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Georgia Project Quarterly e-Newsletter
Volume 2, No. 4 - December 2008
Healthy Georgia Diabetes and Obesity Project
Bridges to Excellence (BTE) was initially launched in Georgia as a pilot in 2006 as part of the Center for Health Transformation's Healthy Georgia Diabetes and Obesity Project. Led by UPS, Southern Company, BellSouth [now AT&T], and the State of Georgia the initiative grew to include over 27 employers and the major insurers in Georgia.
The BTE Diabetes Care Link Program in Georgia pays incentives to physicians who practice best standards of diabetes care and encourages individuals with diabetes to see those physicians to improve their quality of life and avoid the long-term complications that often accompany this disease. In the process, physicians are rewarded for providing high quality care, individuals with diabetes become healthier and employers save money. Through 2008, the Georgia program has recognized almost 200 physicians and paid more than $230,000 in rewards. Programs like BTE are designed to shift the reward system focus for physicians from that of volume to results, creating incentives for doctors that deliver higher quality care. Progress in Georgia and the results of recent studies of BTE pilots in other states have shown that physician practices that have implemented BTE and adopted better systems and used those systems to monitor and manage their patients consistently delivered better results in cost and quality. Better quality can cost less and employers must continue to work together to increase the quality of care while also controlling the unsustainable increases in cost.
The Center for Health Transformation continues to work with our collaboration of employers, insurers, and providers in Georgia to improve the health care of individuals through innovative solutions such as BTE.
BTE is a non-profit developed by employers, physicians, health care services researchers and other industry experts to significantly improve the quality of care by recognizing and rewarding health care providers who deliver safe, timely, effective, efficient patient-centered care. For questions or additional details, please contact Jessica DiLorenzo, operations director for BTE, at 518-355-2893 or via email at jessica.dilorenzo@bridgestoexcellence.org.
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21st Century Healthy Community Project
Blog Launched
CHT has launched a blog to encourage the sharing of information among our 21st Century Healthy Community Projects and to provide a forum for sharing solutions that are improving the health of communities. We welcome you to participate at www.chthealthyga.com.
If you are interested in becoming one of CHT's recognized 21st Century Healthy Communities please contact Laura Linn at llinn@gingrichgroup.com.
Columbus, GA Project Update
Medicare Diabetes Screening Initiative
One of CHT's missions in Georgia is to build and test the models for transformation to a 21st century intelligent health system. The CHT Columbus, GA Project continues to actualize that mission. The Medicare Diabetes Screening Project: Georgia Summit 2008, was held on Nov 6 in Columbus, GA. The Summit was intended to serve as a launch pad for cities across the State of Georgia to develop MDSP initiatives in 2009. Nearly 100 stakeholders from across the state were in attendance. Columbus Mayor Jim Wetherington kicked off the Summit with the opening speech. Bill Rowley, Senior Futurist and COO at the Institute for Alternative Futures, gave a very moving keynote address - which highlighted the looming crisis of diabetes in Georgia, especially among those of African-American or Hispanic descent.
MDSP's new video: Changing Diabetes for Seniors - One Community at a Time: The Columbus Georgia Experience was premiered to the audience, and received rave reviews! You can download and view the short video.
Lunch provided time for sharing of community activities throughout the state. Several participants shared their experiences with diabetes related community projects. Laura Linn, Director of the CHT Georgia Project, discussed the CHT Healthy Georgia Diabetes and Obesity Project and the importance of the work in Columbus as a model for other communities. Mimi Collins of Gainesville, GA shared the success of their HealthSmart Program.
After lunch, the participants were split into breakout groups to develop ideas and take-away points to initiate MDSP activities in their cities. Lt. Gov Casey Cagle gave the closing speech, charging participants to make Medicare diabetes screening for seniors a priority in their city. We look forward to following the impact of the summit on diabetes screening of seniors in Georgia.
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Update on the e-Healthy Savannah Project
As was reported in last quarter's Georgia newsletter, CHT and the Savannah Business Group (SBG) launched the e-Healthy Savannah Project on September 11, 2008. The focus of the project is to accelerate the adoption of e-prescribing in Savannah and coastal Georgia. Since the successful launch, a series of important behind the scenes meetings have occurred with key health systems leaders as well as with area physicians and pharmacists to encourage physicians and pharmacists to use advanced technology.
CHT founder Newt Gingrich said, "I believe the long term impact if this community collectively decided to become the first completely wired health community in America, the amount you would save in lives and money would be breathtaking." CHT and the Savannah Business Group launched the e-Healthy Savannah Project on September 11, 2008 before a huge crowd at Armstrong-Atlantic University.
The early results are encouraging. According to SureScripts-RxHub, from our benchmark month of August 2008 through the end of October 2008, "there has been an increase of 24% of e-prescribing patient events." (n. 7762 to 9528). SureScripts-Rx-Hub, CHT and the SBG has a set of metrics in place to measure e-prescribing, HIT adoption, patient safety encounters, and other e-health initiatives. "Savannah is a perfect community to launch this project," said CHT project director Wayne Oliver. "The business community and the health community have come together and rallied around patient safety as an initiative for this part of the state. E-prescribing is clearly a proven patient safety solution."
View a short video about the e-Healthy Savannah Project.
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CHT Launches e-Prescribing Blog
CHT recently launched an informational blog to help accelerate the adoption of e-prescribing. "We created this site to help physicians, health system administrators, pharmacists and others better understand e-prescribing," said Wayne Oliver who leads the Center's e-prescribing efforts in Georgia. "Currently, the purpose of the site is to push information to decision makers in physician practices, medical groups, hospital-based practices and pharmacies. In 2009, we will make the site interactive by allowing viewers to post their comments and question.
The site which is located at http://www.chteprescribing.com/ features articles and resources to help physicians, pharmacists and administrators better understand the importance of e-prescribing as well as the advantages of issuing prescriptions in an electronic format. "For example, we have included a step-by-step guide for physicians to take advantage of the new Medicare e-prescribing incentive," Mr. Oliver said. "We have also reached out to industry leaders like SureScripts-RxHub, WellPoint, Allscripts and Zix Corporation to help develop strategies to more rapidly accelerate the adoption of e-prescribing technology which saves lives and saves money. We can then communicate those strategies directly to our target audience through the blog."
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CHT op-ed Entitled " Which is More Important, Your Doctor or a Personal Injury Lawyer?" Draws National Attention
A recent op-ed published in the Chicago Tribune has drawn national attention on the necessity to fundamentally reform the nation’s health justice system. The op-ed was authored by CHT founder Newt Gingrich and CHT health justice project director Wayne Oliver. “There is one fundamental question we should ask: Would you rather have access to your doctor or a personal injury lawyer?,” the op-ed asks. “A recent report indicates that more than 60 percent of jury awards go directly to personal injury lawyers and not the victims. There is something inherently wrong about a system that allows lawyers to financially benefit more from the settlement or award than the victims.” The op-ed has been cited numerous times in other publication since it was published in the Chicago Tribune. Review the entire piece >>
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The Art of Transformation: Prinicples of Transformation
 Focus on solutions, not problems
Look for and adopt what is already working.
America, at its best, is a country that cares about finding solutions, not about studying and dissecting problems. It's an important model to remember and to carry with us as we define our strategies for driving transformation.
In most areas where we want to create solutions, there are existing fact-based models of success that can be learned from and built upon. At the Center for Health Transformation, one of our major strategies is to constantly find proven solutions and share them with a wide range of leaders and decision-makers.
This is important for two reasons. First, it allows us to implement projects that have already been proven, which is much easier than inventing something totally new. Second, providing concrete proof that something works increases the likelihood that leaders of risk-averse organizations, such as government and large bureaucracies, will consider adopting them.
Transformation requires us to identify proven solutions, modify them to meet our needs, then accelerate their adoption across the system.
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