Ask the Experts

Ask the Experts

• How Mass. hospitals move forward with intention on health equity

  Hospitals in Mass. are moving forward with health equity through an 1115 waiver, but the state’s Hospital Association is looking long-term.  Continue Reading

• Paving the way to a diverse medical workforce starts with med schools

  Sutter Health’s partnership with a newly opened medical school seeks to cultivate a diverse medical workforce by creating pathways for underserved students.  Continue Reading

• How patient experience data prompted patient engagement improvements

  Patient experience data provided insights into how Children’s Minnesota Pediatric Hospital needed to reconsider patient engagement and education strategies.  Continue Reading

• Protecting patient data sharing & ownership with ethical data use

  Patient data sharing is on the rise, creating a need to protect patient privacy and patient data ownership.  Continue Reading

• A consumer-obsessed strategy is key to rebuilding primary care

  As health systems explore how to fortify their primary care offerings, they might consider healthcare consumerism and a consumer-obsessed mindset.  Continue Reading

• In medicine’s push for workforce diversity, culture of belonging is key

  Better hiring practices, open discourse, and accountability will support a culture of belonging and allow for workforce diversity.  Continue Reading

• Selecting the Right Online Appointment Scheduling Tools for Pediatrics

  Picking the right health IT is nuanced, so Nicklaus Children’s Health System focused on its pediatric population needs with its online appointment scheduling purchase.  Continue Reading

• How Family Physicians Can Solve US Maternal Health Problems

  From extending postpartum care access to supplementing care in maternity deserts, family physicians advocate their role in improving maternal health.  Continue Reading

• Behind Epic’s Award-Winning MyChart Patient Portal Advancements

  The MyChart patient portal has evolved over the years, with Epic saying its next frontier is leveraging a solid base of functions for improved clinical quality.  Continue Reading

• 2024 to Bring Thoughtful Patient Engagement Tech Investments

  Patient engagement technology is poised to right some of healthcare’s biggest consumer-facing pain points, but only if organizations can thoughtfully pick new tools.  Continue Reading

• Montefiore’s Community Health Worker Role a Bridge to Medical Workforce

  In addition to community health worker job training, Montefiore’s Community Health Worker Institute cultivates CHWs poised for career development.  Continue Reading

• Are Doulas the Key to Closing Maternal Mental Health Treatment Gaps?

  Doulas center an interdisciplinary care team at NewYork-Presbyterian as the organization sets its sites on better maternal mental health treatment.  Continue Reading

• Behind Walgreens' Move on Prescription Drug Costs, Patient Experience

  The new prescription drug cost savings tool, Rx Savings Finder from Walgreens, complements the retailer’s overall investment in patient experience.  Continue Reading

• How Advocate Health Uses Patient Communication IT to Close Care Gaps

  The patient communication technology increased patient contacts from 19,000 to 57,000 and closed care gaps among a high-risk population.  Continue Reading

• ‘Every Patient, Every Time’: Boosting Techquity in Patient Portal Use

  Ensuring digital health equity is the next frontier in enhancing patient portal use and leveraging the tool for a good patient experience.  Continue Reading

• As Maternal & Infant Health Falter, Advocacy Is Key to Progress

  March of Dimes is known for its research into maternal and infant health, but it’s advocacy that will move the needle, its president and CEO says.  Continue Reading

• Using Shield Laws to Protect Interstate Patient Access to Abortion Care

  Shield laws prevent the civil or criminal penalties that might be issued as a result of interstate patient access to abortion care.  Continue Reading

• How Data Informs Patient-Centered Medication Adherence Work

  Data is just a tool to help providers deliver humanized, patient-centered medication adherence guidance.  Continue Reading

• Providence Approaches Healthcare Digital Innovation With Provider Expertise

  Providence’s incubator model sets itself apart in the digital innovation world by leveraging the expertise of patient and provider end-user expertise.  Continue Reading

• Taking STI Screening Access to Community-Based Organizations

  Fulton County Board of Health’s STI screening access program leaned on community-based organizations to build trust with an often marginalized population.  Continue Reading

• How Providers Can Meet Varying Levels of Patient Health Literacy

  Low patient health literacy is widespread, so it is best practice for healthcare providers to work at a baseline of plain language using little medical jargon.  Continue Reading

• Achieving Health Equity Hinges on Iteration, Continuous Learning

  Hackensack Meridian University Medical Center isn’t done with its health equity journey, saying that it recognizes continuous room for improvement.  Continue Reading

• How Can Hospitals Measure Family Experience with Communication?

  A 30-item measure of provider communication will help organizations as they home in on improving the caregiver and family experience.  Continue Reading

• How Pediatricians Can Prepare for the RSV Vaccine Rollout

  Pediatrician offices won’t be getting doses of the new RSV vaccine for a few months, but Nemours Children’s health is priming parents for the shots.  Continue Reading

• Behind the Scenes of U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals Rankings

  The U.S. News & World Report Best Hospital rankings are decidedly patient-facing tools, but the publication says collaboration with industry stakeholders has been key.  Continue Reading

• Making HIV Testing A Standard of Preventive Care to Boost Equity

  Advising all patients on HIV testing as a standard of preventive care may keep traditionally disadvantaged groups from slipping through the cracks.  Continue Reading

• How Mount Sinai Took a Data-Driven Approach to Health Equity

  Quality metrics, plus race, ethnicity, and language data, have been crucial to informing Mount Sinai’s Roadmap to health equity.  Continue Reading

• How U-M Health Got 27K Staff Members in Implicit Bias Training

  U-M Health’s implicit bias training aligned with state-mandated training for clinicians, compelling more provider staff to complete the courses.  Continue Reading

• Expanding Cancer Screening Access Beyond Charity Care

  Charity care may cut some cost-related barriers to cancer screening access, but organizations need a bigger safety net for potential cancer treatments.  Continue Reading

• How AI in the Call Center Can Improve Staff, Patient Experience

  AI on call center lines can automate simpler tasks, like appointment scheduling, leaving staff to handle more complex queries and streamlining the patient experience.  Continue Reading

• How a Payer-Provider Partnership Supported Share Decision-Making

  The shared decision-making program was tailored to patients who needed to close colorectal cancer screening gaps, leaders said.  Continue Reading

• How One Medical Delivers Culturally Competent Chronic Disease Management

  A team-based chronic disease management problem helps One Medical home in on the unique needs and preferences of patients, delivering on culturally competent care.  Continue Reading

• Making the Case for Personalized Patient Education, Communication

  Creating personalized patient education could be part of the solution for promoting health equity.  Continue Reading

• Humanizing Implicit Bias Training for Healthcare Organizations

  Implicit bias training for healthcare organizations needs to be functional for a worker’s job description, helping to create a more usable framework.  Continue Reading

• How Northwell Health Created a Staff Structure for Health Equity, DEI

  A top-down, bottom-up staff structure help Northwell Health create a lasting model for health equity and DEI work that it says sets it up for upcoming quality measurement changes.  Continue Reading

• Designing a Referral Network to Address the Youth Mental Health Crisis

  State and regional referral networks improve access to psychiatrist consults, expanding access to care amid the youth mental health crisis.  Continue Reading

• Building the Digital Front Door with a Patient-Centered Lens

  Building the digital front door might help increase market share, but doing so with a patient-centered focus will help ensure the digital suite meets patient needs.  Continue Reading

• Considering Disability in Social Determinants of Health Referrals

  Children’s Specialized Hospital launched an online resource to support its patients with disabilities, making considerations for social determinants of health referrals and pediatric care.  Continue Reading

• Is ACO REACH Model Poised to Bring Health Equity to Value-Based Care?

  Medical Home Network (MHN), a participant in the ACO REACH model, said it’s excited by the value-based care model’s potential for advancing health equity in health clinics.  Continue Reading

• Why PCPs Are Key to Coordinating Patient Engagement with Payers, ACOs

  Payers are instrumental in creating an ecosystem in which primary care providers can spearhead patient engagement efforts.  Continue Reading

• Epic Sets Sights on Healthcare Consumerism with CRM Platform Launch

  A CRM platform built with healthcare in mind will help Epic customers meet the demands of both healthcare consumerism and population health improvement.  Continue Reading

• Using Omnichannel Patient Engagement to Support Healthcare Consumerism

  NewYork-Presbyterian’s omnichannel patient engagement efforts help approach core tenets of healthcare consumerism like convenience, choice, and health equity.  Continue Reading

• Pediatric Patient Education Strategies for RSV, Respiratory Illness

  Omnichannel communication strategies have been central to Nemours Children’s Health patient education strategy targeting RSV and respiratory illness in kids.  Continue Reading

• How ChristianaCare Integrated Oncology and Primary Care Access

  By collocating oncology and primary care access, ChristianaCare’s cancer center has a unique ability to practice wraparound patient engagement and care management.  Continue Reading

• Behind The Scenes of Accountable Health Communities, SDOH Screening Model

  A CMS Accountable Health Communities model participant in North Texas fine-tuned its SDOH screening model and intervention strategies to yield ROI.  Continue Reading

• Retail Health Clinics Are Key on the Path to Health Equity

  Alternative care sites like telehealth and retail health clinics democratize healthcare access and let folks visit clinicians in settings that are comfortable.  Continue Reading

• Patient Engagement Strategies for Home Healthcare Providers

  Home healthcare providers need to be empathic and practice patient-centered care in their patient engagement strategies.  Continue Reading

• Refining Online Provider Search Optimizes Provider, Patient Engagement

  CHRISTUS Health said scrubbing its online provider search systems, and giving clinicians the option to take part, will be key to creating a better patient experience.  Continue Reading

• How Digital Patient Intake, Registration Boost Patient Experience

  The digital patient intake tool at Hansen Family Hospital streamlined the patient registration process, making for not just good patient experience but better workflows.  Continue Reading

• Aligning Care Coordination Work Amid Healthcare Workforce Shortage

  Metropolitan Family Medical Clinics in California have been able to begin tailored care coordination work thanks to an HMO deal that supplements workforce shortage woes.  Continue Reading

• How Diversity Fuels Mount Sinai’s Award-Winning Health Equity Work

  Mount Sinai’s health equity work is driven in large part by diversity in thought, looping in not just stakeholders from traditionally marginalized groups.  Continue Reading

• How Home Test Kits Are Expanding Patient Access to STI Testing

  A Georgia public health agency is using a carefully crafted public health campaign to issue home test kits to close the gap in patient access to STI testing that emerged during the pandemic.  Continue Reading

• Bringing Cultural Competence to Social Determinants of Health Work

  Speakers at the Xtelligent Healthcare Media SDOH virtual summit said social determinants of health work must integrate cultural competence.  Continue Reading

• How Lyft Healthcare Changed Lanes to Social Determinants of Health Work

  The rideshare company, first known for its app-based transportation solutions, has shifted gears to address non-emergency medical transportation benefits.  Continue Reading

• How Patient Engagement, Outreach Support Medication Adherence to PrEP

  Healthcare organizations working with diverse and younger patient populations should consider how different patient outreach tools impact medication adherence for PrEP.  Continue Reading

• Boosting Preventive Care Access in Immigrant Patient Populations

  Connecting immigrant patient populations to preventive care access and chronic disease management starts with gaining trust and ends with cultural competency.  Continue Reading

• Geisinger’s Holistic Maternal Care Model Improves Healthcare Experience

  Geisinger has midwives and substance use and SDOH programming added to its maternity care model to boost holistic care access and the healthcare experience for all.  Continue Reading

• Are Patient Portals the Future of Patient-Provider Relationships?

  Even more than patient data access, patients see the patient portal or personal health records as tools to build the patient-provider relationship.  Continue Reading

• How AdventHealth Achieves Optimal Patient Safety, Healthcare Quality

  AdventHealth has recently been recognized as an exemplar in patient safety for its system for supporting all of its hospitals in healthcare quality improvement.  Continue Reading

• How an FQHC Used Caseworkers for Chronic Disease Management

  In the wake of workforce challenges, Bluestem Health outsourced caseworkers who have been instrumental in supporting the FQHC’s chronic disease management efforts.  Continue Reading

• Tips for Designing Community Health Worker Training Programs

  With no mandated curriculum, organizations can design community health worker training programs with participatory learning principles to achieve core competencies.  Continue Reading

• How NCQA Created Measures on Social Determinants of Health Screenings

  Public comments on proposed HEDIS measures on social determinants of health screenings are open until March 11, 2022.  Continue Reading

• Why Rideshare in Healthcare Is Key to Value-Based Care Success

  According to Lyft’s head of healthcare, rideshare in the medical space will be essential to facilitating the preventive care that defines value-based care success.  Continue Reading

• Considerations for Recruiting, Hiring Community Health Workers

  Community health workers are playing a bigger role in patient care and social determinants of health work, prompting organizations to consider recruitment and hiring best practices.  Continue Reading

• How a Med School Partnered to Build Health Equity Education

  The More in Common Alliance will support health equity by enabling medical education and residency opportunities in traditionally underserved areas.  Continue Reading

• Exploring the Past, Future of SMART Health Cards, Patient Data Access

  SMART Health Cards helped patients access test results and vaccine records in 2021, but what does the future hold for patient data access?  Continue Reading

• Customer Feedback, Reliable Info Key to Healthcare Consumerism

  Medicine’s digital infrastructure needs to reconcile customer feedback with reliable clinic or hospital information to enable a culture of healthcare consumerism.  Continue Reading

• Medical Schools Stepping Up to Build Health Equity Curricula

  Medical schools see it as their mission to build health equity curricula as they seek to train the next generation of competent medical professionals.  Continue Reading

• Why Patient-Reported Outcomes are Key in Specialty Pharmacy

  CVS Caremark is building out patient-reported outcomes in its specialty pharmacy space to better understand the best path for care.  Continue Reading

• How One PCP Used Online Appointment Scheduling to Close Care Gaps

  A pandemic-era online appointment scheduling purchase has helped Eagles Landing Health close care gaps, get new patients, and streamline call center onboarding.  Continue Reading

• How PAs, APPs Expand Patient Care Access, Patient Satisfaction

  PAs are effective at expanding patient care access because of their extensive science and medical model training, poising them to drive high patient satisfaction.  Continue Reading

• Providence Reflects One Year After Health Equity Pledge

  Providence said connecting with individuals with lived experience and building out community health partnership has been key to working on its health equity pledge.  Continue Reading

• Data on Justice-Involved Populations Targets SDOH, Cuts Recidivism

  Ohio-based Medicaid managed care organization CareSource uses granular member data to understand its justice-involved populations and address social determinants of health.  Continue Reading

• 4 Key Focus Areas for Payer, Provider Health Equity Work

  The newly minted Deloitte Health Equity Institute’s leader, Kulleni Gebreyes, MD, outlined four key areas for supporting health equity work.  Continue Reading

• Top 3 Challenges to Social Determinants of Health Referrals

  Social determinants of health referrals can get beleaguered by limited care coordination and challenges with patient navigation.  Continue Reading

• NQF Uses Clinical Quality Measures to Improve Health Equity

  NQF will convene industry stakeholders to discuss how to use clinical quality measures to assess health equity, including the logistical challenges to such an endeavor.  Continue Reading

• Using Patient Satisfaction Surveys for Practice Improvement

  An independent physician association (IPA) tapped point-of-care patient satisfaction surveys to provide insights into their practice improvement programming.  Continue Reading

• How to Implement Social Determinants of Health Referral Tools

  Virginia-based Sentara Health recently employed social determinants of health referral tools that help connect patients to social services.  Continue Reading

• How Neighborhood Disadvantage Drove COVID Health Disparities

  Researchers found neighborhood disadvantage was linked with subway ridership during stay-at-home orders, acting as a proxy for understanding COVID health disparities.  Continue Reading

• How Convenient Care Access, Scheduling Closes Gaps in Care

  Implementing online appointment scheduling and opening up appointment slots during off-hours helped Beacon Health System address COVID-era gaps in care.  Continue Reading

• How Nurse Practitioners Can Put Health Disparities Work into Action

  Nurse practitioners are instrumental in identifying and addressing social determinants of health, key work that is needed to close health disparities.  Continue Reading

• Using Patient-Centered Care for Hospital Room Design

  Hospital room design is a key element of patient satisfaction, prompting Cedars-Sinai to retool an entirely patient-centered process for its remodel.  Continue Reading

• How NIH Uses Community Health Partnership for Participant Engagement

  Those community health partnerships help establish trust with traditionally underserved people, helping to drive diversity and participant engagement.  Continue Reading

• Key Steps for Opening the Digital Front Door, Digital Transformation

  The digital front door is anything but a door. It’s a wraparound patient journey that connects them to care across the continuum.  Continue Reading

• How to Market Patient Education to Support Patient Experience

  A marketing strategy helped Children’s Wisconsin drive patient education, an effort that improved patient relationships and patient experience.  Continue Reading

• Embedding Health Equity as a Patient Safety, Clinical Quality Issue

  The Leapfrog Group has added health equity and ethical patient billing questions to its patient safety and clinical quality surveys.  Continue Reading

• Strategies to Address Housing as a Social Determinant of Health

  Healthcare organizations can use a three-tiered strategy to address housing quality as a social determinant of health.  Continue Reading

• Why Poor Diversity in Medical Research Threatens Health Equity

  Community partnership and cultural competence will be essential for driving clinical trial diversity and health equity.  Continue Reading

• Behind the Scenes of Epic’s User-Centered Patient Portal Redesign

  Epic's newly redesigned patient portal features a user-centered design that reflects changes in how patients want to interact with their health tech.  Continue Reading

• Why Teamwork Is Key to Addressing Social Determinants of Health

  Healthcare organizations setting out on a social determinants of health program must rely on community partners to effectively meet patient needs.  Continue Reading

• Why Nurse Practitioners Are Pivotal in Health Equity Work

  Nurse practitioners have the tools to be instrumental in health equity work, but need regulatory support to utilize those tools.  Continue Reading

• Building A Culture of Nurse Excellence to Drive Patient Satisfaction

  Driving nurse excellence and engagement will be essential to delivering on patient satisfaction and experience.  Continue Reading

• Who Are the Key Players in Social Determinants of Health Strategy?

  As healthcare organizations continue to target the social determinants of health, they must collaborate with other key players to deliver on programs.  Continue Reading

• Reflecting on To Err is Human: 20 Years of Patient Safety Work

  In the years since the IOM published To Err is Human, the industry has turned a critical eye to patient safety.  Continue Reading

• How Mobile Health Clinics Drive Care to Vulnerable Patients

  The mobile health clinic makes a community-based care option for those who otherwise would face extraordinary social challenges accessing care.  Continue Reading

• Why Technology is Essential to Community Health Partnerships, SDOH

  At Allina Health, technology helped the health system connect with community health partnerships and build out SDOH programming.  Continue Reading

• Using Nurse Leader Rounding to Improve Patient Experience

  When it comes to patient experience, building relationships may be more important that the bells and whistles.  Continue Reading

• Why Patient Behavior Change Is Key for Chronic Disease Management

  To make chronic disease management and patient behavior change effective, healthcare professionals must create strategies that play on patients' overall lifestyle goals.  Continue Reading

• Using Patient Rounding Tools to Enhance the Patient Experience

  Henry Ford Health System has used patient rounding tools to make the process more efficient. Now, leaders are using the tool to make patient rounding a patient experience driver.  Continue Reading

• Using Patient Education to Enhance ICU Patient Experience

  Patient education materials are plentiful in hospitals, but fragmented care and information sources hinder the overall ICU patient experience.  Continue Reading