Technology—HIT

As part of a comprehensive initiative, State legislation enables trained primary care medical providers to receive Medicaid reimbursement for preventive dental care provided during well-child visits, enhancing access to these services for low-income children younger than 6 years.

A State-based, public–private partnership adapted its successful primary care medical home model to serve pregnant Medicaid beneficiaries, leading to enhanced access to comprehensive prenatal care (including intensive case management for high-risk pregnancies), better adherence to evidence-based care standards, and reductions in low–birth weight babies and rate of primary Cesarean sections.

A traveling team of certified diabetes educators (including a nurse, pharmacist, and dietitian) regularly visits rural clinics to help coordinate diabetes care with clinicians and educate and coach African-American patients with diabetes, leading to improved glycemic control and the potential for meaningful cost savings.

A community-based oncology practice's patient-centered medical home model features oncology-specific information technology, a standardized assessment, multidisciplinary care plan, patient navigators, telephone triage line, patient education and engagement, and ongoing performance monitoring, leading to improvements in access, quality, and costs.

Private, computer-based screening and education in primary care clinics have no impact on key metrics for female victims of partner violence, including quality of life and likelihood of recurring abuse.

Before seeing their provider, patients with diabetes complete an easy-to-use assessment tool that helps identify and address their biggest quality-of-life concerns, generating overwhelmingly positive feedback from patients and clinicians.

A children's hospital requires providers to look at a patient's picture and basic demographic information on a verification screen when entering and signing an order, leading to significant reductions in patients receiving or almost receiving care intended for someone else because of an order being placed in the wrong chart.

Patients track preventive health needs, complete health risk assessments, and obtain educational information through an online interactive health record integrated with their practice's electronic health record, leading to improvements in the provision of preventive care.

A series of automated text messages to predominantly low-income, Latino parents about influenza and the importance of influenza vaccines leads to a small but meaningful increase in the percentage of children vaccinated.

Primary care practices use a software-facilitated process to proactively schedule and efficiently complete required components of Medicare's Annual Wellness Visit and to identify and address care gaps, leading to improvements in the provision of preventive services and high physician and patient satisfaction.