Four of the seven featured practices with their QIAs.

The annual event's morning session included (back row, from right) Jenna Mikrut and Mallory Roberson from Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, Dr. Daniel Miller from Sunflower Ob-Gyn, PA, and KHC's Devin June; and (front from right) Kelsey Moran, Bonnie Stephens, and Dr. Kim Allman from Family Physicians of Kansas, and Tiffany Trapp from Rush County Medical Clinic, and KHC's Jill Daughhetee.

About 80 leaders across Kansas committed to clinical practice transformation and performance-based care came together last week near Salina for a full day of sharing knowledge and lessons learned at the 2018 Kansas PTN Annual Learning Event.

Among the featured speakers were seven local practice leaders who shared inspiring success stories of changing patient lives using evidence-based approaches for helping patients reduce their blood pressure. Their efforts were supported in part by a partnership between Kansas Healthcare Collaborative and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

One of the seven practices is Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas. Mallory Roberson — Population Health Manager who oversees the project at CHCSEK — said the clinic made substantial strides in building relationships with most of the patients who agreed to participate in the program, in addition to seeing improvements in health outcomes.

The PTN event's morning panel.

The event's morning session panel included (from left) Dr. Daniel Miller from Sunflower Ob-Gyn, Mallory Roberson from Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, Tiffany Trapp from Rush County Medical Clinic, and Dr. Kim Allman from Family Physicians of Kansas.

“As we're calling and building relationships with each person, we were able to connect them with resources to improve not just their blood pressure but their overall health,” Roberson said.

For example one elderly patient with extremely high blood pressure—whom Roberson said was at great risk for stroke—initially declined to participate in the initiative.

“She told the nurse: ‘I understand my health is important, and that I need to focus on my blood pressure. But I have $5 to get me through the last 20 days of the month, so it's just not at the top of my priority list’,” Roberson recalls.

Team members from FreeState Healthcare include Dr. Elisha Yaghmai and Monica Guilliams.

Team members from FreeState Healthcare include Dr. Elisha Yaghmai and Monica Guilliams.

Staff at CHCSEK helped connect this patient with a local food delivery organization. “The nurse learned about her needs, addressed them and removed those barriers—and then we got to focus on blood pressure."

The three-month projects included implementing team-based care, nurse-led care protocols for the management of hypertension, automating the transfer of patient blood pressure readings into medical records, patient-centric goal setting, and collaborative practice agreements between a physician and pharmacist.

Four of the practices with similar, team-based care projects saw a patricularly dramatic increase in the proportion of participants with their blood pressures in control.

Team members from Family Health Center at Kearny County Hospital include Karla Davila and Linzie Vanatta (right).

Team members from Family Health Center at Kearny County Hospital include Karla Davila and Linzie Vanatta (right).
 

Among the 87 participants of these four practices, 40% had their blood pressure in control at baseline (systolic <140 and diastolic <90); this increased to 72% of participants with their blood pressure in control upon completing the project. Additionally, 72% of the participants saw a decrease in their systolic blood pressure and 66% of participants saw a decrease in their diastolic blood pressure over the course of the project.

The seven participating clinics were:

mcpherson medical 5048sm

Team members from McPherson Medical and Surgical Associates include (from left) Duane Wedel, Dr. Trenton VanEaton, and Julie Jantz.

All seven presented at the Kansas PTN Annual Event and, together, showed dramatic improvement in blood pressure over the initiative’s 12-week period.

“We’re proud to partner with these practices as they demonstrate the value of patient-centered care,” said Rosanne Rutkowski, KHC Program Director and manager of the Kansas PTN. “We hope their successes will lead to expanding this initiative to benefit even more Kansans.”

The 2018 Kansas PTN Annual Learning Event also featured national and local faculty who discussed team-based care, physician engagement, integrating patients as members of their own health care team, and the future of value-based care. Among the speakers were:

Faculty for the 2018 Kansas PTN annual event.

Faculty for the 2018 annual meeting of the Kansas Practice Transformation Network were (from left) Dr. Doug Patten, Dr. Tom Evans, and Dr. Kirsten Meisinger. With them at right is Dr. Justin Moore of Health ICT and Dr. Elisha Yaghmai of FreeState Healthcare.

More information:

View program brochure (pdf)

View presentation materials

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(posted Sept. 20, 2018)