Research and Markets: "Building Patient Care Continuity with Prepared Practice Teams" Audio Conference Now Available

Business Wire, Oct 12, 2007

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c71187) has announced the addition of Building Patient Care Continuity with Prepared Practice Teams, an Audio Conference on CD-ROM to their offering.

Already a leader in high quality healthcare, HealthPartners Medical Group wanted another model of care that would improve outcomes even further. It sought to enhance the patient's and provider's experience while advancing its organizational mission - becoming the best and most trusted group of healthcare providers in the nation. HealthPartners moved from a reactive form of care to a Planned Care Model that calls for a "Prepared Practice Team" to anticipate the needs of patients before they arrive. The prepared practice team is a part of Ed Wagner's Chronic Care Model.

During this 45-minute audio conference on CD-ROM, Beth Waterman, vice president of primary care and clinic operations at HealthPartners, described the role of practice teams in her organization's effort to build patient care continuity.

Waterman provided the inside details on:

- Practice team basics -- organizing, training and skill set requirements;

- Developing a "disease-neutral" approach;

- Re-designing the office work-flow;

- Engaging both patients and providers in practice teams;

- Program results and lessons learned; and

- Planned enhancements to the HealthPartners Prepared Practice Teams.

HealthPartners is one of only seven healthcare organizations in the country selected to lead improvements in healthcare quality through Pursuing Perfection: Raising the Bar for Health Care Performance. Pursuing Perfection is a $21 million initiative sponsored by the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), an internationally recognized leader in healthcare quality.

About the panelist:

Beth Waterman is vice president for primary care and clinic operations for the HealthPartners Medical Group and Clinics. She is responsible for the administration of primary care operations in the HealthPartners clinics as well as the administration of HealthPartners ancillary services, urgent care services and the appointment call center.

Along with the associate medical director for primary care, Waterman successfully led the implementation of Advanced Access appointment scheduling at all primary care clinic locations and was the director for the Pursuing Perfection initiative, a project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and led by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

Previously, Waterman served as senior director of support services for HealthPartners and vice president for ancillary and support services for Regions Hospital. She joined HealthPartners in 1994 after working as a consultant for Ernst and Young. Before that, she held positions as director of surgery and anesthesia at United and Mt. Sinai Hospitals.

Waterman is a registered nurse and holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas.

Available in three formats:

- CD-ROM for computer play

- CD-ROM for stereo play

- On Demand version accessible online

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c71187