Sutter Health is recieving a $13,000,000 CMS Health Care Innovation Award to expand their Advanced Illness Management program (AIM) across the entire Sutter Health system in Northern California, serving patients who have severe chronic illness but are not ready for hospice care, are in clinical, functional, or nutritional decline, and are high-level consumers of health care. Such patients generally experience poor care quality, but account for a disproportionate share of Medicare spending.
AIM addresses these issues through a complex medical home model that uses nurse-led interdisciplinary teams to coordinate and deliver care that encourages patient self-management of chronic illness, that modifies disease course and provides symptomatic relief. The program will improve care and patient quality of life, increase physician, caregiver, and patient satisfaction, and reduce Medicare costs associated with avoidable hospital stays, emergency room visits, and days spent in intensive care units and skilled nursing facilities.
