Value-Based Care: Managing Processes to Improve Outcomes

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/managing-processes

Introduction

**Course Review and Recommendation: Value-Based Care: Managing Processes to Improve Outcomes** In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, understanding value-based care (VBC) is essential for healthcare professionals, administrators, and anyone involved in patient care. One course that stands out in delivering a comprehensive insight into this critical subject is "Value-Based Care: Managing Processes to Improve Outcomes," offered on Coursera. As Course 3 of a 7-part series, this course builds on previous knowledge while focusing on key processes and functions that enhance patient outcomes within a value-based practice. ### Course Overview This course adeptly introduces participants to the intricate office-based processes that must be managed to drive improved patient outcomes—a central tenet of value-based care. It is structured to provide a solid foundation around which learners can deepen their understanding of VBC principles and apply them practically in their healthcare settings. ### Syllabus Highlights The course is broken down into several informative modules: 1. **Introduction to Managing Office Processes in a Value-Based Care Practice**: This module emphasizes the importance of managing office processes focused on improved patient outcomes. Key components discussed include patient-centered medical homes, preventive services, and quality care metrics. Participants learn that effectively managing these processes is crucial and requires a team effort. This collective responsibility ensures that every visit presents an opportunity for healthcare providers to identify and address patient issues comprehensively. 2. **Supporting Functions to Improve Outcomes**: Here, the course delves deeper into the clinical and office-based supporting functions crucial for enhancing patient outcomes. The discussion includes aspects such as medical management and the use of registries and predictive analytics. The module recognizes the shifting expectations of patients and payers, and discusses proactive approaches like panel management to ultimately foster a culture of value in healthcare delivery. 3. **Course Project: Making This My Own**: The capstone of the course allows participants to reflect on their learnings and relate them back to the value-based care model. This project ensures that learners do not only absorb theoretical knowledge but also grasp the real-world application of these processes in healthcare. ### Why You Should Take This Course - **Relevance to Current Healthcare Trends**: The shift towards value-based care is undeniable. This course is highly relevant as it equips participants with the tools and knowledge necessary to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing healthcare environment. - **Expert Insights**: The course is designed and taught by experts in the field, ensuring that learners receive credible and actionable insights that they can implement in their practice. - **Collaborative Learning**: Value-based care is not a solo endeavor. This course emphasizes teamwork and collaboration, which are essential elements in managing healthcare processes effectively. - **Self-Directed Learning**: With suggestions to take notes and look up unfamiliar terms, the course fosters a habit of self-education. This is a vital skill in the complex field of healthcare. - **Accreditation and Recognition**: Completing this course provides recognition that can enhance your resume or professional credentials, making you a more competitive candidate in the job market. ### Conclusion In summary, "Value-Based Care: Managing Processes to Improve Outcomes" is a highly recommended course for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of value-based care processes and improve patient outcomes in a practical manner. With its structured content, expert-led instruction, and emphasis on collaborative learning, this course not only prepares you for the realities of modern healthcare but also inspires a commitment to improving the patient experience. Whether you are a healthcare provider, administrator, or student, this course offers invaluable knowledge that can enhance your practice and contribute to the broader goal of transforming healthcare delivery. By investing your time in this course, you are taking an essential step towards becoming a proactive participant in the healthcare revolution. Enroll now to start your journey towards mastering the principles of value-based care!

Syllabus

Introduction to Managing Office Processes in a Value-Based Care Practice

This module is an introduction to and exploration of critical office-based processes a value-based practice must manage in the drive towards improved patient outcomes, a primary VBC tenet. In managing patients in a healthcare system, the targeted processes include: Patient-Centered Medical Home, preventive and screening services, annual wellness visits, managing acute needs via an open access model, quality of care metrics, coding to support enhanced coordination, and staffing. Managing office processes plays a key role in this strategic pursuit. From information retrieved from annual screenings to how the office is set up, every patient visit is an opportunity to identify and address a healthcare issue. This is what physician offices want to do and should be thinking about; besides, patients always prefer to handle problems in the office rather than in the hospital. However, managing processes is not the responsibility of one person. It is a team effort, requiring input from all team members. To improve outcomes, all team members have critical roles in designing, implementing, and refining processes. At the end of this module, you will explore a fourth dimension related to staffing that, when added to the Triple Aim, creates the Quadruple Aim.

This module is designed to introduce you to the office-based and clinical patient-based supporting functions that, when managed collectively, lead to improved patient outcomes. These include: 1) Medical Management: Utilization, Case, Data and Pharmacy, 2) Registries, Analytics, and Technology, 3) Guidelines, Types of Evidence, and Recommendations, and 4) Coordination around SDOH/Community Resources. The world of primary care medicine is evolving rapidly. Patient expectations are changing, along with those of third-party payers and the providers themselves. Many patients are looking for “on demand” access, but others are looking for a long-term medical home. Telemedicine and telehealth are growing along with new approaches to hospital- and home-based functions. These changes all point to the idea that patients and payers are looking for value. And that “value” is not just an appointment and a paper prescription to fill at the end, but real assistance to manage chronic diseases and help patients navigate the complex world of the healthcare system. Discussion of those additional office-based supporting functions will comprise the majority of information in this module. In addition to those patients who come in for appointments, maintain regular healthcare visits, or become hospitalized, a big part in the role of supporting functions is to capture the health status of patients who have not visited in six months to a year. Utilizing panel management—a systematic, proactive approach to identify and address unmet chronic and preventive care needs of the patients a practice is responsible for—leads to better health outcomes for that patient population. Whether an office has insurer-based reporting or uses office-based record-keeping, using panel management to ask clinical patient-based questions related to immunizations, cancer screenings, or diabetes care is using the function of data/predictive analytics to support a strategy of identifying non-utilization patterns. Remember, as you read or hear terms or concepts that are new to you, have your digital (Word doc) or analog (paper) notepad handy to write them down. At any time, you can use your favorite search engine to learn more. Be a self-directed learner!

In this course, you have explored critical office-based and clinical patient-based processes and supporting functions that a value-based practice must manage collectively in the drive towards improved patient outcomes. An expectation of this course or certificate program is not for you to emerge as an expert in all of these processes—remember, it does take a team to manage them. However, it is important that you develop an understanding, beyond basic definitions, of their importance for improving patient outcomes and experience. In addition, it is important to collectively think about these processes in the context of a value-based care model. In this summative assignment, you will have the chance to reflect on what you have learned about these processes and supporting functions and their relationship to the fundamental premise of value-based care.