Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group named recipient of 2014 AMGA Acclaim Award

The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) today announced that the recipient of the 2014 AMGA Acclaim Award is Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group for an innovative and integrated method to drive population health using a collaborative, team-based approach. The award, granted through AMGA's philanthropic arm, the American Medical Group Foundation (AMGF), will be presented at AMGA's Institute for Quality Leadership Annual Conference, being held November 11-14, 2014 at the New Orleans Marriott, New Orleans, Louisiana.

In their award-winning application, titled The Reality of Becoming a High-Performing Health System™, Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group described their process to create a more nimble organization embracing the constant need for change and growth to deliver greater value to patients. They have undergone a transformation to a team-based, accountable delivery system that continuously improves the quality of care, patient experience, and overall cost-effectiveness. Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group created a Care Redesign 2020 model that outlines the growth and changes required to serve not only their patients, but also their staff and physicians. The model includes specific goals and measurements in each of these areas:

1. Clinical practice redesign
2. Dedicated care coordination staff
3. Physician and staff communication skills
4. Health IT linkage including tele-health
5. Clinical community linkage

Innovation drove progress toward becoming a High Performing Health System™ helping Sharp Rees-Stealy to achieve the following:

• Top-performing medical group status in California for 10 years in a row
• CMS Medicare 5 star performance on "all cause" readmission reductions
• High patient engagement rates up to 47% for its Population Health Programs
• Overall rating of care composite score on patient experience above California's 90th percentile (CG-CAHPS)
• Demonstrable reduction in burden of complications of heart disease by 22% and stroke by 11%

Although Sharp Rees-Stealy has made tremendous improvements, they know that continuing to innovate, implement, and learn from others will make them the best place to receive care, the best place to work, and the best place to practice medicine.

Two additional groups were announced as Acclaim Award Honorees:

HealthTexas Provider Network (HealthTexas) has experienced tremendous growth and has made significant achievements in contributing to the transformation of the healthcare delivery system. Over the past two years, the medical group has engaged in implementing population health strategies prompting their hospital system, physicians, and other stakeholders throughout the care continuum to collaboratively and accountably engage in patient-centric models of care and deliver "right care at the right place at the right time and at the right cost." Some of their improvements include:

• Developed the infrastructure necessary to support population health strategies that included finalizing a substantial investment in data analytic tools, expanding care coordination, and further enhancing patient-centered medical home initiatives in their practices
• Enhanced, in collaboration with the Baylor Scott & White Health, over 90 clinical processes that are expected to lead to approximately $40 million in healthcare cost savings this year
• Established over 90 protocols and metrics to ensure their patients receive quality care that is consistent with evidence-based medicine (For instance, by adopting the Measure Up/Pressure Down™ campaign guidelines coupled with the development of a hypertension protocol, HealthTexas has reached an average 86.6% of patients in control of their high blood pressure over the past three years.)
• Reduced ED utilization and inpatient admission rates equating to approximately $2 million in savings over a two-year period through comprehensive care coordination, protocol-driven disease management, and proactive outreach for preventative health services

Wellmont Medical Associates embarked in a new vision for rapid change in 2010. They established an elected medical group board of directors, three dyad administrative positions, and finance and quality committees; focused on integration as they achieved NCQA PCMH level 3 certification; started transitional care management and prepared to become a regional ACO; and began to see successes with risk-based contracting. As a result of their efforts, the organization:

• Implemented a goal with a managed care plan to perform comprehensive health screenings on their managed care population over 65 years of age and closed the year at the 80th percentile (the goal had been 55th)
• Have an overall readmission rate of less than 11%
• Demonstrated that they had 205 acute inpatient admits per 1,000 with a readmission rate of 5.17% for one of their Medicare Advantage contracts
• Have a high-risk medications prescription rate (Beers criteria) of less than 5%, putting them in the highest percentile for safe prescribing
• Met a 95% target for access to primary care (exceeding Medicare Advantage target of 85%)

"These organizations led efforts to improve their ability to provide patients the health care they need, want, and deserve," said Donald W. Fisher, Ph.D., AMGA's president and chief executive officer and AMGF Board secretary. "We salute the dedication of the organizations' leadership and healthcare providers in improving patient outcomes, efficiency, coordination, and organizational and clinical integration. Their ongoing efforts will ensure that their patients will receive quality, value-based care throughout their lives.

"The groups honored with this award exemplify the best quality health care in the United States, and the efforts of multispecialty medical groups and other organized systems of care to provide the right care at the right time in the most efficient manner," continued Fisher. "Coordinated, value-based care has been the hallmark of AMGA member groups, and programs like the Acclaim Award help these groups continue their innovative work and communicate their successes to the healthcare community to better serve their patients. It is our hope that medical groups throughout the country will learn about the work of these innovators and be inspired to implement similar programs in their medical groups."