eNewsletter
April 2012
In This Issue
An Uphill Battle that is Worth Fighting
Maine Quality Counts Recognizes the Bangor Beacon Community
Spring 2012 is Coming in Like a Lion for Belinda Wee

  
M.Michelle Hood, FACHE

EMHS, President and CEO 

Bangor Beacon Community

Statewide Advisory Committee

Chair

 

Erik Steele, DO
EMHS, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer
Bangor Beacon Community Principal Investigator
 
          
Leadership
Catherine Bruno, FACHE
Bangor Beacon Community Executive Sponsor
EMHS, Chief Information Officer Lead

Dale Hamilton
Executive Director, Community Health and Counseling Services
Alternate 

Clincial Transformation
Jim Raczek, MD
EMMC, Chief Medical Officer Lead
 
Robert Allen, MD
Penobscot Community Health Center, Executive Medical Director
Alternate

 

Evaluation
Barbara Sorondo, MD
EMMC, Director
Clinical Research Center
Lead 
 
Frank Bragg, MD
EMMC, Family Practice Provider
Alternate

 

Meaningful Use
Dev Culver
HealthInfoNet, Executive Director
Lead

Bob Kohl
Maine Primary Care Association HIT Project Director
Alternate
 
Sustainability
Mike Donahue, MBA
EMMC, Vice President, Physician Practices
Lead

Donald Krause, MD
St. Joseph Healthcare
Internal Medicine
Alternate

  
Bangor Beacon Staff
 
Mac Hilton
Program Director
 
Debra Carpenter-Zeman
Project Manager 
  
Melanie Pearson

Project Manager

 

Lanie Abbott
Senior Communications and Outreach Specialist

Andrea Littlefield
Senior Communications and Outreach Specialist

 

Sam Dow

Project Coordinator

 

Beth Johnson
Project Coordinator
Heather Broussard
Data Analyst
 
Samantha Haynes
Administrative Assistant 
Alex Ortiz
Intern

 


Stay up to date with the Bangor Beacon Community!

Ignite, an electronic magazine looking to spark conversation in healthcare, features the Bangor Beacon Community in a recent article about 

Effective Care Transitions Reduce Readmission. 

  

 

 

 

Transforming Healthcare Videos 

The Bangor Beacon Community is rolling out a series of videos that will help illustrate how healthcare is transforming. Please feel free to share the link as they reinforce our mission and vision for a  healthy community. 

 

Patti's Story

 

Bangor Beacon Leadership 

 

Eric's Story

 

  

Are YOU Lacing Up Your Sneakers to Join Bangor Beacon Patients and Care Managers for the 4th Annual Healthy High at the University of Maine in Orono?

Join us for a 5k, 10k, or 1 mile walk / run on April 20, 2012 at 4:20 pm

Call 973-9621 for more infrmation. 

Hope to see you there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Better Quality, Affordable Care, and Improving Population Health

 

Members of the Bangor Beacon Clinical Leadership and Performance Improvement teams are being asked to share our recipe for success during local and statewide meetings. Jim Raczek, MD, Eastern Maine Medical Center's chief medical officer shared with the members of the Bangor Public Health Board that a team approach to healthcare can make a difference in lives of patients suffering with a chronic disease. "Healthcare providers who use technology and a team approach perform and give better care to their patients."


Bangor presentation 

Barbara Sorondo, MD, EMMC's clinical research center director, presented before the State Coordinating Council in Augusta. "Without leadership we wouldn't have performance improvement and care management which all lead to driving down the cost of healthcare and patients living their healthiest life." Joel Kase, MD, emergency physician at Maine General Medical Center asked, "how do we begin to have a Beacon conversation in other parts of Maine?" A question the members of the State Coordinating Council are going to figure out.

 

 Augusta presentation

Greetings! 

      

Can you believe the weather this spring? While Mother Nature tries to figure out if its summer or winter, one thing remains the same for the Bangor Beacon Community, we are in demand. Each week our providers, care managers, or leaders are being asked to present and share what we are doing and accomplishing.

 

The really wonderful thing about Bangor Beacon is that the data is proving that through care management and a robust health information exchange, people are living healthier and not spending as much time in the hospital, and are accessing the emergency rooms less.

 

It's when you peel back that layer of data and witness the change firsthand it becomes clear that transformation is taking place. We have patients who no longer need homecare because they are managing their diabetes and have gone from an A1C of 17 down to 7. We have patients who are calling their care manager to let them know they have been discharged from a hospital to a long-term care facility.

 

Patients are taking on their new role in their care, doing well, and learning how to manage their disease. Care managers are making care more seamless as witnessed by one of the Bangor Beacon care managers recently.

 

Here is one of many "ah-ha" moments we are having lately:

 

"Recently, I had the opportunity to meet with one of my patients and his wife in his hospital room alongside his primary care provider, hospitalist, and with the patient's primary care provider, and his hospitalist to discuss the discharge plan. The hospital staff appreciated my familiarity with the patient as we all worked together to provide him with quality care. Bangor Beacon opened the door for me. Without Beacon and the increased awareness of the role of a nurse care manager in the primary care setting, I am sure that I would have encountered resistance, but instead we all worked together in order to best care for our patient. Beacon has put care management on the map!" - Kathy Bragdon, RN, Penobscot Community Health Care. 

 

Kathy's patient went home with a home health nurse and a follow up appointment with her and his provider and is doing much better than expected.

 

 

Warm regards,

 

Lanie Abbott

Senior Communications and Outreach Specialist 

 

stacy and Ernie 

 An Uphill Battle that is Worth Fighting

Stacy Baude, a nurse for nearly two decades, has spent her entire career in the mental health setting. She was hired by Community Health and Counseling Services (CHCS) to work with clients who along with a mental health diagnosis also struggle with chronic diseases. "Many of our patients also come to us for their primary care needs and through the Bangor Beacon Community grant we can now help those with one of four chronic diseases - asthma, diabetes, congestive heart failure, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD)."

 

From the start, enrollment for the program has been slow, clients are reluctant to sign up and share their health information and data with the Bangor Beacon Community. "When someone does enroll the biggest challenge I face is getting clients to come to the appointments - transportation and no shows are a big problem that can't always be remedied."

 

Ernie Mudgett is one of 60 patients who are working with Stacy. It took a few months for the two of them to establish a trusted and good working relationship. "It was very important for him to learn to better manage his diabetes." Ernie was motivated to get his diabetes under control he didn't want to become insulin dependent like his sister.

 

A year ago, when they started working together, Ernie was eating 12 Little Debbie's snacks a day, drinking a lot of soda, and eating a regular diet of fast food. "It's hard for people to understand the uphill battle these clients face. Ernie only receives $45 a week for food - to try eating healthy on that budget is a challenge." Stacy has visual tools in her office that illustrate the amount of sugar, fat, and salt contained in certain foods. She also uses a plate that shows healthy portion sizes of proteins, carbohydrates, and fruits and vegetables. Together, she and Ernie come up with items that may last him for the week so that he can freeze and use more than once, they also discuss how to eat and chew slowly so he can enjoy his food and notice when he gets full.

 

One of the other challenges Stacy's clients face is that the medications they're prescribed can also increase blood sugar, weight, and cholesterol. What Ernie has going for him is that he walks miles a day through the streets of Bangor collecting bottles and cans, he uses the redemption money to supplement his income. The exercise also helps with his diabetes. Stacy and Ernie continue to meet weekly, and you can quickly see they enjoy their time together. "It's very rewarding when you see someone make changes and start to feel better - makes it all worth it." A year ago Ernie had an A1C of nine, today it is down to 6.8. Little changes lead to living healthier. "I feel better, I like peas, and I'm drinking more water," shares Ernie.

 

 


 

 

   

 Maine Quality Counts Recognizes

Bangor Beacon Community 

Maine Quality Counts recognized the Bangor Beacon Community as this year's organizational winner of the Quality Improvement Leadership Award, given annually to recognize an organization or individual that has made an outstanding effort to advance the quality of healthcare for the people of Maine.

"Maine Quality Counts was pleased to select the Bangor Beacon Community for this year's Quality Improvement Leadership Award because of the tremendous job they are doing in pulling together the healthcare community in Bangor to drive improvements in care. The leaders of Bangor Beacon have clearly put patients first as they've worked to build a new system of care that brings together patients, doctors, and nurses while using health information technology to help them build an effective team approach. Their results are impressive, and we are hopeful that the lessons learned can be spread to other communities in the state," shares Lisa Letourneau, MD, MPH, executive director of Maine Quality Counts.

"I would say that the physician leadership is exemplary. On several occasions I've seen and heard Drs. Jim Raczek, Bob Allen, and Don Krause talk very collegial about Beacon, their cooperation, and shared goals and commitment. And then they all say the same things when the others aren't in the room. I love Beacon because it's so real," commented Ted Rooney RN, MPH, Aligning Forces for Quality Project Leader.

 

Nearly 500 people attended the Maine Quality Counts conference which focused on partnering with patients and finding the bright spots to transform care.

 

  

 

Jessica House

 Spring 2012 is Coming in Like a

Lion for Belinda Wee! 

Belinda Wee has seen the world, literally. She is a native of Singapore with a hotel management degree from Purdue University and a PhD in Education from University of Minnesota. She worked in China, Australia, Malaysia, and most recently in Augusta helping employees of MaineCare adapt to change, in addition to being an adjunct professor at Husson University teaching a Human Resource Management class for their MBA program. "I love learning and sharing what I know - I really enjoy life."

 

It didn't come as a complete surprise in 2004 when Belinda was diagnosed with diabetes. "I had all the typical symptoms, insatiable thirst, exhaustion, and I was going to the bathroom often." She knew the warning signs because many members of her family also suffer from the disease. Despite that, Belinda tried to avoid her diagnosis but over time it was unavoidable and catching up to her. "I was in denial for years, I wasn't eating right, I was under a lot of stress, and it was getting worse almost every day." Not too many of her friends knew about her struggle, the fewer that knew the better it was as far as Belinda was concerned. "In my culture, it is considered rude to say no to people who offer you food, and so many gatherings with friends are around meals."

 

Belinda's quality of life went from jet setting around the world to having to take insulin in the morning and at night and wearing compression socks to keep the swelling in her legs down. "My A1C was nine and no matter what I did my diabetes was getting worse." In an effort to control her weight and get a handle on her diabetes Belinda walked a mile loop three times a day and began incorporating more whole grains into her diet. Nothing was working. That's when Belinda decided to sign up for gastric bypass and in doing so her physician at EMMC's Center for Family Medicine introduced her to Debbie Grover, RN, care manager. "Debbie helps people by being a person herself, she really cares about me and wants me to be better." An immediate connection was made and the two of them set goals and decided on a plan for Belinda to get her disease under control and prepare for her surgery. "She made me accountable, during our weekly conversations. I had to read my blood sugar levels out loud to her and explain why they were high."

 

Over the course of the year, Belinda slowly, but surely took back her life and learned how to make different and better choices. "Debbie encourages me every step of the way and is always available for questions. I don't know if any of this would be possible without her." Belinda had gastric bypass in October of 2011. Her A1C is down to 6.6, the lowest it's been in five years and she has lost 55 pounds. She only takes insulin when she needs it and no longer has to take her oral medication. "I feel alive again; I have the energy to do all the things I love, like volunteering at the youth program in my town." Belinda is taking charge and not willing to go back to the way she was and she credits her success to her care manager and provider Jessica House, DO, who continue to support Belinda as she learns to live healthier, diabetes and all! "For her and for many other folks, care management is really helping keep patients on the right track. Belinda is working so hard to achieve better health," smiles Dr. House. Spring of 2012 is sure to be memorable for Belinda. She is not only feeling better than ever she is also getting married. "Hard work, determination, and support is paying off and I am so thankful for this program."

 

The 12 Bangor Beacon Community partners: