The ‘Moving Upstream Collaborative’ seeks Michigan’s most engaged primary care practice teams starting fall 2019

CONTACT: Barbara Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; 248.260.8466; barbara@eafocus.com 

Rochester, Mich. – August 30, 2019 – Furthering its goals of collaboration and learning, MedNetOne Health Solutions (MedNetOne), a health care management organization offering infrastructure, clinical and technology services to more than 900 private practice physicians and other independent care providers, including behavioral health specialists, announced it is joining forces with west Michigan-based IHP to offer a new learning collaborative—the Moving Upstream Collaborative—from September 2019 through June 2020.  Taking place in two locations—Detroit and Battle Creek—this formalized but relaxed learning environment is aimed at primary care physician offices, but is also welcoming the wider community of caregivers, including pharmacists, home health agencies and even ambulance companies. 

“The broad spectrum of factors comprising social determinants of health (#SDOH) can make it challenging to know where to begin when managing health crises that arise as a result of inadequate understanding,” Ewa Matuszewski, CEO of MedNetOne explained. “By partnering with IHP to bring together a variety of organizations, the Moving Upstream learning collaborative will leverage innovative ideas and rapidly test and implement meaningful, sustainable change in managing #SDOH and the role they play in overall health and quality of life.”

Matuszewski said the learning collaborative will address topics from the most complex conditions to the rising risk of taking a holistic approach to health care; how to reduce avoidable utilization and cost while increasing quality; and how to weave the current state to future state by implementing supports and interventions into processes.

The collaborative structure will consist of six, one-day learning sessions with primary care teams comprised of three to five team members from each practice, a final combined Outcomes Congress in June, and monthly one-hour conference calls and web-based meetings that occur in alternating months.  Teams based in the Detroit area will attend the collaborative at the Michigan State University Management Education Center, 811 W. Square Lake Road in Troy, Mich., with the final Outcomes Congress taking place at the Lansing Center, 333 E. Michigan Avenue, Lansing.

The goals of the Moving Upstream Collaborative are to:

  • Move practices upstream to address the social determinants of health (#SDOH)
  • Reduce avoidable utilization of emergency departments, expensive testing and other unnecessary costs while increasing quality outcomes
  • Guide teams through the process of enhancing operational systems and workflows to support population-based care
  • Promote and support interprofessional team-based care
  • Better position practice for success in risk contracting

Practice teams will need to sign a Memorandum of Understanding, provide monthly data and narrative reports, attend and participate at all sessions and phone calls, and have an overall commitment to quality improvement and practice transformation. There is a $10,000 participation stipend for each team payable in two installments, and participating practices will earn 20 points on their Quality Scorecard for both 2019 and 2020. CME and CEUs will also be offered for eligible clinicians, and Maintenance of Certification (MOC) credits may be available through this learning program. Providers should contact their board for eligibility.

Matuszewski is well-versed in leading learning collaboratives. MedNetOne and the Practice Transformation Institute (PTI), the IACET-accredited health care learning organization whom Matuszewski also founded, launched the very fruitful Mackinac Learning Collaborative (MLC) in 2009-2010. The goal of MLC was to transform primary care physicians’ offices into patient-centric practices, and Matuszewski credits its success on the commitment of participating primary care practices and organizations who did their homework between sessions and established collegial relationships with other MLC participants that are still thriving today. 

MedNetOne is also actively engaged in healthcare and community education efforts to raise awareness of the role that Social Determinants of Health (#SDOH) play in overall health and wellness, partnering with the Oakland University School of Health Sciences in April 2018 to jointly present a first-of-its kind #SDOH symposium in Michigan called Better Upstream Health for Better Downstream Care. The Healthology symposium returned in May 2019 with the theme #SDOH: It Takes a Team and will be back in 2020 to look at comprehensive systems of care that address poverty, social injustice and health care inequities. 

About MedNetOne Health Solutions

Based in Rochester, Mich., MedNetOne Health Solutions is a leader in advancing the development and implementation of the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) and advanced primary care. Its physician/provider members are focused on fully integrated, population-based, patient-centric practices that enhance patient outcomes and meet government healthcare reform mandates. Learn more here.

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