The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has selected SSM of Wisconsin employees Dr. Maureen Murphy and Christine Baker for its Innovation Advisors Program. Dr. Murphy is a family practice physician at Dean Clinic - Lake Delton and the director of medical affairs at St. Clare Hospital in Baraboo, Wis., and Baker is the administrative director of Quality and Safety Systems at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, Wis.
A total of 73 individuals from 27 states and the District of Columbia were selected for the program. The 73 individuals were selected from 920 applications through a competitive process, and include clinicians, health professionals, health administrators and others.
The Innovation Advisors Program encourages health care professionals to use their knowledge and skills to explore new ways to improve patient care and reduce costs. The program is part of the CMS Innovation Center, which was created by the Affordable Care Act to test new models of health care delivery and payment.
“Participating in the Innovation Advisors Program will help us learn how to disrupt our existing business and practice models, test change rapidly, and also quickly and reliably recover from a unsuccessful change,” said Chris Baker, administrative director of Quality and Safety Systems at St. Mary’s Hospital. “In other words, my vision is that we can integrate reliability science into innovation to maximize the value equation for all stakeholders.”
In order to be selected for the program, health care professionals were required to submit an application outlining a proposed innovation project that they would work on as a member of the advisory group.
Baker’s improvement project will focus on developing and testing care management approaches within the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patient population, with the primary goal of providing better care through reductions in hospital readmissions for COPD patients.
Murphy’s project includes starting a palliative care program that could be replicated by other small rural hospitals. The goal of the project will be to have 100% of patients who have a diagnosis of congestive heart failure, COPD, pneumonia, stroke or end-stage cancer receive a palliative care consult.
“I want to develop a program at St. Clare that will bridge the gap between the diagnosis of a serious illness and that individual’s end-of-life needs,” said Dr. Murphy. “It is vital that we support our patients and their families in terms of what’s best for them and help them to achieve their goals.”
Advisors will devote a certain percentage of their time to assist the Innovation Center in supporting improvements in local health care and sharing new ideas and innovations regionally and across the United States. Advisors will meet periodically to exchange insights, report on breakthrough successes and solve health care challenges.
SSM of Wisconsin will receive a stipend of $40,000 that will be used to support Dr. Murphy’s and Baker’s activities while serving as innovation advisors.
More information about the Innovation Advisors Program, including a fact sheet and list of participants, can be found at: http://innovations.cms.gov/initiatives/innovation-advisors/index.html.