Helping Clinicians Enhance Quality of Care
Overview
Altarum works with public insurers and clinical practices to improve patient outcomes and overall efficiency by optimizing clinical and office workflow and adopting and implementing health information technology. Our practice facilitators work directly with medical and behavioral health practices to select quality measures, implement clinical and office workflow changes, and use health information technology data to drive quality improvements.
Our Work
Here are examples of how Altarum’s innovative quality and process improvement support helps clinicians deliver high-quality coordinated care:
Healthy Hearts for Michigan (HH4M)
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-funded HH4M initiative is a three-year quality improvement intervention that provides support services to improve cardiovascular disease risk factors amongst patients in more than 50 primary care practices across Michigan. With Altarum as the lead, the statewide HH4M cooperative developed and delivered evidence-based clinical education to improve hypertension and tobacco cessation—the leading factors risk factors for heart disease. The implementation research trial coupled clinical interventions with optimization of health IT, remote monitoring, and management through telehealth to address barriers to access and healthcare shortages in rural Michigan. The team will share the results of an evaluation analysis in 2024.
Improving Asthma Control
Through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Asthma Program, Altarum helped providers and practices throughout the state optimize their electronic health record (EHR) implementations to support improved quality and asthma care and control. In one practice, the use of asthma action plans for children rose from 50% to over 96% following delivery of our services. We also worked with emergency room physicians to enhance discharge instructions for asthma management and developed toolkits to implement asthma care improvement strategies in two popular electronic health records (EHRs) used in Michigan.
With funding from Michigan Public Health Institute, Altarum’s practice facilitators continue to engage pediatric practices in an asthma high-burden Michigan counties to identify and implement asthma care QI interventions.
Identifying Chronic Conditions Earlier
In another project for MDHHS, Altarum developed and implemented protocols for using electronic health records to identify undiagnosed hypertensive and diabetic patients that increased important early treatments for these diseases. We’ve expanded this work to help providers implement quality improvement measures aimed at the early detection of chronic kidney disease, a condition that is strongly correlated with diabetes and hypertension and is often asymptomatic until it progresses to later stages.
Michigan Center for Effective IT Adoption (M-CEITA)
Through this program, Altarum gave direct support to providers adopting and upgrading their certified electronic health record technology. We helped practices leverage technology to actively manage patient populations, support effective care delivery, enhance business operations, facilitate interoperability and information exchange, and improve health outcomes. We also helped providers apply for Medicaid incentive payments.
Our services helped more than 6,000 providers in more than 500 practices successfully adopt certified electronic health record technology. These services were used by providers representing 65 different specialties working on more than 60 different technology systems.
Great Lakes Practice Transformation Network (GLPTN)
Altarum played a foundational role in supporting GLPTN—a CMS-funded collaboration among 36 universities, health systems, and independent practices that saved more than $49 million in health care costs through higher-quality, better-coordinated care.
Custom Quality Improvement Advisory Services
Altarum’s expert practice facilitators offer health care providers technical assistance around QPP and MIPS and perform on-site and remote security risk analyses to protect patient information through our commercial services program.