In the past three years of the Public Hospital Redesign and Incentives in Medi-Cal (PRIME) program, California’s public health care systems have been making the improvements necessary to their systems’ data infrastructures to meet the program’s reporting requirements. “We haven’t just been reporting, we’ve been expanding collaboration, improving standardization, enhancing data integrity, and building our capacity to provide better health for all,” said Jennifer Tong MD, Chief Medical Informatics Officer at Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System (SCVHHS).
Like all of California’s public health care systems, SCVHHS is working on the integration of physical and behavioral health. In addition to key interventions such as improving the cultural competence of patient engagement efforts and crosstraining staff, SCVHHS’ data infrastructure improvements have enabled other changes, including: moving from a paper referral system for primary care behavioral health to an electronic referral process, using electronic medical records to track care coordination, and improving the standardization of workflows and screening tools for depression and substance use.
As they make improvements to meet PRIME reporting requirements, systems are also able to leverage improved internal data entry, robust internal reporting, and more effective use of data by care teams that supports the population health goals of PRIME and overall delivery system transformation. “As physicians, we’re used to taking care of the patients who are sitting in front of us. Improved access to data about care gaps will allow us to identify the patients who aren’t coming in. It leads us down the path towards really transforming the system and becoming proactive,” said Dr. Tong.
Want more information?
Learn more about PRIME in the CAPH/SNI Issue Brief.