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CONTACT:    Lynn Sadoff, Senior Public Relations and Communications Specialist 
HealthEast Care System                                      
lpsadoff@healtheast.org
Office: 651-326-3590                                          
Pager: 651-864-1023

HEALTHEAST CARE NAVIGATION STRATEGY RECEIVES 2009 HEALTHPARTNERS INNOVATIONS IN HEALTHCARE AWARD

Initiative is seen as transformational in reforming health delivery system

(ST. PAUL, MN) -- HealthEast Care System announced today (12/14/09) that its Care Navigation strategy has received a 2009 HealthPartners Innovations in Health Care Award.

HealthEast’s Care Navigation strategy was identified as one of seven cutting-edge approaches aimed at improving the population’s health, enhancing individual experiences, and controlling the total cost of care while patients move along a care continuum. 

Care Navigation has been successfully implemented through HealthEast’s transition coaches.  These coaches team up with patients to provide post-discharge follow-up care, any necessary primary care at home, and assistance with emergent medical warning signs and symptoms.  This approach—which offers multiple, integrated components to surround patients with customized care—helps individuals avoid hospital readmissions. 

HealthEast is the first system in the nation to have certified Level II transition coaches and the first in the Twin Cities to use this care model.  Their results have shown a positive impact on all three of the Institute for Health Improvement’s (IHI) Triple Aims of quality outcomes, reduced costs, and increased patient satisfaction by helping to reduce readmission rates, successfully identify medication discrepancies in the home, and improve patients’ ability to self advocate for their health.

HealthEast’s pioneering work in this area was judged on a number of criteria including:

•  Being the first organization to implement this innovation to change a “business as usual” process
• Establishing a clear vision as to how this strategy would improve the delivery of care
• Positively influencing the Six Aims from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to ensure that care is safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, and patient centered
• Demonstrating a commitment to the quality equation (quality=patient experience + outcomes + affordability)

The Care Navigation strategy was born from HealthEast’s “Clinical Needs of the Aging” study.  Craig Svendsen, MD, HealthEast Chief Medical Quality Officer and Mary Pynn, RN, HealthEast Chief Nursing Officer, are co-executive sponsors of this strategy in consultation with Cathy Barr, Vice President and CEO of Bethesda Hospital.  Rahul Koranne, MD, Medical Director, Bethesda Hospital, is the strategy’s physician lead and Pennie Viggiano, HealthEast System Director, Government and Special Populations, is the strategy’s operational lead.

Earlier this year, Dr. Koranne and Pennie Viggiano co-moderated a national Care Navigation webinar for the American Hospital Association.  “We were happy to share the good news that our care navigation strategy helps to positively impact the lives of all patients, especially the chronic or complex critical ones,” noted Dr. Koranne.  “With strong physician leadership of this strategy, we can create more customized care plans, reduce waste, and ensure the time spent with our patients better meets their needs.”

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HealthEast Care System is a community-focused, non-profit health care organization that provides innovative technology, compassionate care and a full spectrum of family health services. HealthEast includes Bethesda Hospital, St. John’s Hospital, St. Joseph’s Hospital, and Woodwinds Health Campus as well as outpatient services, clinics, home care, pharmacies and medical transportation services.  Practicing financial responsibility, HealthEast is the largest, locally-owned health care organization in the Twin Cities’ East Metro with 7,300 employees, 1,200 volunteers and 1,400 physicians on staff.