Health Care Innovation Awards: Illinois
Notes and Disclaimers:
- Projects shown may also be operating in other states (see the Geographic Reach)
- Descriptions and project data (e.g. gross savings estimates, population served, etc.) are 3 year estimates provided by each organization and are based on budget submissions required by the Health Care Innovation Awards application process.
- While all projects are expected to produce cost savings beyond the 3 year grant award, some may not achieve net cost savings until after the initial 3-year period due to start-up-costs, change in care patterns and intervention effect on health status.
IMAGING ADVANTAGE LLC
Project Title: “The right exam, at the right time, read by the right radiologist"
Geographic Reach: Illinois
Funding Amount: $5,977,805
Estimated 3-Year Savings: $14,935,320
Summary: Imaging Advantage LLC, in partnership with Vanguard Health Systems and other hospital systems in the Chicago metropolitan area, is receiving an award to re-engineer the end-to-end workflow process for hospital-based imaging services, including by leveraging technology to integrate immediate consultations with radiologists and other decision-support tools into the “front-end” of the patient-care continuum, where imaging exams are ordered and critical care decisions are made. A key objective of the program will be to reduce duplicative and/or clinically unnecessary advanced imaging exams. The program also will (1) deploy a unique disruptive innovation — RealTime QA® — which applies “double-blind” interpretations to high-difficulty exams in advance of patient treatment, (2) eliminate preliminary (or “wet”) reads after-hours and (3) materially improve exam turn-around times. As a result, the program will reduce inappropriate advanced imaging utilization, improve quality assurance and, ultimately, improve patient safety and experience. A 30% decrease in CT use and decreased utilization of other imaging modalities is expected. CMS will also be evaluating planned centers in Detroit, San Antonio, and Boston.
Over a three-year period, Imaging Advantage LLC will train 495 workers in health care-related jobs. The new workforce will include clinical staff as well as IT development and operational staff.
MOUNT SINAI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Project Title: “Geriatric emergency department innovations in care through workforce, informatics, and structural enhancements (GEDI WISE)"
Geographic Reach: Illinois, New Jersey, New York
Funding Amount: $12,728,753
Estimated 3-Year Savings: $40,124,805
Summary: Mount Sinai School of Medicine is receiving an award to integrate geriatric care with emergency department (ED) care in three large, urban acute care hospitals in New York, New Jersey, and Illinois. Emergency room use by older adults has doubled in the past decade and is expected to continue to increase. The Mount Sinai care model will use evidence-based geriatric clinical protocols, informatics support for patient monitoring and clinical decision support, and structural enhancements to improve patient safety and satisfaction while decreasing hospitalizations, return ED visits, unnecessary diagnostic and therapeutic services, medication errors, and adverse events, such as falls and avoidable complications.
Over a three-year period, Mount Sinai School of Medicine's GEDI WISE program will train more than 400 current health care workers and create 22 new jobs. The new hires will include nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, physical therapy, project coordinators, research assistants, data analysts and geriatric transitional care managers.
THE NATIONAL HEALTH CARE FOR THE HOMELESS COUNCIL
Project Title: "Community health workers and HCH: a partnership to promote primary care”
Geographic Reach: California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Texas
Funding Amount: $2,681,877
Estimated 3-Year Savings: $1.5 million
Summary: The National Health Care for the Homeless Council is joining into a cooperative agreement to serve ten communities across various regions in the U.S. to reduce the number of emergency department visits and lack of primacy care services for over 1700 homeless individuals. The intervention will integrate community health workers into Federally Qualified Health Centers to conduct outreach and case coordination for transitioning this population from the emergency department to a health center, thus reducing unnecessary emergency department visits and improving quality of care for this population with estimated savings of approximately $1.4million. Over the three-year period, National Health Care for the Homeless Council’s program will train an estimated 101 health care workers, while creating an estimated 17 new jobs. The workers will include community health workers who will conduct outreach and care coordination.
TransforMED
Project Title: “Multi-community partnership between TransforMED, hospitals in the VHA system and a technology/data analytics company to support transformation to PCMH of practices connected with the hospitals and development of “Medical Neighborhood”
Geographic Reach: Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Wisconsin
Funding Amount: $20,750,000
Estimated 3-Year Savings: $52,824,000
Summary: TransforMED, in partnership with 12 VHA-affiliated hospitals throughout the county, is receiving an award for a primary care redesign project to support care coordination among Patient-Centered Medical Homes (PCMH), specialty practices, and hospitals, creating “medical neighborhoods.” The project will use a sophisticated analytics engine to identify high risk patients and coordinate care across the medical neighborhood while driving PCMH transformation in a number of primary care practices in each community. Truly comprehensive care will improve care transitions and reduce unnecessary testing, leading to lower costs with better outcomes.
Over a three-year period, TransforMED’s program will train an estimated 3,024 workers and create an estimated 22 jobs. The new workers will include an innovation project manager, project control specialists, project managers, an implementation team, a project team, an integration architect, an application trainer, and a population health management advisor.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Project Title: “Integrated inpatient/outpatient care for patients at high risk of hospitalization”
Geographic Reach: Illinois
Funding Amount: $6,078,073
Estimated 3-Year Savings: $18,750,000
Summary: The University of Chicago is receiving an award to test a model of care delivery that reasserts the importance of an ongoing doctor-patient relationship. The project will use multidisciplinary teams—including Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, social workers, and medical assistants led by Comprehensive Care Physicians (CCPs)—to provide consistent care to Medicare beneficiaries before, during, and after hospitalizations. CCPs will perform rounds in hospitals 48 weeks per year, ensuring they see patients and monitor their health consistently. The targeted population will include beneficiaries with a high probability of hospitalization, making it more likely that CCPs will encounter their patients during rounds in the hospital.
Over a three-year period, The University of Chicago program will train an estimated 26 workers and will create an estimated 11 jobs. The new workers will include a programmer, 4 research assistants, 5 comprehensive care physicians, 2 nurses, a social worker and a medical office assistant.
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Project Title: “CommunityRx system: linking patients and community-based service”
Geographic Reach: Illinois
Funding Amount: $5,862,027
Estimated 3-Year Savings: $6.4million
Summary: The University of Chicago Urban Health Initiative in partnership with Chicago Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center (CHITREC) and the Alliance of Chicago Community Health Services is receiving an award to develop the CommunityRx system, a continuously updated electronic database of community health resources that will be linked to the Electronic Health Records of local safety net providers. In real time, the system will process patient data and print out a “Health.eRx” for the patient, including referrals to community resources relevant to the patient’s condition and status. Aggregated data on patient diagnoses and referrals will be used to generate CommunityRx reports for community-based service providers to use to inform programming. The program will serve over two hundred thousand beneficiaries on the South Side of Chicago most of whom are Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP patients. The CommunityRx system will train and create new jobs for an estimated 90 individuals from this high-poverty, diverse community. This includes high school youth who will to collect data on community health resources as part of the Urban Health Initiative’s MAPSCorps program. It will also include the creation of a new type of health worker, Community Health Information Experts (CHIEfs), who will assist patients in using the Health.eRx and engage community-based service providers in meaningful use of the CommunityRx reports. The CommunityRx builds on infrastructure supported by ARRA funding from the National Institute on Aging. Anticipated outcomes include better population health, better use of appropriate services, increased compliance with care, and fewer avoidable visits to the emergency room with estimated savings of approximately $6.4 million.
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER
Project Title: "Brookdale Senior Living (BSL) Transitions of Care Program"
Geographic Reach: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin
Funding Amount: $7,329,714
Estimated 3-Year Savings: $9,729,702
Summary: The University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC), in partnership with Brookdale Senior Living (BSL), is receiving an award to expand and test the BSL Transitions of Care Program which is based on an evidenced-based assessment tool called Interventions to Reduce Acute Care Transfers (INTERACT) for residents living in independent living, assisted living and dementia specific facilities in Texas and Florida. In addition, community dwelling older adults who receive BSL home health services will be included in the Transitions of Care Program. Over the course of the award the program will expand to other states where BSL communities are located. The program will employ clinical nurse leaders (CNLs) to act as program managers. CNLs will train care transition nurses and other staff on the use of INTERACT and health information technology resources to help them identify, assess, and manage residents' clinical conditions to reduce preventable hospital admissions and readmissions. The goal of the program is to prevent the progress of disease, thereby reducing complications, improving care, and reducing the rate of avoidable hospital admissions for older adults.
Over a three-year period, the University of North Texas Health Science Center's program will train an estimated 10,926 workers and create an estimated 97 jobs for clinical nurse leaders and other health care team members.