The Children’s Health Alliance (CHA), an association of independent pediatricians in Oregon and Southwest Washington, has launched a new childhood population health management tool to keep pediatricians updated about the complete picture of their patients’ health. This important tool will improve the quality of care for children and will allow for a coordinated plan of care to be shared across the community, facilitating collaboration with pediatric subspecialists, mental health providers, the education system, social service agencies, and other community-based services.
Developing this pediatric-focused population health management tool has been a significant undertaking. Many health management systems compare children to general standards or combine children’s health needs with those of adults. “Managing conditions such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Down Syndrome, or multiple behavioral issues requires different care approaches that adapt to the many developmental stages in a child’s life,” says Ken Carlson, M.D., pediatrician at Childhood Health Associates of Salem.
More than 100 independent pediatricians are working together to implement this tool which will coordinate and manage children’s health. The tool will integrate data from pediatricians’ electronic health records, insurance claims and other clinical information to provide a more complete picture of their patients’ health. This enables pediatricians and their teams to more effectively manage a child’s medical conditions, coordinate and follow-up on their care, and engage services beyond just medical services to support the family and the child’s overall health.
During the last five years, CHA pediatricians have implemented guidelines for quality asthma care and developed a registry to track and monitor children with asthma. Through the CHA, pediatric practices have prioritized children’s care goals for additional chronic conditions and for general acute and preventative care. Many of these goals translate into meaningful and actionable quality measures that guide the high level of care delivered by CHA pediatricians. CHA’s technology solution enables organization, management and prompting of these actionable pediatric protocols for their broader pediatric population. For example, reminders would alert the patient’s care team when a child is overdue for a screening or immunization, enabling the team to reach out proactively to families.
“Population health tools that bring information together and facilitate the sharing of well-coordinated care plans have the potential to create a collective impact on health outcomes,” noted Jay Rosenbloom, M.D., pediatrician with Pediatric Associates of the Northwest, and Children’s Health Alliance Medical Director. He adds, “Keeping everyone involved with the child’s health goals and care plan improves the care experience and reduces health system duplication and inefficiency.”
The CHA also learned recently that it has been awarded Health Data Management's top honor, the Analytics All-Stars Award for Population Health Project of the Year for developing this new tool. The award recognizes CHA for pioneering leadership and innovation in pediatric quality improvement, including driving the development of a pediatric-focused population health management and data analytics system.
“What set Children’s Health Alliance apart in the eyes of the judges was the extraordinary efforts made to tackle population health in a pediatric environment, which is a new frontier in population health management and analytics that few organizations have tried to tackle because of the enormous amount of effort it takes to customize the analytics technology and clinical protocols to address the unique needs of children,” said Greg Gillespie, editor-in-chief at Health Data Management.
“We’re honored to receive Health Data Management’s Analytics All-Stars Award, which validates the credible work of our pediatricians, who are dedicated to providing the highest standard for pediatric quality care,” said Deborah Rumsey, executive director of the Children’s Health Alliance and Children’s Health Foundation. “Adult care consumes the bulk of today’s healthcare costs, and thus most policies and resources. Since healthier children become healthier adults, it is important to put children on a trajectory toward good health, reducing future healthcare costs.”
This recognition highlights the value of the pioneering spirit and initiative of 105 pediatricians working together on a solution that is actionable and practical for managing pediatric population health. This work can effectively spur further collaboration between all providers involved in child/adolescent health care to benefit a critical population of children so essential to the future of health in our community and state.
