Medical Home Network receives "Community of Hope Award"

Esperanza Health recognizes impact new model of care is making for southwest side community

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May 29, 2015, 02:06 ET

CHICAGO, May 29, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Medical Home Network was honored by Esperanza Health Centers yesterday receiving the Community of Hope Award in recognition for the positive impact the organization is helping primary care teams make for patients at the southwest side medical center. The award was presented during the Celebration of Hope annual fundraising dinner at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower.

In 2009, Medical Home Network partnered with Esperanza Health Centers, introducing a new model of care to Esperanza's care coordinators and primary care teams, which has greatly benefitted patients throughout the community. Specifically, Medical Home Network's model of care brings together disparate providers to collaborate on patient health care, while primary care teams coordinate patient care, utilizing real-time information on the proprietary web-based portal, MHNConnect. The net result is a culture change in the health care community, becoming more service-oriented and focusing on patient-centered care, which leads to better health care access and delivery.

"We are honored to receive this award from Esperanza," said Cheryl Lulias, president and executive director of Medical Home Network. "The providers and primary care teams at Esperanza have embraced the model and really showed the effectiveness of this shift in health care delivery, greatly enhancing patient care across the community."

To date, the Esperanza care team has achieved remarkable results, increasing the seven-day follow-up rate for patients discharged from the hospital or emergency department up to 56.8 percent in some months during the second year of the program. That is an improvement over the already impressive results from the year before when the follow-up rate spiked from 25.3 percent to 38.6 percent, a 52.6 percent increase.

Patient follow-up visits with primary care teams are essential for consistent, quality health care. The follow-up visits also serve to help patients build relationships with their primary care providers, resulting in fewer trips to the emergency room, which lowers overall costs and helps alleviate over-crowding in emergency departments.

"The positive impact that Medical Home Network and MHNConnect have on the way we engage patients was noticeable early on in our implementation," said Dan Fulwiler, chief executive officer of Esperanza Health Centers. "Through the use of the pioneering MHNConnect web portal, Esperanza has been able to see patient information securely, including real-time emergency department and inpatient admits and discharges. With the MHNConnect solution, we are able to proactively manage patient care throughout the community in a way previously not possible. Our partnership with Medical Home Network has helped Esperanza, its patients and the entire community we serve."

About Medical Home Network
Medical Home Network is a Chicago-based health care collaborative devoted to transforming health care delivery for Chicago Medicaid patients by fostering collaboration and innovation among safety net providers. The Medical Home Network collaborative consists of leaders from 16 health care organizations, who continue to have an equal voice in the decision-making process. In addition, Medical Home Network has grown its connectivity to 19 hospitals and more than 150 primary care entities, using MHNConnect to enable information exchange among providers and monitoring of patient hospital utilization by care managers. The Medical Home Network portal captures 60 percent of member patient activity as it occurs, benefitting the overall health care for almost 200,000 Chicago-area Medicaid patients. More information is available at www.MHNChicago.org.

SOURCE Medical Home Network