HealthVine Quality Improvement and Data Analytics

Pediatric Improvement Network for Quality Care (PINQ): This regional health network focuses on well child-care and mental health. Both domains are utilizing data to inform the design and implementation of interventions to improve vaccine compliance, lead testing and well child-checks, as well as depression screening and follow-up.

Pediatric Population Health Improvement Network (PHIN): This national learning network is comprised of five partner health systems and focuses on mental health. Teams will share site-level data to find common areas for improvement and learn from groups. The network is continuing to stand up operations as of early 2022.

Quality Improvement Projects and Programs

Mental Health Crisis Care Collaborative (MHC3): Through community-based health organization partnerships, HealthVine aimed to increase the number of patients connected with a mental health provider post-discharge. By ensuring appropriate follow-up within seven days, the goal was to decrease emergency department utilization. This program has since been incorporated into the work of a new, state-wide mental health initiative, OhioRISE.

Child Protective Services: On average, children in Child Protective Services (CPS) have longer lengths of stay in pediatric psychiatric facilities. HealthVine is partnering with CPS to accelerate foster care placement for these children, potentially reducing their hospitalization time.

Internal Quality Improvement and Data Initiatives

Caregap Closure Workgroup: Utilizing data provided by CareSource, this workgroup aims to identify and close care gaps at the population, practice and member-levels, with recent focus on COVID-19 vaccination rates and well-child care services.

Program Dashboards: The data team has worked closely with programs such as Utilization Management and Care Management to develop dashboards. These dashboards are integral to track, analyze, and display data to help each respective team make informed decisions. The past year has seen the team develop the critical infrastructure to implement and scale these dashboards.

Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Screener: In collaboration with various Cincinnati Children’s teams, HealthVine is helping to develop a standardized SDOH screener for integration into Cincinnati Children’s electronic medical record system. Through the screening process, patients and families share details about the social determinants that affect their health, with the goal of connecting them with appropriate resources.

Our Impact

HealthVine’s impact on quality improvement is still evolving. To date, however, there have been three significant effects.

1. It has increased alignment between Cincinnati Children’s, the Ohio Department of Medicaid and other healthcare organizations to address and close existing gaps in healthcare equity.
2. Through its various initiatives, it has created a huge partnership network, bringing together community health organizations, community-based pediatricians, care management teams, utilization management teams, and behavioral health specialists.
3. Working in close collaboration with the various HealthVine programs, it has built HealthVine’s overall quality improvement capability.

Many of HealthVine’s members are part of vulnerable patient groups. Therefore, it is critical to address the healthcare disparities and social determinants of health that directly impact the quality of care they receive. Through its quality improvement efforts and partnerships, HealthVine is setting the stage for improved patient outcomes.

“The beauty of QI is its orientation to take action. Part of our role is to take the data that we are getting from CareSource, look at our internal data, and figure out within the HealthVine population where there are opportunities to improve and design quality improvement initiatives to try to address those gaps.”

Ndidi Unaka, MD, medical director, HealthVine Quality Improvement and Data Analytics

Spotlight Initiative: The Health Equity Network

Longstanding societal ills, including all forms of racism, perpetuate child health inequities. Consequently, many children face an uphill battle when seeking healthcare. Efforts to close these equity gaps require collaborative efforts to develop and test interventions, as well as promote large-scale learning.

There are four points to achieving equitable health outcomes:

• Creating a healthcare system that can provide correct care at the right time and place in the right way
• Enhancing positive and addressing negative social determinants of health
• Forging connections that integrate the medical-social care continuum
• Building a system of trust where patients and families feel welcomed, seen and heard

Cincinnati Children’s Community Health and HealthVine created the Health Equity Network (HEN) to work collaboratively toward equitable health outcomes for children and adolescents in Greater Cincinnati. HEN focuses on reducing racial and socioeconomic equity gaps in a variety of clinical areas, including asthma, mental health conditions, premature birth and Type 1 diabetes.

By supporting Action Teams, the HEN targets racial, ethnic and socioeconomic health disparities. These efforts include:

• Interventions and best practices that address medical and social factors linked to poor health outcomes
• Quality improvement methods that close equity gaps in key health outcomes
• Longitudinal cross-learning activities within the network

The work of HEN is ongoing, and HealthVine looks forward to supporting the development of interventions that will impact HealthVine members and the youth population at large in the Cincinnati area.