Hudson Valley Care Transformation Thought Leaders to Present at First CMS Innovation Center ACO Educational Session

MedAllies' A. John Blair III, MD and THINC's Susan Stuard will present at June 21 Accelerated Development Learning Session in Minneapolis, Minn.

FISHKILL, N.Y., June 9, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As questions from health care providers multiply about the structure and implementation of accountable care organizations, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services will feature two Hudson Valley, N.Y. thought leaders for the first in a series of information sessions on the topic at the June 20-21 Accelerated Development Learning Session in Minneapolis, Minn.

The Hudson Valley subject matter experts--A. John Blair III, MD, president of MedAllies and Susan Stuard, executive director of the Taconic Health Information Network and Community (THINC)--will co-present "Effective Use of Information to Connect and Support Providers." The presentation is part of the June 21 clinician track for the conference, designed to help primary care providers and specialists move forward on their journey toward more accountable care.

The organizations Blair and Stuard represent are founding collaborators of the Hudson Valley Initiative. Along with the Taconic IPA, the organizations work synergistically

to revolutionize health care delivery through a shared vision to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of health care in the community. The Hudson Valley is home to one of the nation's highest electronic health records (EHR) adoption rates, with 48 percent of primary care physicians using certified EHRs. It is also one of only seven sites nationwide selected for launch of a Direct Project pilot by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. The Hudson Valley Direct Project, designed and implemented by MedAllies, has demonstrated the critical technological capability and support needed to deliver much-needed clinical information across care settings.

The effective use of health information technology is an important tool to advance primary care models that emphasize care coordination and improved care transitions, such as the medical home and accountable care organizations. The Hudson Valley Initiative has taken the necessary steps to implement value-based purchasing structures and the operational underpinnings for an open system of collaborative care that rewards patient-centered models and care coordination.

"The right infrastructure and support for workflow design that seamlessly integrates health information technology to the provider's practice are both critical to supporting transitions of care—a key component of advanced primary care models," Blair said. "If you make it very easy for one provider to get information to another provider, or very easy to get succinct, pertinent information to the primary care doctor from the hospital at time of discharge, you have built the infrastructure to facilitate what you need for care coordination."

"Our community is characterized by many small or solo physician practices and several large multi-specialty and health center providers, yet we have had considerable success as a community helping them to reach incremental goals to support advanced primary care," Stuard said. "Those building blocks are instructive to other communities like ours across the country who are interested in improving care delivery through these new models."

To learn more about the Hudson Valley Initiative and the building blocks for accountable care, see the issue brief, "Managing Change, Finding Value: Lessons and insights from the Hudson Valley" at http://0101.nccdn.net/1_5/265/320/2dc/HVIissuebrief4ValueChangeWEB.v2.pdf.

To register or view the agenda for the Accelerated Development Learning Session, please go to https://acoregister.rti.org.

About the Hudson Valley Initiative

The Hudson Valley Initiative is an effort among three organizations—Taconic IPA, Taconic Health Information Network and Community and MedAllies—to revolutionize health care delivery through a shared vision to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of health care in the community. These three organizations leverage health information technology, physician practice transformation and value-based purchasing in pursuit of care delivery that is patient-centered, coordinated, accessible, high quality and efficiently delivered through sustainable financial models. To learn more, go to http://www.hudsonvalleyinitiative.com.

SOURCE Hudson Valley Initiative