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North Sound ACH

North Sound Accountable Community of Health

Archives for October 2019

Project Managers Reflect on Partner Site Visits

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Our project managers Lindsay Knaus, Heather McGuinness, and Amanda Robins shared some takeaways from recent partner site visits.

From Lindsay: 

This summer’s site visits provided a unique opportunity to connect with partner organizations and learn more about their work on the ground-level. Throughout July and August, we met with partners and their teams across the North Sound region to learn more about implementation efforts and build relationships. 

Through these visits, we were able to go on tours, meet team members, obtain resources and information used for clients and patients, and connect partners across sectors and counties to improve care coordination efforts. 

I learned first-hand about the unique challenges around transportation for San Juan County partners. I gained a new appreciation around planning events and meetings with partners in rural areas, specifically those who can only be reached by ferry or plane. Navigating the ferries during the summer months gave me an appreciation for the unique challenges around access to care and hospital discharge planning between island and mainland partners.

A key takeaway for me was being able to hear partners success stories and through those, connecting the dots between partners working both across sectors and counties to aid care coordination effort.

This experience was extremely valuable to bring back to our ACH team to determine strategies for supporting partners in their implementation work.

From Heather:

This summer’s site visits were a great opportunity for ACH staff to connect with partner organizations. At each visit, project managers sat down with the team to to learn more about how their work was going related to the Medicaid Transformation Project. Partners were able to ask questions and get clarity on ACH expectations, the reporting process, and where to get access to training and technical assistance. ACH staff were able to get a deeper understanding about partner successes and challenges in implementing strategies.

At many site visits, ACH staff were invited on tours of the facilities, which gave us an opportunity to see the work of partner organizations in action. These tours also gave us the chance to learn about programs outside of the scope of ACH work – for example, WSU Extension’s programs to support agricultural workers in starting their own businesses and supporting farmers’ mental health. 

 One key takeaway was the importance of collaboration: nearly all partners expressed a desire to connect with partners working on similar strategies, both to learn from one another and to strengthen referral partnerships.

From Amanda:

Site visits this summer allowed for a wonderful opportunity for me to meet our partners face-to-face and begin developing a long-term relationship rooted in achieving the goals of Medicaid Transformation together. Partners were wonderfully gracious hosts and were clearly excited about the initiatives they are implementing. Learning more in-depth about the challenges that partners are facing in implementing transformation strategies allowed me to recognize areas for collaboration between partners as well as areas where our whole region needs support. Sharing these insights with the greater ACH team allows us to develop plans to thoughtfully support and engage partners in our region. 

As someone who comes from a direct service background, it was great for me to spend time on site with partners and be reminded of the many lives our healthcare system touches. 

Through getting to know our partners and the specific work they are achieving, I more fully understand the depth and breadth of the work we are undertaking and how to help partners in accomplishing the work, region-wide, together.

Partner Feature: Island Senior Resources Presents at National Meeting

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By Lindsay Knaus, Project Manager

Island Senior Resources presented at this year’s All-In: Data for Community Health National Meeting in Baltimore, MD.  This event is intended to bring data sharing pioneers together to share solutions and accelerate progress toward improved health equity.

Island Senior Resources’ director Chasity Smith’s presentation was titled, “Screening for Social Determinants: What’s in a Tool?”

Island Senior Resources, Island County Human Services and Public Health, Island Senior Resources, and WhidbeyHealth are all participating implementation partners with the ACH, working cooperatively on a number of initiatives related to ACH health improvement strategies. Their work has developed into cross-sector collaboration aimed to address service gaps, barriers, and risk factors in order to improve health equity in Island County.

These partners’ goal is to develop a coordinated referral system and social determinants screening tool. The tool includes demographics and nine core measures covering medical, social, and basic needs. The tool acts as both a screener and referral generator, connecting each person with the right resource.  The organizations aim to identify the needs in their community, better understand the causes, connect people with help, and improve health and well-being.

Implementation began with a local primary care clinic as the pilot site, integrating the screening tool into clinical workflows as of Fall 2019. The pilot will be followed by a formal review and process improvement plan.

Chasity’s presentation provided insights for those looking to develop a coordinated screening and referral system across sectors, using collaboration.  It also provided a rural perspective on this process, from the creation and modification of a screening tool, implementation and timeline considerations, and how small projects can be used to leverage the discussion on multi-sector data sharing in rural communities.