OACHC's Ultimate Health Center Champions Contest

PUT ON THOSE GLOVES AND LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!

Join us for a little friendly competition to highlight Ohio's Community Health Centers during National Health Center Week - and shine the light on all the great work you do each and every day!
All of Ohio's Health Center networks are eligible to participate. Centers have been divided into three divisions:

• Heavyweight (>16,000 patients annually)
• Welterweight (7,000 - 15,999 patients annually)
• Featherweight (<7,000 patients annually)

You will be able to share this contest with your patients, employees, and community to get as many votes for your health center as possible. Each person can vote once per day from August 1st to August 17th. 

 

www.ohiochc.org/champs

A Spotlight on QI Success!

Muskingum Valley Health Centers

When looking at Muskingum Valley Health Center’s (MVHC’s) Colorectal Cancer Screening outcomes, many ask, “What are they doing over there?!?”. Like many of you, we wondered what they were doing to achieve such success in this measure and therefore we interviewed them to gather some clues. We hope that what we share will encourage and inspire you as well.

In the first quarter of 2015, Jeanie Blake, RN, Chief Quality Officer at MVHC, noted their Colorectal Screening rate was 17.14%. So she gathered all of their Care Coordinators to just be “more cognizant” about asking about colonoscopies and making sure they document it in the proper locations in their Health Maintenance Module.

After a few months of these minimal efforts, they again pulled their reports and the screening rate was up to 24%. In their eyes, this was not much better and so they called the staff together again. This time they called all their care coordinators (they have 12) together and they began to brainstorm about how to solve this problem. Together they decided that they would purchase Fecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) kits and alter their visit procedures. MVHC had established a Patient Care Charitable fund and decided to utilize those funds to purchase the FIT tests. Moving forward, the Care Coordinators decided to pull each day’s schedule the day before and “flag” any patient who might be eligible for colorectal cancer screening. They would then review the chart to see if they had a documented screening and then offer the FIT kit to the patient when they came in for their visit. They would discuss the benefits and how to use the test and then follow-up with them to make sure they returned their kits.

At the end of 2015, MVHC reported their Colorectal Cancer Screening outcomes to UDS as 50.59%. The team continued to refine their processes and in 2016 they reported their UDS measure rate as 77.67%. As of Quarter 1 or 2017, their rates are still high at 75%.

The MVHC has already seen some incredible patient results that have motivated the staff and encouraged them to continue their efforts. Mrs. A, a female patient in her late 60s took the FIT kit home just a few months ago and then returned the kit. The patient was found to have advanced colon cancer and went through surgery and treatment shortly after and survived the episode. This finding really helped the staff see that what they were doing was worthwhile and life-saving!

Take-Aways

We asked Jeanie what her key take-aways from this project and she outlined the following:
•    Pick 1-2 areas to focus on and devote yourself to improving them
•    Make small changes and see if it works
•    One-on-one, personal interaction is key
•    Involve frontline staff in brainstorming
•    Acknowledge/look for successes to build motivation
•    Invest in care coordination staff

Health Center Details:

Name/Location: Muskingum Valley Health Centers, Zanesville, Ohio
Provider Productivity Goals: 2.675 patients/hour for MDs, 2.25 pts/hr for NPs/Pas
Staffing Model: 1 provider with a “roomer” (MA), a “discharge nurse” (LPN), and shares a Care Coordinator with another provider.
Sites/Volume: 4 sites, 100,000 visits per year
EMR: Epic

Blog Post Provided by Kyle Vath & Jeanie Blake of Muskingum Valley Health Centers

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House Overrides 11 Vetoes – Medicaid Enrollment Freeze NOT One of Them!

Thursday morning, July 6th, the Ohio House of Representatives issued 11 veto overrides, and we are pleased to announce the freeze of Medicaid expansion enrollment was NOT one of them. 

To recap, the Ohio General Assembly included in the final version of the state biennial budget (HB 49) a provision to freeze enrollment in Group VIII, commonly known as the Medicaid expansion population, as of July 1, 2018. According to the Office of Health Transformation, in addition to freezing new enrollment come July 1, this provision would strip 500K currently enrolled Ohioans of their coverage within 18 months of implementation. This loss of coverage is a result of Ohioans currently enrolled in Medicaid who cycle off and on for a multitude of reasons, including seasonal work, working more hours temporarily or earning additional wages for a period of time, paperwork, process issues etc.

On June 30th, Governor Kasich vetoed this provision, striking it from HB 49.  House and Senate leadership publicly discussed bringing their chambers back to override this veto.  Because a vote to override a Governor’s veto must begin in the chamber of which the legislation was originated – in this case, it was the House – all eyes were on the Ohio House of Representatives this morning as the chamber gathered to override 11 vetoes.  To put this in context a bit, there have only been 3 veto overrides in the last 27 years, and none up to this point on any of Governor Kasich’s vetoes. 

Hands down, without a doubt, because of your advocacy and tremendous grassroots efforts – emails, phone calls, strong social media presence, Statehouse meetings, district meetings, town halls, and the Statehouse Rally, OACHC is pleased to announce the Medicaid enrollment freeze WAS NOT BROUGHT UP FOR AN OVERRRIDE VOTE, and as such, this provision stays out of the bill and will not become law…at least for now!

The House concluded their voting session, stating all remaining vetoes – including the freeze - are left pending.  This means anytime between now and the end of this General Assembly (December 31, 2018) the House could bring this issue back up.  We live to fight another day!

We may not be completely out of the woods, but for today we should celebrate this success! Community Health Center advocates absolutely deserve a HUGE pat on the back for their strong and ever present leadership, as do our legislators who stood up and raised their voices with their colleagues to at a minimum, delay this vote, if not, lay it to rest completely. 

Great job Community Health Center advocates!  Please join us in thanking legislators who supported our efforts by retweeting and sharing our social media posts on Facebook and Twitter .