CareSouth Carolina RAISES THE HEALTH CARE BAR -  JOINS IHI INNOVATION COMMUNITY

January 2005

 IMPACT is here to help build a movement, to show the health care industry what is possible.  Our industry will be led into its future by a minority of its member organizations and professionals who have achieved a level of performance that nobody else has.

Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP

President and CEO

Institute for Health Care Improvement

CareSouth Carolina, nationally recognized for its patient-centered approach to health care that has achieved exemplary outcomes, has joined an elite number of organizations set on transforming the health care system.   CareSouth Carolina has stepped up its participation in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s IMPACT Network by entering the Innovation Community, Building an Effective Planned Care System for all Patients in Ambulatory Settings.

“We are enormously pleased to be a part of this effort to improve patient care,” said Ann Lewis, Chief Executive Officer of CareSouth Carolina.  “The Institute for Healthcare Improvement has been leading the way on healthcare improvement efforts for years, and we are excited about continuing our work with the Institute in such a concentrated way.  This is ground breaking work, and we welcome the opportunity to continue improving the level of care we share with our patients.”    

Innovation Communities are groups of improvement-minded organizations working together with The Institute for Healthcare Improvement to explore new designs and novel approaches to improving care in areas in which best practices do not already exist or are not fully developed.  Innovation Communities are designed for organizations interested in testing new ideas and being part of the development process.  They are intended for organizations with a good track record of improvement that know how to execute and are ready to test promising but unproven ideas. 

This Innovation Community is focusing on aims related to effectiveness, patient centeredness, and efficiency. The “raise the bar” aims for the Innovation Community on Building Effective Planned Care focus on achieving high levels of performance on measures that matter for patients and providers, specifically:

For a practice of at least 2,000 patients:

Ø       Greater than 95% of patients are engaged in their care to the extent that they are confident in their ability to self-manage their health and any illness or condition

Ø       Greater than 95% of patients receive the evidence-based care appropriate to their health or condition

Ø       A sustainable reduction in the total costs per capita, per member per month charges, or other measure of system-level costs is the ideal; at the very least, the above goals will be achieved with no increase in costs

“If we can accomplish these goals, and I think we can and will, then we will have definitely raised the bar,” says Lewis.   “The idea here is to provide planned care - care that proactively provides the right care to the right patients – for all patients, all conditions.  The results, I think, will transform how we provide care.  The potential for serving as a model practice that can help change the landscape of the entire health care industry is astounding.” 

CareSouth Carolina’s work with the Innovation Community builds on its previous work and success in developing an innovative patient-centered approach to health care.  Since 1999, CareSouth Carolina has participated in three Health Disparities Collaboratives – Diabetes, Asthma and Depression, sponsored by the Bureau of Primary Health Care and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.  The CareSouth staff was recognized by the Institute and the Bureau for exemplary performance in all three arenas.  In addition, CareSouth Carolina was the recipient of Robert Wood Johnson funding for co-management, a small-scale program to further develop self-management lessons learned and implemented to improve care management and planned care.   Through its transformation of the delivery system, CareSouth now has all nine of its medical centers performing planned care of four chronic conditions, including the organization’s own initiation of cardiovascular disease.   It has spread this revolutionary redesign and is presently achieving planned care for over 7,000 patients (the number continues to grow) who are now entered into an electronic patient registry system.  As a result, health outcomes have improved dramatically, eliminating health disparities among racial, rural and poverty lines for persons with these chronic conditions.  There have been improvements in everything from foot and eye care for diabetes patients to the mental health status of depression clients. 

“The next step,” says Lewis, “is to once again overhaul what we are doing and generate these kind of remarkable health outcomes for all patients, all conditions  - and to prove that they can be cost effective for the entire health care system.”

In June of 2002, CareSouth Carolina announced becoming one of 56 Charter Members of a new multi-national network, created by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston, MA, to improve health care quality.   The network, known as IMPACT, brought together change-oriented health care organizations seeking to improve the way health care is delivered.  Including some of the finest hospitals in the world, IMPACT member organizations began work in five critical areas:  

·         Patient Safety – ensuring that patients are as safe in their facilities as they are in their own homes

·         Office Practice and Outpatient Settings – building efficient, proactive, patient-centered care systems for primary care, specialty practices and ambulatory settings

·         Flow Through the Hospital – reducing waiting times, redundancy and waste throughout the hospital system

·         Intensive Care Settings – improving care for patients in critical care units while reducing costs

·         Workforce Development – ensuring a vibrant, motivated, and skilled workforce

CareSouth Carolina focused on Office Practice and Outpatient Settings.   As a result, CareSouth first adopted measures that corresponded with the Institute of Medicine’s dimensions of quality.  Since then, the organization has expounded upon that work and developed system-wide measures that include everything from health outcomes for diabetes patients and equity of care across races to the amount of time patients spend in the medical office.   Measuring has led to marked improvement and a clear focus on providing patient-centered, planned care that, at CareSouth, consistently achieves both extraordinary health outcomes and patient confidence.  Not only is CareSouth Carolina providing some of the best medical care in the nation, the organization has the data that shows it.

CareSouth Carolina has been profiled for the National Coalition on Health Care and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s “Accelerating Change Today (A.C.T.) – For America’s Health” publication on best practices in treating chronic diseases.  It has been cited in the Wall Street Journal for providing cost-effective quality care and was profiled in the Institute’s 2004 progress report for its proven ability to provide equitable care across all races.  

“CareSouth Carolina has its mind on improvement,” says Lewis.  “It’s our corporate culture. This is a golden opportunity to take a giant step forward, and, once again, we are seizing that opportunity.   By going beyond the best known practices in health care today, we can dramatically improve results for patients.  And, that, ultimately, is the goal.” 

CareSouth Carolina has been providing primary health care services in the rural Pee Dee region of South Carolina for 24 years.  CareSouth Carolina is a private, non-profit community health center delivering patient-centered health and life care services.  Accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations, CareSouth Carolina operates centers in Bennettsville, Bishopville, Cheraw, Hartsville, Lake View, McColl, and Society Hill.  Services provided by CareSouth Carolina include family practice, pediatrics, internal medicine, OB-GYN, geriatrics, social services, clinical counseling, care management, pharmaceutical assistance, laboratory and X-Ray.  

Founded in 1991, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is an independent, non-profit organization based in Boston, MA.  IHI is dedicated to improving the quality of health care systems through education, research and demonstration projects and by fostering collaboration among organizations and their leaders.  IHI projects extend throughout the U.S. and around the world.   For more information on IMPACT, contact IHI at (888) 320-6937, visit www.ihi.org or email impact@ihi.org.