As another year draws to a close, each seemingly faster than the last, we must again shift our focus to closing out one year and starting a new year afresh. For many practices and organizations that means finalizing and submitting annual quality measures, taking a look at where there was success in closing care gaps and where there is still work needed and, of course, never ceasing to care for patients through cold, flu, COVID and whatever else is needed. It can be exhausting in the best of times, but with historic staffing shortages still looming over all of us, this year hits a little harder for some. Outsourcing some of your end of year activities and ensuring you have programs in place to hit the ground running as the new year launches can help you set yourself up for success.
One easy way to lessen the load at the end of the year would be to get some assistance with Annual Wellness Visits. Despite being a high value for patients and an important quality metric, Annual Wellness Visits can easily fall through the cracks with all of the hustle and bustle of more pressing matters. Proactive communication and scheduling of these visits is time consuming. To help solve for this, some of our CCM practices have requested our nurses work with their eligible patient base to increase the quantity of their Annual Wellness Visits. As a result, we have taken on the additional responsibility of scheduling and even, in some cases, conducting the assessment portion of the Annual Wellness Visit virtually. This helps close care gaps, improve quality scores, and set patients up for a healthy new year without the administrative burden on your staff. In a similar vein, for another CCM client, we have set up a Virtual Office staff to supplement theirs during a particularly difficult resourcing challenge. As our dedicated CCM nurses and clinical staff is already performing virtual patient outreach within these practices, it is a natural fit to help in other areas, as they come up. Since this is already supplemental staff – it has no negative impact to the in-office operations.
In yet another scenario, our clinical team was tasked with driving more adherence with annual flu shots and was able to double participation. There are really limitless use cases for extra resources if you have the luxury of access to them!
Potentially most important though, aside from supplementing end of year activities, is working towards planning and implementing programs that will enhance the overall patient experience and the success of the organization in the new year. Ensuring Annual Wellness Visits are completed at as high a rate as possible for all eligible members, increasing participation with preventative care measures, (such as increasing flu shot distribution) and helping those with chronic illnesses manage their care better long-term are achievable goals with the right program in place. There is no better time to implement it then the final quarter of the year. This ensures the program will be up and running in January and a full calendar year of visits are conducted.
Maintaining a focus on quality of care, as it relates to quality measures, consistently throughout the year, instead of between other tasks and priorities ensures success. We have seen this success ourselves within our partner practices. By outsourcing Chronic Care Management you can ensure you have the adequate number of resources to get the job done properly, without sacrificing the quality of face-to-face care or day-to-day operations. By working with Wellbox you can ensure you are giving your patients access to a team of top-notch clinicians with a robust program that drives positive results. That’s a win for everyone!
Learn more about our outcomes and results here: https://wellbox.care/resource-library/outcomes-virtual-care-case-study/ and here: https://wellbox.care/resource-library/population-health-outcomes-whitepaper/
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