Applying Lean to Improve the Patient Visit Process at Three Federally Qualified Health Centers
In most health care organizations, the many steps that constitute the patient visit are interrelated, yet they are often performed discretely and without consideration of their impact on care delivery as a whole. In the CHC Innovation Mission Project, Altarum partnered with three FQHCs—Alexandria Neighborhood Health Services, Inc., Baldwin Family Health Care, and Penobscot Community Health Care—to analyze the patient visit from a systems perspective using the Lean continuous process improvement approach. Over an 18-month period, Altarum provided Lean training and technical assistance to staff members, enabling them to analyze complex procedures and interactions, identify root causes of problems, and test changes and solutions. As described in this detailed report, common themes emerged across the three FQHCs and provide important lessons for the broader primary care community.
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Integrated Primary Care and Behavioral Health: A Case Study Report
Health care systems have increasingly moved to integrate historically separated primary care and behavioral health services to better address health care needs, improve outcomes, and promote health equity among patients living with chronic health conditions. Altarum supported Cherry Street Health Services in its efforts to launch an integrated primary care and behavioral health pilot program. Altarum worked with the FQHC and its two community-based partner health organizations, providing strategic planning and evaluation support and conducting a qualitative case study to track the impact of the pilot program on patients and staff members. The case study findings, as outlined in this report, are also supplemented by a review of the literature on domestic primary care and behavioral health integration efforts.
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