Overview
Altarum partnered with the state of Michigan to bring about wider adoption of health IT. The partnership focused on getting larger numbers of clinicians in the state to use technology to identify and manage two chronic conditions—hypertension and diabetes.
Our Approach
Our primary role involved training clinicians across the state on how to adopt and use IT to improve care of chronic conditions. We provided in-person training, EHR optimization, and an online resource of tools and best practices. Most clinicians receive only a basic training on how to use health IT. Our rigorous training, which gives IT administrators and clinicians the support they need at every stage, ensures improved adoption rates and, subsequently, improved patient outcomes.
Results
To date, Altarum has engaged more than 30 medical clinics with more than 150 clinicians in this work. These clinics have seen as much as a 12 percent increase in blood pressure control and, overall, have seen a 36 percent increase in adequately controlled diabetes. Additionally, the project has resulted in a 9 percent increase in the identification of hypertension and a 21 percent increase in the identification of prediabetes.
Contact Us
Carrie Frye
Client Services Manager, Delivery Systems Transformation
Areas of Expertise- Project Management
- Clinician-Based Quality Improvement Support
- Health IT Adoption
Carrie Frye has more than 11 years of experience in electronic health record (EHR) implementation and workflow redesign. In her current role, she leads Altarum’s quality improvement advisory services team across several projects, including the Healthy Hearts for Michigan program, an AHRQ-funded initiative to reduce the number of heart attacks and strokes in Michigan. Carrie has assisted hundreds of providers through quality improvement initiatives—beginning with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid—fund Promoting Interoperability program (formerly Meaningful Use)—which she had the pleasure of supporting from start to finish.