The Program’s Alignment with Quality
The goal of the program is not only to focus on improving these quality initiatives, but also to provide the Medicaid patient population with: access to quality healthcare in the appropriate setting, as well as to improve their experience. In addition to this, the program allows Conway Medical Center to focus on continuous performance improvement. The project goals consist of:
ED Project – To reduce the number of avoidable emergency department visits, identify barriers to healthcare, and navigate patients to the appropriate care setting.
Diabetes and Hypertension Projects – To ensure that patients have all necessary resources to manage their chronic conditions.
Maternal Care Project – To improve outcomes for both pregnant mothers and their babies, specifically focusing on reducing preterm birth rates, low-birthweight births, and elective deliveries at 37 to 39 weeks of gestation.
Health Equity Project
- The program has identified that social determinants of health directly impact patient health outcomes in a negative way, therefore, showing the significance and need of a project that will address these needs.
- Screening tools are in place to ensure that patients are being asked about social determinants of health. This screening tool will be used to assess unmet needs that the patient may have, specifically access to food, housing, and transportation.
- If a patient reveals an unmet need, they will be provided or connected with resources within the community in order to address, improve, and/or resolve their unmet need(s).
The Program has additionally added a new program, Healthy Lifestyles Project, which will focus on assessing patient BMI and ensuring patients are receiving education/counseling on nutrition, physical activity, and ways to promote a healthy lifestyle.
Conway Medical Center is currently in their first year of implementing this program with primary focus at this point being on obtaining baseline data. This information will be used in subsequent years to identify barriers to care as well as areas for improvement. Once identified, the focus will be on creating ways to improve patients access to healthcare, patient experience with healthcare, and improve patient outcomes.