News & Notes COASTAL CAROLINAS HEALTH ALLIANCE

UPDATE FROM THE CEO

This is one of my favorite times of the year. Days are getting longer, the weather is warming up, and we’re halfway through our fiscal year. As the team and I wrap

up March, we feel a great deal of momentum pushing the organization toward achieving (or even surpassing) our 2018 corporate goals. In this issue of News & Notes you’ll read about how the team has been working with our members and community partners to impact patient care throughout the

region.

The annual Coastal Connect HIE Town Hall Meeting was a success, and we enjoyed hosting so many of our stakeholders for a day of education. I was able to share several “stories from the field” including how our Notify application is helping hospitals avoid patient readmissions. Additionally, we shared how utilization

of the HIE has continued to grow.

The Mobile Simulation Program continues to provide high-fidelity training at our member hospitals. We’ve hired a new Sim Tech, who will help facilitate training preparation,

coordination, and reporting.

We’ve also hired a Regional Coordinator for our grant-funded Sexual Assault Nurse Examinder (SANE) program. She will lead efforts to train nurses at our member

hospitals to become SANE certified.

We hope you enjoy this newsletter and learn a little bit more about our

ongoing activities and operations!

Nearly one hundred guests, representing Coastal Connect HIE’s stakeholders across the region, attended the 2018 Annual Town Hall Meeting. This year’s event was held again at the

Country Club of Landfall in Wilmington, NC, and provided guests with the

opportunity for education and networking.

We heard several fantastic presentations on a wide array of topics in the fields of healthcare IT, emerging trends in population health, and the roadmap ahead

for CCHIE’s technology.

The first two sessions of the day touched on major industry trends from both national and statewide perspectives. Mark Allphin, Research Director for KLAS Research, spoke on the topic of “Emerging Technology for Accountable Care, Population Health, & Precision Medicine.” Chip Baggett, Senior VP and Associate General Counsel for the North Carolina Medical Society, presented on “The Move

to Value Based Care.”

After a short break, the following sessions focused on technology advancements and next steps for the organization. Andy Biviano of Medicity’s Product Management team and Heather Hallett, Medicity’s VP of Business Development, spoke on “Analytics Interoperability 2.0: Patient Centered Technology.” This talk included a quick demonstration of the new “version 7”

technology.

Our CEO, Yvonne Hughes, followed up on Medicity’s presentation with a forecast for CCHIE’s next steps in “The Journey,” highlighting how participants can leverage their access to information and tools for impacting patient care. Her talk included

several case studies from our community.

On behalf of the entire CCHIE team, we sincerely appreciated our speakers and guests for making another memorable event. We hope to see everyone again at

next year’s event.

Coastal Connect HIE’s Annual Meeting

Highlighted Emerging Health IT, Industry Trends

CCHA’s Regional SANE Training

Program is off to a great start!

This initiative was made possible

by a grant award from North

Carolina’s Governor’s Crime

Commission (GCC). With our

GCC funding, we are working with

member hospitals to train staff to become

certified SANE and SANE-Peds (pediatric

-focused) nurses.

Two full training sessions have been

scheduled for the year. We expect to train

a total of eighteen Adult SANEs and two

Pediatric SANEs, which will exceed our

goal by eight SANEs. Participants are

currently completing their online training

modules through the International

Association of Forensic Nurses and will

complete their clinical hours this spring

and summer.

As CCHA’s Regional SANE Coordinator, I

have also been meeting with Rape Crisis

Centers in the region and connecting

them with hospitals in their area to

enhance their collaboration and improve

the communities’ overall response to

sexual violence. Hospital staff are now

active participants in their communities’

Sexual Assault Response Teams and are

contacting Rape Crisis Advocates to

respond when survivors of sexual

violence present in their Emergency

Departments.

Sexual Violence Trainings have been

conducted for Emergency Department

staff at several participating hospitals. All

ED staff that participated showed an

improvement in their overall knowledge of

sexual violence and the resources

available to survivors after an assault

based on pre- and posttests provided.

We look forward to continued momentum

in the coming months as trainings get

underway.

In the December 2017 issue of

News & Notes we reported that

CCHA had submitted a grant

application to the NC Governor’s

Crime Commission (GCC) for a

regional Sexual Assault Nurse

Examiner (SANE) program. We are

thrilled to announce that we received

official notice from the GCC that our

application was approved.

The first step to building this program is

hiring a full time coordinator In early

January, we hired Emily Turner to fill this

role. Emily comes to us from the Rape

Crisis Center of Coastal Horizons Center

in Wilmington, NC, where she served as

the Agency Supervisor. She has had

significant experience advocating for

victims of rape and sexual assault, and

the role of Regional SANE Coordinator

was a natural fit for her work experience,

skills, and passion to help those affected.

Emily has hit the ground running in her

new role leading efforts to implement a

regional SANE program. Her numerous

duties include: recruiting nurses to be

SANE trained and certified, working with

member hospitals as well as community

partners to hold sexual assault awareness

workshops, and working with community

task forces to strengthen care transitions

and support for victims of rape.

MEET CCHA’S NEW SANE PROGRAM COORDINATOR: EMILY TURNER

OPERATIONS UPDATE: TEAM CHARTERS, COMMUNITY HEALTH, CONTRACT RENEWALS

celebrates its third year, many of its

initial / assigned contracts are up for

renewal. To put it into perspective, this

means our team will review 102 of the 172

Illucient contracts this year, with thirty of

those up for renegotiation by the end of

March. We are targeting contracts with

high utilization rates for renewal. In the

meantime we will continue to explore new

contract opportunities in areas of

purchased services, products, and

supplies.

A refresh of CCHA’s strategic plan is also

on the docket for FY 18. With a grant from

QENO, UNCW’s Quality Enhancement for

Nonprofit Organizations, CCHA will

embark on a planning initiative under the

direction of our Board of Directors.

Knowing cost reduction and containment

are still a key focus for our members as

the industry transitions to accountability

and community health care, CCHA will be

reaffirming its vision and value to its

members.

CCHA teams are actively

reviewing their respective

charters and setting expectations

for next year, which will focus on

contract performance as well as

sharing key performance

indicators (KPIs). Our teams wish to

emphasize quality and value; not just

gathering KPIs but finding ways to show

how members benefit through that

regional collaboration.

Our newest team, the Community Health

Team, is gaining momentum. Through this

group, CCHA hopes to engage and align

our members as well as community

partners in collaboratives that advance

health equity. We feel that CCHA’s

membership as well as its relationship

with Coastal Connect Health Information

Exchange give use a unique opportunity

to convene regional healthcare leaders

and utilize patient data.

As Illucient Purchasing Alliance

SANE Program Update

Comparing the month of February

in 2017 with 2018, we saw a 58%

increase in the number of unique

patients accessed in the CHR as

well as a 28% increase in the

number of unique users accessing

information.

The most viewed tab with the CHR

is “Patient Information,” which

includes demographics, insurance,

guarantor, and emergency contact.

Comparing the month of January

2017 with 2018, there was a 55%

increase in number of views.

Likewise, the “Encounters” tab,

which includes patient reports and

tests, saw a 4% increase in

number of views and remains the

tab with the most printed document

type within the CHR.

Top utilizers of the HIE for

February 2018 include: Wilmington

Health, VA Health Care Center,

EmergeOrtho, DaVita Dialysis, and

MedNorth Health Center, among

others.

Beside this list you’ll see a couple of

char ts showing month ly da ta

Success for Coastal Connect

Health Information Exchange

(CCHIE) can be measured

many different ways: in the

number of data contributors

we’re able to connect, finding

ways to support successful care

transitions, and educating providers on

how to maximize the data and tools

available to them through our interface.

More than anything, success for CCHIE

is knowing the timely and accurate

patient information within the exchange

can positively impact patients at the

point of care. This depends upon a

strong utilization of the HIE by

connected providers, so our team

regularly monitors activity on a monthly,

quarterly, and yearly basis.

Here are just a few utilization highlights

showing how CCHIE is making a

difference at a local and regional level:

In February 2018, a patient’s

information was accessed through

our Community Health Record

(CHR) every 3.7 minutes.

During that same month, over

10,800 unique patients were

accessed by 765 HIE participants.

COASTAL CONNECT HIE SEES CONTINUED UTILIZATION GROWTH

breakdowns of what HIE participants are

viewing as well as what they’re printing or

saving to a PDF copy. Dashboards like

these help our team continue to enhance

our technology and meet our members’

needs. We’re thrilled to see ongoing

utilization growth and look forward to

additional enhancements in the future. In

the meantime, we’ll continue to monitor

HIE usage to ensure our users are

maximizing our technology.

CCHIE Aler ts Help Hospi ta l Avoid Pat ient Readmissions

Notify is a CCHIE application

that alerts its subscribers via text

message or email (based on

their preference) for the

encounter types they select.

These types include: emergency

room admission, emergency room

discharge, inpatient admission, inpatient

discharge, re-admission, and death. We

are currently able to alert on Admission,

Discharge, and Transfer (ADT) feeds

from Dosher Memorial Hospital, New

Hanover Regional Medical Center

(NHRMC), Pender Memorial Hospital,

and Southeastern Health.

We’ve partnered with several of our

connected participants to see how the

Notify app has impacted patient care.

Here is just one of the many case studies

completed during this survey:

Heart surgeons at NHRMC requested

alerts on CABG (Coronary Artery Bypass

Grafting) patients that were either

admitted to the Emergency Department

or re-admitted to the hospital to allow the

opportunity for care intervention. CCHIE

continually updates the patient list of

three heart surgeons and sends

admission notifications to their two

surgical schedulers.

Within the first week, the schedulers

received five notifications, allowing those

surgeons to be alerted and intervene.

Since September 2017, these alerts have

he lped NHRMC preven t the

readmissions of two patients thanks to

timely care interventions.

Upcoming CARES Licensing Class & Repeater Relocations, Installations

CCHA will be hosting a CARES amateur radio licensing class on July 14th and 21st. This class is open to hospital employees interested in obtaining their Technician

Class HAM radio license to assist CCHA hospi ta ls wi th CARES O p e r a t i o n s a n d b a c k u p communications in the event of an emergency. This class, the test, and the education materials needed will be free of charge for employees of

member organizations.

The backup repeater for the Wilmington is being relocated to the top

floor of New Hanover Regional Medical Center. The Lumberton repeater will be relocated to Southeastern Health’s hospital campus. A new CARES radio is being installed at NHRMC ED North in the coming weeks. We appreciate the support from ED Director Terri DeWees as we have worked together to arrange the installation of the new

antenna and radio unit.

Finally, a big thank you to Paul Magnabosco for his thirteen years of service and expertise as a volunteer on the CARES Executive and Technical Committees. On behalf of CCHA, thank

you for all your efforts and support

Thank You to our

Alliance Day 2017

Gold & Silver Sponsors:

GOLD SPONSORS

CCHA’s Mobile Simulation

Program (MSP) is undergoing

a period of transition with the

hiring of a new simulation

technician as well as one of

our two nurse educators. Staff

is working hard to maximize all training

during this time of transition.

Adam Milam has joined the MSP as our

new Simulation Tech. Adam has been

an EMT instructor and Licensed

Paramedic. He comes to us with

experience as a nuclear stress

technician and holds a degree in

finance. His role will be to support the

nurse educators as well as the

program’s overall business and

technical responsibilities.

NEW SIM TECH JOINS MOBILE SIM PROGRAM

SILVER SPONSORS

Boot Camp Provides Updates on Upcoming Coding Changes

On January 25th and 26th,

sixty guests attended our

annual “Medicare Boot Camp

+ Revenue Cycle Update”

event at the Courtyard Marriott

in Carolina Beach, NC. These

guests, who represented eleven

hospitals across the region, had a full

agenda for both days with topics

ranging from updates on Medicare

Inpatient Prospective Payment System

(IPPS) and Outpatient Prospective

P a y m e n t S y s t em ( O PP S ) t o

Reimbursements and Coding Policy

Updates.

For the past several years, CCHA has

partnered with HC Pro to provide this

education. Kimberly Baker returned to

lead the two-day session and work one-

on-one with attendees to answer their

questions about the upcoming

changes. The group defini tely

appreciated Kimberly’s insights and

expertise, which is why we love having

her come back year after year to teach.

Planning is already underway for the

2019 event. CCHA plans to host the

two-day education event at the

Courtyard Marriott again. Information

about registration and the agenda will

be sent out later this year. Please keep

an eye out for our save-the-date.