14
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SUMMER 2017
SUMMER 2017
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15
College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the
CUNY SOM learning and working
at SBHHS.
Since 2015, SBH’s clinical faculty
has participated as members of the
core teaching faculty of the LCME
provisionally-approved medical school
curriculum. For the 2016 - 2017
academic year it is estimated that over
100 SBH faculty have spent more than
1800 hours dedicated to the pre-clinical
education of CUNY SOM students. This
includes the Organ Systems Course,
Practice of Medicine, Introduction
to Clinical Medicine and Physical
Diagnosis courses. SBH clinical faculty
has worked alongside CUNY SOM
faculty in jointly developing, evaluating
and revising these courses and other
components of the pre-clinical course
curricula. SBH is now deeply involved
with CUNY faculty in developing the
entire range of high quality clinical
clerkships (scheduled to begin in July
2018) for the 6th and 7th year students
who will do the majority of their clinical
training at SBH.
Much remains to be accomplished and
these are uncertain times, especially
when it comes to medical training and
caring for the poor. Funding remains
a challenge for both the CUNY SOM
and SBH. Federal funding for Medicaid,
the major insurer for SBH patients,
and the nature of the current health
care system is under significant threat
and may look quite different over the
next five to 10 years. And yet, the two
institutions remain fully committed
to caring for the poor and training the
next generation of physicians who will
deliver comprehensive, compassionate
and evidence-based care to populations
such as those that reside in the south and
central Bronx. It’s a mission that is too
important not to succeed.
“For the 2016 - 2017 academic
year it is estimated that over
100 SBH faculty have spent
more than 1800 hours dedicated
to the pre-clinical education of
CUNY SOM students.”
T
hat level of performance reached
its pinnacle in 2016, when SBH
recently received a 4-star rating and was
ranked as the #1 hospital for HealthFirst
Medicaid patients, and among the top
five hospitals for HealthFirst Medicare,
when compared with all participating
hospitals. This includes such large
academic medical centers such as New
York - Presbyterian, Montefiore, and the
Mount Sinai Health System.
SBH reached a collective score of 4.0
out of 5.0 for the 33 measures focused
on access, preventive care, acute and
chronic disease management, medication
adherence and patient satisfaction, and
achieved a 4 or 5 star rating on 21 other
measures. In meeting these metrics, as
well as showing significant improvement
on 11 additional measures compared to
2015 performance levels, SBH not only
continued to demonstrate a commitment
to high-quality care, but also earned
over $4.5 million in incentive payments
related to the program for the year.
The HQIP program measures the
quality of care provided to patients in
HealthFirst Medicaid and Medicare-
managed care programs, and covers
roughly 30,000 patients who have been
assigned to SBH-associated physicians
and practices across the South/Central
Bronx. Patients receive care across
a variety of clinical service lines,
including internal medicine, pediatrics,
family medicine, dental, ob/gyn, and
behavioral health departments, and the
program utilizes standardized metrics
that allow for comparison across the 40
HealthFirst-member hospitals and serves
as a barometer of the care provided to
patients within the program.
Through use of national standards as
defined by both the National Committee
on Quality Assurance (NCQA) and
the New York State Department of
Health Quality Assurance Reporting
Requirements (QARR), care is measured
across multiple domains, including
timeliness of access, patient satisfaction,
quality of clinical care, and ER and
inpatient utilization. Special emphasis
is placed on measures within the well-
known Healthcare Effectiveness Data
and Information Set (HEDIS) tool,
which covers specific metrics related
to screening and disease prevention;
comprehensive care for chronic disease
such as diabetes, hypertension, and
asthma; medication adherence for
chronic disease; and behavioral health
care services for depression and other
mental health issues.
“Accomplishments of this magnitude
are unattainable without a strong,
committed and accountable team,” says
Dr. Raj Gurunathan, director, Division of
General Internal Medicine, Department
of Medicine. “SBH has been successful in
assembling a winning interdisciplinary
team of physicians, nurses, patient care
navigators, managers and front line staff,
who have developed and implemented
sustainable workflows and processes to
support compliance with the measures.”
Added Irene Borgen, vice president,
Ambulatory Care Innovation and
Transformation, “Through numerous
efforts aimed at patient outreach and
engagement; improvements in decision
support for clinical providers through
use of the EMR; and the leveraging of
information technology resources, many
in the SBH community have contributed
to this incredible achievement and in
accomplishing these results, and we
look forward to 2017 and beyond with
much anticipation.”
THE BRONX COMMUNITY
SBH Receives 4-Star Rating, Ranks as #1 Hospital
for HealthFirst Medicaid Patients
SBH Health System has been an active participant in the HealthFirst Quality Incentive Program
(HQIP) program since it began in 2012, and has demonstrated continued improvement in
its performance.
