First APP practices are live on Epic Connect – Sept. 9, 2021
Gary Stuck, DO, Chief Medical Officer, Advocate Aurora Health | Chief Executive Officer, Advocate Physician Partners
I’m excited to share the great news that our first six APP aligned practices are now live on Epic Connect – the ambulatory platform to fully integrate with Advocate Aurora’s instance of Epic.
Having our APP practices on Epic allows us to advance our population health work and supports care coordination across the network. The integration creates a single patient record to greatly enhance safety and help us perform better on quality, total cost of care and clinical integration. Patients in these practices will transition to LiveWell as their new patient portal to easily manage their care and will benefit from all the features that connect them to Advocate Aurora Health and get a more comprehensive view of patient records from other Epic providers.
This Go Live is the culmination of years of preparation to build a world-class program with your feedback that supports our vision to transform how we deliver care and continue to lead the nation in delivering better health care value.
You can view a list of the six practices here. Our next seven practices will Go Live in December followed by larger waves until we are complete with all eligible practices. If you are an eligible practice, you will receive notification on the timing for your wave soon.
Please join me in congratulating your APP colleagues on their Epic Connect Go Live. As always, thank you for your partnership.
Your role in our shared success
Gary Stuck, DO FAAFP
Chief Medical Officer, Advocate Aurora Health
CEO, Advocate Physician Partners
April 22, 2021
Our recent APP Annual Meeting was an important time to connect as a virtual medical group. In case you missed it, view the recording and a
recap of the takeaways and answers to your questions.
I’d like to reinforce some of the key topics we discussed. It’s this important work that helps us improve quality for our patients and build the incentive fund.
- Transitional Care Management: Get patients in for a visit shortly after a hospital discharge, ideally within 2-7 days, to promote medication reconciliation, high quality care, and coordination of care with other specialists.
- Annual Wellness Visits: Schedule Medicare and Medicare Advantage (MA) patients early in the year to address chronic conditions and close care gaps. View quick reference guide.
- Complete & accurate documentation: Ensure better handoffs to other caregivers and accurate reimbursement from Medicare by documenting all conditions with appropriate specificity.
- Chronic disease refresh: Ensure that chronic conditions are addressed and documented, per above, at least annually as required by Medicare for reimbursement.
- Colon cancer screening, HbA1c and blood pressure control: The three key areas of focus to enhance our performance.
Please contact your local PHO president, medical director or field operations team with questions. As always, thank you for your partnership.
Rising to the Challenge:
2020 Engagement Check-In Results
Dec. 10, 2020
Even in this year of unrelenting challenge and change, your leadership, commitment and resilience shines through in the results from the 2020 Physician and APC Engagement Check-In. Together, our aligned, employed and independent physicians across Advocate Aurora Health made significant strides – moving from the 47th percentile to the 64th percentile. These results are a testament to your loyalty and commitment to each other as part of our virtual medical group.
Specifically, among APP aligned physicians, engagement results stayed the course over the past year with no significant increases or decreases. This is not unexpected given the tremendous pressures our aligned practices have faced during to the pandemic, on top of an already challenging health care environment going into it. Staying the course in these uncharted waters is remarkable.
Yet, you also stepped up when help was needed. You adapted. You innovated. You launched virtual health solutions for your patients. You navigated wave after wave of changes coming your way. Your feedback on the engagement survey indicates the value you feel APP plays in supporting your practice through this change. You said:
- I view APP as a strategic partner in navigating the health care landscape.
- APP is well prepared to meet the challenges of the next decade.
- Compared to similar organizations, APP does an excellent job supporting my practice needs.
You also said we can do better in the following areas. We welcome your partnership to work together to address them.
- I receive the operational and business support services from APP to succeed in my practice.
- Physicians have sufficient representation in APP’s decision-making structure.
We have always been a physician-led organization and remain committed to ensuring your voice is not only heard, but also acted upon to continue to move our organization forward. We are reviewing results by PHO in detail to identify areas for local improvements, as well. Stay tuned for ways to get involved. Please also stay engaged with your local field advisor, PHO director and local PHO physician leadership.
We must continue to stick together, as we have for the past 24 years. Thank you for your commitment to our patients and each other. You are appreciated.