May 2022
Registration Open for WCHQ 2022 Quality and Value Improvement Event and Diabetes Summit
June 22, 2022
9 AM – 3:30 PM
Monona Terrace Convention Center, Madison, WI
In person and virtual option
Registration is open for the annual 2022 WCHQ Quality and Value Improvement Event June 22 at Monona Terrace. This education session is open only to WCHQ provider members, corporate sponsors and annual partners. The registration fee of $100 includes all conference sessions and lunch.
Highlights during the day include:
- Angela Fitch, MD, the associate director of Massachusetts General Hospital Weight Center and on faculty at Harvard Medical School, will keynote the event with a presentation on “Combination Therapy for Optimal Obesity Care.” Dr. Fitch has been a guest on numerous national podcasts sharing her expertise in evidence-based management of obesity and weight gain.
- WCHQ will present its 2022 Quality Leadership, recognizing Fort HealthCare. Michael Wallace, Fort Healthcare CEO will describe their approach to quality and community health improvement.
- WCHQ released its first Health Care Value Report earlier this year. WCHQ President and CEO Gabrielle Rude, PhD, will describe the evolution of this work, how members are shaping the work and incorporating value into their organizations, and what to expect in the future.
- Mbonu Ikezuagu, MD, vice president and chief quality officer at ThedaCare, will explain how they are using WCHQ data to improve health care value in their organization.
The WCHQ Diabetes Summit, sponsored in partnership with Novo Nordisk will start in the afternoon and feature three outstanding presentations:
- Caroline Richardson, MD, program director of the Michigan Collaborative for Type 2 Diabetes, will explain how their collaborative is shifting the paradigm for treating and managing type 2 diabetes by engaging and empowering clinicians.
- Novo Nordisk Patient Ambassador Len Elmore is a former NBA player, sportscaster and lecturer at Columbia University. After being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, Len tried to stick to his medication plan and healthy lifestyle but found that to be a difficult journey. He has partnered with Novo Nordisk to raise awareness and teach others to recognize the signs of type 2 diabetes. Melanie Smith, DO, Advocate Aurora Health Care, is a family medicine physician with expertise in obesity medicine. Dr. Smith will facilitate a dialogue between the audience and Len Elmore following Len’s presentation.
- Eric Johnson, PharmD, BCPS, Gundersen Health, is working with a team that is focused on delivering better care to patients. Pharmacists play an essential role in a diabetes care team, one that will be explored in this presentation.
Registration is open. The agenda is here. The registration fee is $100. This event is open to WCHQ member providers, corporate sponsors and annual partners. For more information contact Mary Kay Fahey.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month
Pandemic Impact on Mental Health Greater for People of Color and Lower Incomes
The pandemic has increased long-standing health inequities by race, ethnicity and income. A new Commonwealth Fund analysis in April 2022 confirmed that COVID-19 cases and deaths were disproportionately higher in communities with large Black and Latino populations. The impact on mental health concerns was just as pronounced, affecting people of all backgrounds, but again, those with fewer resources were found to be at greater risk for negative health effects.
According to the Commonwealth Fund, Latino and Black people, women, and people with lower incomes are most at risk of mental health concerns due to the pandemic.
^ Difference is statistically significant at p ≤ 0.05.Notes: Black (non-Latino) and Latino respondents were compared to white (non-Latino) respondents. Female respondents were compared to male respondents. Respondents from households with below-average income were compared to those from households with above-average income. Respondents indicated whether their income was either below or above the annual U.S. household average of $62,000. Data: Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy COVID-19 Supplement Survey, 2020. Source: Yaphet Getachew et al., Beyond the Case Count: The Wide-Ranging Disparities of COVID-19 in the United States (Commonwealth Fund, Sept. 2020). https://doi.org/10.26099/gjcn-1z31
WCHQ has published two reports that are being used to identify the disparities occurring in Wisconsin. WCHQ found significant disparities in the depression screening rate for patients who are uninsured or in the Medicaid program. People on Medicaid or who are uninsured are seen as proxies for poverty. Note the rate of depression screening by payer type for commercial and the uninsured are both 71 percent.
Mental health is only one area in health care that WCHQ and its partners have identified where disparities are occurring. Over the next 24 months, WCHQ will collect and analyze disparities-related data and use it to monitor their progress in mitigating, then eliminating, disparities. To participate in this work, contact Abbey Harburn.
Improvement Teams
Obesity
WCHQ Obesity Advisory Group Members Featured in Employer Education Event
Members of the WCHQ Obesity Advisory Group will be featured presenters at an employer-focused education event June 8: “The Obesity Epidemic and Its Impact on the Workplace.” Recognizing that employers and payers play a critical role in helping employees connect with treatment for obesity, WCHQ teamed up with The Alliance, M3 Insurance and Health Payment Systems (HPS) to sponsor an online event designed to build awareness of obesity as a treatable chronic disease.
Melanie Smith, OD, Advocate Aurora and Christopher Weber, MD, Ascension Wisconsin will provide an overview of the disease and treatments that are available. WCHQ Program Manager Jen Koberstein and Melina Kambitsi, PhD, The Alliance, will co-facilitate a question-and-answer session.
Lauren Schrage from Aspirus Health Plan will join Abby Ammerman from H-E-B and describe two employers approaches to identifying and treating employees who seek or who could benefit from services for obesity. Ammerman presented at a WCHQ Obesity Advisory meeting in January 2022. With more than 120,000 employees at H-E-B, Ammerman can share their experience related to offering obesity-centered services to their employees.
WCHQ members, corporate sponsors and annual partners are welcome to attend this free event. To learn more or register, click here.
Chronic Disease
Chronic Kidney Disease Advisory Group Starts to Define Work, Recruit Health Systems
Clearly focused on improving the quality and affordability of care and in turn, improving the health of individuals and communities, the newly formed Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Advisory Group is engaged and ready to make a difference.
Evidence supports the importance of early detection of CKD, but fewer than half of the people with diabetes get both the recommended estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (uACR) screenings. [1] About 40 percent of the patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes will develop kidney disease.
The CKD Advisory Group is off to a great start with eight health systems now participating in the development of the charter that will guide this particularly important initiative. At the April meeting, the group prefaced the importance of patient-centric work and proposed to consider the opportunity to work beyond the scope of diabetic patients. A subgroup will meet in May to provide an evidence-based recommendation to present to the larger group in June.
As a new framework is built for this newly formed advisory group, WCHQ is actively recruiting members to create a diverse level of expertise to support this work. To learn more about this work or to join the Advisory Group, contact Sheryl Pierce.
Team-Based Care
Survey Reveals WCHQ Members’ Approaches to Team-Based Care
According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), team-based care has the potential to improve the comprehensiveness, coordination, efficiency, effectiveness and value of care, as well as the satisfaction of patients and providers. WCHQ members have reported challenges throughout the pandemic such as efficiencies within teams, team engagement, and fluctuating staffing models.
Out of 10 different types of team-based care (TBC) elements, members of the Chronic Disease Learning Collaborative TBC Workgroup identified approaches being utilized within their health systems in a recent WCHQ survey. TBC pre-visit planning, team huddles, transitions between specialties and primary care, and patient and provider shared goals were chosen by most members. Members reported they are most interested in re-focusing their efforts on components that support team-based care.
During the March workgroup meeting, members also shared their health system goals related to team-based care. Example goals included: diabetes care planning and managing the workflow between primary care and endocrinology, evaluating efforts around in-basket management and RN quality rooming standards, and focusing on warm hand-offs between departments.
To further guide the work within the CDLC TBC workgroup, the group looked beyond common practices, but also identified the greatest areas of interest. These topics will be addressed during future meetings. The following four areas of interest were identified:
- Transitions between specialties and primary care
- Provider/Pharmacy
- Self-measured blood pressure
- Referral tracking and follow-up
Does your organization do some great work in one of the areas listed above or are you interested in learning more? Reach out to Sheryl Pierce for an opportunity to join or present at an upcoming CDLC TBC workgroup meeting.
Disparities
Progress to Address Disparities Depends on Collaboration
The Disparities Improvement Team met this month to finalize a strategy to engage a diverse group of stakeholders in the work of improving health equity in Wisconsin. The Improvement Team recognizes that health disparities cannot be addressed by health systems alone. To make progress on reducing disparities gaps will require collaboration with a wide variety of stakeholders, including advocacy organizations, patients, payers and others with a role in health care delivery, quality and access. The Disparities Improvement Team will be reaching out to potential stakeholders to identify areas of expertise, relevant resources and partnership opportunities.
The Improvement Team also began the process of documenting goals and interventions to improve health disparities in colorectal cancer screening, diabetes A1c control and hypertension control. This will allow the team to compile best practices and share proven interventions throughout the state. The team will track these goals across time by monitoring stratified measure results. For more information or to participate in the Disparities Improvement Team, please contact Abbey Harburn.
[1]United States Renal Data System (USRDS). 2020 USRDS Annual Data Report:Epidemiology of kidney disease in the United States. National Institutes ofHealth, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases,Bethesda, MD, 2020. https://adr.usrds.org/2020.
