Cheyenne Regional, in partnership with the WYICN, will collaborate with strategic partners to build “medical neighborhoods” across Wyoming. Medical neighborhoods are designed to encourage the flow of information across and between clinicians and patients, resulting in well-coordinated care and exceptional patient experiences. Cheyenne Regional, the members of the WYICN, and the Innovation Partners will implement tightly focused strategies that lead to Better Health, Better Care and Lower Costs. Cost savings are estimated to be more than $33 million over the next three years. Administration of the Innovation Award will be overseen by the Wyoming Institute of Population Health (Institute), a division of Cheyenne Regional.
The Innovation Partners will deploy the following strategies:
Patient-Centered Medical Homes (PCMHs) function as the core of medical neighborhoods, providing value driven healthcare through focusing on wellness and playing a key role in facilitating care coordination, developing inter-professional care teams, developing individualized care plans for complex patients, and maintaining connections with community-based services for referral and follow-up. PCMHs will be recruited by the WYICN and trained by TransforMED®, which was founded in 2005 by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Virtual Pharmacists, coordinated by the University of Wyoming’s School of Pharmacy for Medication Therapy Management, will connect with PCMHs via telehealth.
RN Care Transition Coaches will provide education and continuity of medical care as complex patients transition between hospitals and post-acute sites of care.
Physician Desktop Solutions will facilitate increased access to specialists, improve coordination between sites of care and facilitate effective decision making.
Wyoming Medication Donation Program, a Wyoming Department of Health program, will expand statewide to help ensure access to critical medication for low-income, un/under-insured patients.
