April 2022
President’s Column
This past year, like every other organization, WCHQ was challenged to work innovatively during a time of unprecedented change and challenge. As an improvement organization, WCHQ has always embraced adaptability and innovation. Case in point, our strategic plan lays out a long-term vision of where we want to go; however, process steps are only detailed out over the next year and are updated regularly to allow us to react nimbly when things change. WCHQ’s practice led to some tough questions from our partners who were more accustomed to the traditional three- to- five -year detailed plan. This strategy was proven effective when the pandemic forced us to quickly change how and where we worked as well as rearrange and add priorities.
The workforce shortage is an example of a priority that was not on our radar in our pre-pandemic strategic plan. Staff layoffs led to delays in members submitting data and more intense requests for assistance from our staff. Staff burnout exacerbates the impact of staffing shortages, and we are seeing early signs that it will impact patient care outcomes and quality. In response, our improvement teams have added a focus on how to provide care virtually when patients and staff cannot physically be in the clinic. We also focused on renewing one’s purpose at our March Board meeting.
Wisconsin is fortunate to have dedicated health care leaders who have prioritized high quality care despite the pandemic, and WCHQ has added strategic priorities to ensure we can support our members and their staff in that mission.
Minority Health Month: WCHQ Disparities Data Guides Improvement
Every April, the HHS Office of Minority Health (OMH) observes National Minority Health Month to highlight the importance of improving the health of racial and ethnic minorities and reducing health disparities.
The pandemic laid bare the health inequities that exist not only in Wisconsin, but around the globe. It has disproportionately affected communities of color. It also served to mobilize the leadership of Wisconsin’s health systems and clinics to not only identify where disparities are occurring, but to take action to eliminate them.
In late 2021, WCHQ gathered health care leaders at a Disparities Summit, co-chaired by Cathy Jacobson, president and CEO of Froedtert Health, and Dr. Susan Turney, president and CEO of Marshfield Clinic Health System. At the Summit, the health system leaders selected three WCHQ measures that would be the focus of improvement over the next two years: colorectal cancer screening, diabetes A1c control and hypertension control.
Baseline data on these three measures have been collected and will form the starting point for improvement. The WCHQ data is stratified by race/ethnicity, payer and geography.
Findings
The 2020 WCHQ Health Disparities Report found that rural underserved populations had much lower rates of colorectal cancer screening and blood sugar control in diabetes and hypertension are lower for urban.
The WCHQ data in this chart is from 2018 to provide a baseline that does not reflect the impact of the pandemic.
WCHQ will be collecting data from member health systems and analyzing trends in care gaps statewide across all WCHQ measures.
This data will be used to create reports that identify where disparities are occurring in Wisconsin, while the data above will support the work of the measure-specific improvement team.
Participation in the WCHQ Disparities Team is open to WCHQ members. If you are associated with a WCHQ provider member, contact Abbey Harburn. If you are corporate sponsor or annual partner and are interested in the disparities work, contact Mary Kay Fahey.
