On April 18th, I was proud to participate in a live webinar presented as part of the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Grand Round series.

The event focused on the early successes of CMS’s Transforming Clinical Practices Initiative (TCPI). CHCACT’s Practice Transformation Network (CT-PTN) is a part of that national initiative, which aims to strengthen the quality of patient care and spend health care dollars more wisely.

CT PTN was chosen to participate in the Grand Rounds series out of 29 PTNs in the country. Other presenters were:

• Dr. Mike Weiss, Southwestern Pediatric PTN
• Debra Simmons, Quality Impact PTN
• Allison Bryan-Jungles, Seven States PTN
• Dr. Greg Nicola, American College of Radiology
• Dr. Carol Greenlee, CMS National Faculty

I was proud to present data showing:

• Through the dedicated work of those health centers, we experienced consistent, incremental improvement in the percentage of diabetic patients in our network whose condition is controlled. In fact 1,466 more patients are controlled than when we started the grant only 18 months ago, in September, 2015!
• We have calculated cost savings to our state Medicaid program of over $600,000 so far.

The CT-PTN, administered by the Community Health Center Association of Connecticut (CHCACT), is the only PTN in the country focused on federally-qualified health centers (FQHCs) and the people they serve. It comprises 15 FQHCs, representing 97 practices and 900+ clinicians across Connecticut – and impacting over 270,000 patients!

In addition to on-site technical assistance, CT-PTN includes a dynamic learning collaborative, consisting of monthly Clinical Quality Conversations through video-conferencing; quarterly in-person Quality Forums; and, an annual summit. CT-PTN aligns with CT’s State Innovation Model program, to transform care delivery, enhance person-centeredness – and ultimately improve health outcomes for CT residents.

You can learn more about the webinar here!

– Russ Dexter