TCWF Honors Health Education Leaders Committed To Underserved Communities

LOS ANGELES, May 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Three dedicated leaders in health education will be honored by The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF) as the 2012 Champions of Health Professions Diversity for their successful efforts to improve the health and wellness of California's most underserved communities. Lawrence "Hy" Doyle of the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, provides skills and opportunities for disadvantaged students to enter and succeed in medical school. Peter Manoleas is an educator at the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley, mental health clinician in Oakland and health policy leader with a focus on ensuring access to mental health services. Angela Minniefield recently became vice president of strategic advancement at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles and previously directed programs to increase the diversity of the health professions at the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development in Sacramento.

On June 12, 2012, TCWF will honor these three leaders at its tenth annual "Champions of Health Professions Diversity Award" ceremony in San Francisco. In recognition of their efforts to mentor and inspire students, increase access to higher education and better serve the health and well-being of California's underserved and disadvantaged communities, each honoree will each receive a cash award of $25,000.

"The honorees have dedicated their careers to helping California's underrepresented minority students join the health workforce and improving health access and outcomes in underserved communities," said Diana M. Bonta, TCWF president and chief executive officer. "The Foundation is proud to honor these leaders at our tenth consecutive awards ceremony and share this milestone with them."

As one of the only California foundations making grants in this area, TCWF has awarded more than $45 million to increase the diversity of the health workforce through a variety of approaches, including research, scholarship and loan repayment programs and leadership recognition. A number of factors have contributed to the Foundation's decade-long commitment to increasing California's health workforce and its diversity. Research from the Foundation confirms serious health worker shortages across the state, particularly in primary care and allied health professions, as well as a lack of racial and ethnic diversity in the health workforce.

"Ensuring a diverse health workforce requires commitment and perseverance of leaders at all levels of both our education and health care systems," said Cristina M. Regalado, TCWF vice president of programs.

Lawrence "Hy" Doyle, Ed.D.
For more than three decades, Lawrence "Hy" Doyle has used his expertise in developing student test-taking abilities and learning skills to improve opportunities for underrepresented minority students to succeed in higher education. He is currently the executive director of the Program in Medical Education (PRIME) at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). UCLA PRIME is a five-year dual-degree program which works to develop the leadership skills of medical students committed to improving healthcare in medically underserved communities. Doyle also provides guidance to disadvantaged students through UCLA's Summer Medical and Dental Program and the UCLA Hispanic Center of Excellence.

"Remarkably often, students whose numbers weren't that good, but have personal significant experience are the ones who truly relate to patients," Doyle said. "That's the goal of the PRIME program, to develop leaders for underserved and disadvantaged communities in California."

Peter Manoleas, M.S.W., L.C.S.W.
As a social work clinician, educator, consultant and administrator with a focus on mental health and substance abuse issues, Peter Manoleas has dedicated his career to ensuring that underserved communities of color have access to mental health services. Since 1983, Manoleas has been a lecturer and field work consultant at the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. He also maintains a private clinical practice based in Oakland and has served for more than 25 years on the board of directors for La Clinica de La Raza, one of the largest community-based clinics in the state committed to providing culturally appropriate, high-quality care.

"To be involved in a diversified workforce, we must practice cultural humility," said Manoleas. "We cannot be experts on everyone, so we need to continue to learn from our patients."

Angela L. Minniefield, M.P.A.
Angela Minniefield worked for 20 years in state government advancing policies and programs that increase the number of underrepresented students in health professions. Minniefield recently became the vice president of strategic advancement at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. She previously held several leadership positions at the state Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, including deputy director of the Healthcare Workforce Development Division.

"Not only is increasing access to higher education imperative in developing and diversifying California's health workforce," said Minniefield,  "there is also a direct relationship between one's educational background and his or her own health status."

The California Wellness Foundation is a private independent foundation created in 1992 with a mission to improve the health of the people of California by making grants for health promotion, wellness education and disease prevention. The Foundation prioritizes eight issues for funding: diversity in the health professions, environmental health, healthy aging, mental health, teenage pregnancy prevention, violence prevention, women's health and work and health. It also responds to timely issues and special projects outside the funding priorities.

Since its founding in 1992, TCWF has awarded 6,544 grants totaling more than $815 million. Please visit TCWF's website at CalWellness.org for more information, including a newsroom section devoted to the award and the three honorees. High-resolution photos are available. Video interview clips are posted at TCWF's YouTube channel.

Note to reporters & editors:
"The" in "The California Wellness Foundation" is part of the Foundation's legal name. Please do not drop or lowercase the "T."

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CORHIO, Colorado Health Care Leaders Issue Report on Strategies to Integrate Behavioral and Physical Health Through ...

DENVER, April 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- As a measure to improve integration of behavioral and physical health, the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization (CORHIO) partnered with a multi-stakeholder behavioral health Steering Committee, and solicited feedback from communities across Colorado, to create a report with recommendations and future strategies for effective inclusion of behavioral health in health information exchange (HIE). The report was written as part of the CORHIO Behavioral Health Information Exchange Project with support from Rose Community Foundation.

The report is now available on the CORHIO website at www.corhio.org.

"Unfortunately, there is still a stigma associated with mental health conditions and some people fear that their diagnosis may fall into the wrong hands and will be used against them," says Amanda Kearney-Smith, director of the Colorado Mental Wellness Network and member of the project's Steering Committee. "We have to be sure to strike a careful balance between protecting individual privacy with the need to have comprehensive information available for high-quality health care treatment and services."

To solicit information for the report, CORHIO helped facilitate six meetings in communities across Colorado, which were chosen to represent a broad cross-section of perspectives and attitudes regarding HIE. A total of 124 consumers, physicians, and other behavioral health stakeholders were in attendance to discuss the concerns, opportunities and priorities of exchanging behavioral health information. The meetings took place in collaboration with community mental health centers and other behavioral health community organizations, so participants could feel comfortable and have open and honest dialogue.

A few key points that came out of the community discussions include:

Consumers expressed significant interest in having access to their health information within the HIE.Both physicians and patients expressed significant concerns, such as privacy issues and inappropriate use of information.Behavioral health stakeholders agree that better information sharing can lead to better outcomes for individuals and populations receiving behavioral health care.Participants expressed they would have more comfort with information sharing if there were more choice about which information would be shared with whom. Current models of all-in or all-out information sharing do not seem to meet the needs of this community.Across all six events, only one participant felt that better information sharing was not needed.

Studies have shown that the average life expectancy for those with serious mental illness ranges from 13 to 30 years less than the rest of the population.[1] Much of this can be attributed to fragmented, inconsistent, and episodic care. Individuals requiring behavioral health services have a unique need for integrated care due to frequent use of the healthcare system and a greater need to coordinate care among diverse providers. However, today, behavioral health care services are not well integrated with physical or medical care. According to the CORHIO report, nearly 90 percent of participants surveyed agree that behavioral health should be considered a part of a person's overall health care.

"HIE is an invaluable tool for the behavioral health community because it enables information to truly follow consumers through the entire treatment path, across a variety of care settings. It provides immediate access to vital patient information which reduces the chance that a consumer will experience a drug interaction or other medical complication and improves the overall consumer experience as they navigate the health care system," said CORHIO Policy Director, Liza Fox-Wylie. "CORHIO remains committed to working with the behavioral health and physical health communities to improve care coordination and population health outcomes through HIE, while protecting patients' rights to privacy."

CORHIO is developing an action plan based on the results and recommendations in this report, including working with project Steering Committee members and other stakeholder organizations on consumer, provider and policymaker education and working with CORHIO's technology partner, Medicity, to improve the robustness of HIE technology to support more granular options for patient choice regarding which information is shared with whom.

In September 2010, the Rose Community Foundation awarded CORHIO a two-year grant to support the Behavioral Health and Health Information Exchange Project, which funded the creation of CORHIO's behavioral health report. "Individuals' physical health, mental health and substance use are closely intertwined," said Whitney Connor, Rose Community Foundation's health program officer. "Provider access to timely information about their patients' medical and behavioral health is critical to delivering effective care."

About CORHIO
CORHIO is dedicated to improving health care quality for all Coloradans through health information exchange (HIE). As the state designated entity for HIE, CORHIO collaborates with health care stakeholders including physicians, hospitals, clinics, public health, long-term care, laboratories, health plans and patients to improve care collaboration through secure systems and processes for sharing clinical information. CO-REC, a CORHIO initiative, assists primary care providers in adopting, implementing and becoming meaningful users of electronic health record (EHR) systems. CORHIO is a not-for-profit supported in large part by grants, including awards from the Colorado Health Foundation and from federal ARRA HITECH funds. CORHIO's technical infrastructure is built on industry-leading HIE technology developed and maintained by Medicity.  For more information about CORHIO, please visit www.corhio.org.

[1] Colton CW, Manderscheid RW. Congruencies in increased mortality rates, years of potential life lost, and causes of death among public mental health clients in eight states. Prev Chronic Dis [serial online] 2006 Apr. URL: http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2006/apr/05_0180.htm.

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NCQA Honors Health Quality Leaders

Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 8:14 AM EDT - U.S. Markets open in 1 hr 16 mins

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Top Health Care Leaders Share 2012 Strategic Outlook in VHA Inc. Survey

IRVING, TX--(Marketwire -02/28/12)- Findings from a January 2012 VHA survey of top U.S. health care leaders reveal that they agree on three top priorities:

Reducing costs Enhancing patient experience Improving clinical outcomes and care coordination

VHA Inc., the national health care network, polled members of its 20-member Large IDN Supply Network ("LISN," pronounced "listen"), which includes many of the nation's largest health care organizations, asking them to identify their top concerns and actions they hope to take to accelerate change.

"Based on our survey results, health care reform and its resulting mandates have definitely sharpened the focus in the C-Suite," explains Mike Duke, VHA senior director, national supply chain services. "This survey clearly indicates that reducing costs is the top priority, followed by enhancing the patient experience and improving clinical outcomes -- all of which are essential to providing quality health care."

Duke added that the health care systems' executives agreed that big gains can't be achieved by just cutting back on staff or services. "Our top leaders know that the next big changes will come from quality improvements to streamline processes while increasing services to better serve patients."

LISN consists of supply chain management leaders at VHA's largest member hospitals and health care systems, including Allina Hospitals & Clinics, BJC HealthCare, Mayo Clinic, Partners Healthcare, Providence Health & Services and Sutter Health. In aggregate, they represent approximately $8.6 billion in health care supply spend between VHA and Novation, VHA's contracting company. (Please see full list of LISN members below).

According to Bruce Mairose, vice chair of supply chain management at Mayo Clinic, "This unique group of the nation's largest health care systems demonstrates that by working together, health care organizations can focus on cost management strategies that will ultimately benefit our patients. We are taking on important and complex initiatives in order to address clinical and operational objectives that have been placed on health care providers.

"While every health care facility or system faces challenges specific to its local markets and its readiness to address reimbursement challenges, we know we have valuable insights we can share with one another. We understand the immediacy of the changes at hand and are sharing knowledge we can collectively use to move the needle on improvements more quickly."

Closer examination of the survey data reveals what the leaders believe will be the key drivers for the next wave of significant change. Approximately 71% of the survey respondents believe the biggest gains will come from improving process and workflow, as well as improving utilization of supplies and services. Approximately 57% also cited reductions in practice variability and 43% noted price reductions in physician preference products, including mechanical hips, knees and the latest pacemakers.

Akin to the challenges faced by the high-tech industry in the '80s, the VHA survey indicates that top hospital administrators expect quality improvements to better their bottom line.

"Reviewing and understanding variability in practice, and the variation in underlying support processes is key. Identifying and reducing unwarranted variation can simultaneously improve quality and reduce overall cost. It's a double win," explains Cheryl Harelstad, vice president of supply chain for Allina Hospitals & Clinics. "The survey also points to the focus on improving utilization, including reducing waste, as a key cost saving measure."

Jody Hatcher, president and chief executive officer of Novation, VHA's supply contracting company, works closely with the LISN group and agrees that cost reductions in physician preference products stand to have a significant impact. "Price leadership remains Novation's top priority, while benchmarking and pricing transparency are more important than ever before. Supply costs are second only to labor costs in terms of large expenses. With positive patient outcomes as their focus, hospitals would rather lower supply costs than cut much-needed staff," he explains.

To this end, survey respondents indicated that enhancing the patient experience and improving the continuum of care to yield better clinical outcomes is their ultimate goal.

"We at Mayo believe the needs of the patient come first and we can't lose sight of that, even as we face the most formidable financial pressures in our history," says Mayo's Mairose.

"The faster we can drive improvements and lower costs, the greater the access and quality of care we can deliver to our patients," says Dennis Maher, vice president of supply chain at Sutter Health. "We touch the lives and wellbeing of our patients so we have a lot on the line. The supply chain is truly an area where we can make a significant difference to our organization's agility and ability to sustain its mission during times of great change."

VHA member hospital and health care systems participating in LISN include:

Allina Hospitals & Clinics Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation BJC HealthCare Cedars-Sinai Health System Indiana University Health Lehigh Valley Health Network Mayo Foundation MedStar Health, Inc. Memorial Hermann Healthcare System NewYork - Presbyterian Hospital Novant Health OhioHealth Partners HealthCare System Premier Health Partners Providence Health and Services Sanford Health Sentara Healthcare Spectrum Health Sutter Health Yale-New Haven Health System

LISN members available for interviews include:

Bruce Mairose, vice chair, supply chain management, Mayo Clinic Cheryl Harelstad, vice president, technology and supply chain, Allina Hospitals & Clinics Dennis Maher, vice president of supply chain, Sutter Health

About VHA Inc.
Based in Irving, TX, VHA Inc. is a national network of not-for-profit health care organizations that work together to drive maximum savings in the supply chain arena, set new levels of clinical performance, and identify and implement best practices to improve operational efficiency and clinical outcomes. Since 1977, VHA has leveraged its expertise in analytics, contracting, consulting and networks to help members achieve their operational, clinical and financial objectives. In 2010, VHA delivered record savings and value of $1.7 billion to members. VHA serves more than 1,350 hospitals and more than 30,000 non-acute care providers nationwide, coordinating delivery of its programs and services through its 15 regional offices. VHA has been ranked as one of the best places to work in healthcare by Modern Healthcare since the publication introduced this list in 2008.

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