Health Impact Ohio Hosts a Joint Conference with Fellow Regional Healthcare Improvement Collaboratives
By: Brittany Daniels, Director of Operations & Communications, Health Impact Ohio
In continuing the tradition of bringing together multi-stakeholder groups interested in advancing primary care in the state of Ohio that was formerly managed by Ohio Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (OPCPCC), Health Impact Ohio along with our two fellow Regional Health Improvement Collaboratives (RHICs) hosted a hybrid conference accommodating both in-person and virtual attendees. This joint learning opportunity, held by Health Impact Ohio, Better Health Partnership, and The Health Collaborative, aimed to bring primary care stakeholders from across the state together to discuss the future state of health care in Ohio. Former OPCPCC leader Dr. Ted Wymyslo opened the day with welcome remarks.
“We were thrilled to have the opportunity to continue the important tradition of facilitating multi-stakeholder collaboration opportunities across the state. Especially as we begin moving forward through the pandemic, we want to acknowledge the hardships our communities faced and the health inequities that were exacerbated and highlighted during the pandemic are at the forefront of our minds. We are focused on continuing to be a trusted, neutral convener who can bring together stakeholders with diverging viewpoints from all levels of healthcare to work together to discuss best practices going forward to improve the health and health equity of all individuals in all our communities,” said Carrie Baker, President and CEO of Health Impact Ohio.
The morning followed with our keynote speaker, Dr. Kelly Kelleher, who discussed the future of primary care in Ohio by covering topics including external forces affecting primary care, national primary care response, and the next steps for primary care. “We need to stop talking about practices and start talking about primary care as a service or a promise or primary care as a part of the community,” said Kelleher when speaking about shifting how primary care is viewed and the need to integrate primary care into the community. The reaction panel consisting of Tia Moretti from Lighthouse Behavioral Health Solutions, Loren Anthes from the Center for Community Solutions, Jamie Carmichael from the Ohio Department of Health, and Craig Osterhues from GE Aviation then provided their thoughts on the topic leading to a lively Q&A discussion between speakers through the workforce, policy, health equity, and consumer lenses.
The day continued with presentations on an array of topics from healthcare experts across that state with common themes focusing on increasing equity in healthcare and identifying equity focus areas for the state of Ohio, the need for changing the way healthcare is delivered, focusing on value-based primary care, regional and national strategies to build the primary care workforce, and strategies to improve customer experience and appropriate utilization of healthcare.
Dr. Nicholas Dreher from MetroHealth Population Health Institute and Eric Morse from The Centers for Family and Children spoke on the topic of where healthcare will be delivered in the future, giving presentations on raising the acuity of care delivered in the home and how to become and/or partner with a certified community behavioral health center. Dr. Shalina Nair from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Michael Dalton from the MetroHealth System then focused on how healthcare will be delivered in the future, presenting on Cardi-OH and remote patient monitoring, and virtual and in-home healthcare delivery strategies.
In the second half of the day, Deirdre Beluan from The Health Collaborative and Randy Runyon from the Ohio Association of Community Health Centers presented on how healthcare will be paid for in the future, speaking about comprehensive primary care plus and payment reform and value-based primary care and payment trends with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). To round out the day, Sarah McHugh and Nita Walker from Aledade and Marquita Rockamore from Cuyahoga Corporate College gave presentations on what the future healthcare workforce may look like, providing information on primary care workforce trends and community health worker (CHW) capacity building. “Studies have shown that community health workers significantly improve clinical outcomes of people living with chronic disease; with a 28% reduction in hospitalizations following a CHW intervention”, said Marquita Rockamore. “This most recent pandemic, now endemic, has exacerbated the need for more human resources with a deep connection to those who are at risk or under-served," continued Rockamore when speaking about the long-standing service CHWs have provided in their communities and the need to continue to grow the CHW workforce.
We are grateful to all the presenters who traveled to Columbus to be with us and share their knowledge on what the future state of healthcare in Ohio looks like. All our audience members, many of whom contributed insightful and thought-provoking questions to the discussion, received the opportunity to obtain a Continuing Education (CME) certificate through The Ohio State Medical Association (OSMA) for six and a half hours of CME credits.
Thank you to all presenters, attendees, and staff that made this wonderful day of learning come together. We look forward to sharing future education and collaboration opportunities with you all.
Click here to view slides and a recording from the conference: Resources — Health Impact Ohio.
Staff from Ohio’s three Regional Health Improvement Collaboratives: Health Impact Ohio (Central Ohio), Better Health Partnership (Northeast Ohio), The Health Collaborative (Southwest Ohio).
