnot brings a unique perspective on the effects of health issues to communities. Currently the anchor of the hit television show Dr. Danger (MOJO HD), now in its second season, he also serves as medical educator and host for Google Health Videos, a series of online videos dealing with personal health and well-being.

“Dr. Arnot has witnessed the impact that quality health care, or the lack thereof, can have in the most extreme circumstances,” says Greg Ebel, executive director of the Collaborative. “He understands the importance of bringing together all parties to provide healthier communities which is the Collaborative’s ultimate goal.”

Reporting on stories ranging from weight loss to cancer, to epidemic and pandemic disease crises, to the front lines of all major foreign developments, including the War on Terror and the harrowing civil unrest in Sudan’s Darfur region, Dr. Arnot speaks with a level of expertise few medical professionals attain.

Prior to joining NBC in December 1996, Dr. Arnot was a health correspondent for the CBS Evening News and CBS This Morning. He also is a veteran foreign correspondent, having covered the Gulf War, the Rwandan genocide, and the civil wars in Burundi, the Congo, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Mozambique, Uganda, and Kosovo. He has reported the devastating effects of epidemic diseases such as ebola in Central Africa to AIDS in Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Malawi, to cholera in Bangladesh, Somalia, and Turkey. With a background in Islamic studies, he was assigned to report from Pakistan prior to the U.S. military response following 9/11. He also has reported extensively on the threat of biological and chemical attacks, including the anthrax scare of a few years ago.

In additional to Dr. Arnot’s address, the event will recognize several dedicated volunteers who have served on behalf of the Health Improvement Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati.

Presenting sponsors for this year’s event include Procter & Gamble, UnitedHealthcare and Mercer. Proceeds will benefit various Collaborative initiatives that focus on critical health issues such as physician supply and health care quality.

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Collaborative and HealthBridge Selected as One
of Eleven U.S. Chartered Value Exchanges

Designation Will Give Organization Access to Medicare Cost and Quality Data

The Health Improvement Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati’s recent distinction as one of 11 newly-named Chartered Value Exchanges (CVE) will further its efforts in advancing high quality, patient-centered, cost-effective health care in Greater Cincinnati. Given the CVE honor by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Collaborative, and its subsidiary, HealthBridge, will now have access to information previously unavailable from Medicare.

“The data that we will gain access to as a CVE, when combined with similar private-sector information, will provide a much more comprehensive consumer guide to the quality of care in our area communities than is currently available,” Greg Ebel, Collaborative executive director, explained. “This information will be an invaluable tool in continuing to build the foundation necessary for community stakeholders to identify and work together on shared health-related community priorities.”

The Collaborative was chosen as a CVE due to its proven efforts of implementing cutting-edge ways to transform health care in the Greater Cincinnati region. “Local public-private collaboration is essential to achieving a health system based on quality and value,” HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt stated. “The most effective strategy for achieving long-term improvement is the development of national measures and standards and the implementation of local solutions to utilize them.”

This standard performance information will be used to foster value-based purchasing decisions for area consumers. “By empowering consumer choice through public reporting, we create incentive at all levels,” stated Ebel. “It motivates the entire system to provide better care for less money. Providers can see how their practice compares to others and make any needed improvements, while it also promotes effective public and payment policies.”

This information is one piece in the puzzle towards creating an interoperable health care information system. A key objective of the Cincinnati CVE is to align the many successful, but disparate, health care programs and initiatives that currently exist in the Greater Cincinnati market. “It is our hope that through the CVE and related work, we will capitalize on the great potential of our region, and create a culture that inspires excellence in health care delivery and rewards results,” stated Ebel.

In addition to having access to Medicare data, the Collaborative also will join a nationwide Learning Network with other CVEs that will provide peer-to-peer learning experiences through meetings, both face-to-face and on the Web, and also will feature tools, access to experts, and an ongoing private Web-based knowledge management system.

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