Interested in Connecting with
Resources in Your Community?

• Do you want to enhance your connections to community stakeholders and resources for better patient outcomes?
• Is there a problem you want to address in collaboration with one or more partners in your town, city or county?

ICSI is looking for clinical organizations to say “yes” to the above questions and be willing to use the materials from Going Beyond Clinical Walls to develop such connections. To support your efforts, we will offer you a stipend of $500 to use for facilitation, meeting space, food, etc. In return, you will meet with one or more community partners, create an action plan for a Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle to work on a challenge or problem together, and share your experiences at the 2015 ICSI colloquium. You will also get one free admission to the Colloquium!

Interested? Visit Going Beyond Clinical Walls to access the materials, and submit a brief application by January 30, 2015. All deliverables must be accomplished by April 30, 2015 for discussion at the Colloquium. ICSI staff will screen the applications, and the final selection will be made by the Advisory Committee for Going Beyond Clinical Walls. Winners will be notified on February 9, 2015. Please direct any questions to Joann Foreman.

Upcoming ICSI Events

Quality Improvement Basics Workshop: There's Still Time to Register

Thursday, January 15, 2015, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m., Bloomington, MN

Space is still available for this popular day-long workshop just for ICSI members. This session will include practical basics such as Aims and Measures and the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycle. We'll also cover the adaptive work, communications and change management considerations necessary to make it stick and remain embedded in your practice. Learn more and sign up today; registration closes January 9.

Foundations of Motivational
Interviewing Workshop

Friday, February 6 and Friday, March 6, 2015,
8 a.m. - Noon, Bloomington, MN

Patients are complex. What motivates one person doesn’t motivate another. And sometimes it seems like the right health choices are right in front of them, but they just can’t move forward. How can you help? Find out by attending our popular two-part workshop. ICSI members pay just $45; nonmembers pay $125. One recent attendee commented, “There isn’t an encounter on any level that I’m not now aware of those powerful relational dynamics. They even work with my kids!” Learn more and register by January 23.

AHRQ's Shared Decision-Making Training Coming to ICSI in April

Save the Date! Tuesday, April 28, 2015,
9 a.m. - 5 p.m., Bloomington, MN

As part of its commitment to advancing patient-centered care, ICSI will offer a free interactive educational session in April for health care professionals on how to implement the SHARE approach to shared decision-making in your practice. Registration will open in February - watch your email for details.

The SHARE approach, developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), outlines five essential steps for clinicians to take to engage their patients in shared decision-making. This training will use AHRQ materials and tools to help clinicians work with patients to make the best possible health care decisions. Find out more.

Other Noteworthy Events

Rural Palliative Care Networking Group

Thursday, January 15, 2015, 10 a.m. - Noon

At this meeting of the Rural Palliative Care Networking Group, three Alexandria-area hospice programs will share their stories on how they are working together with their community partners to improve end-of-life care for their citizens. Attendees will be able to:

• Identify myths regarding hospice services
• Describe a community-based approach to improve the appropriate use of hospice care
• Identify strategies to promote the “goals of care” discussions when there is a serious illness

To register for in-person attendance, click here. To register for conference call attendance, click here. For questions, contact Janelle Shearer, Stratis Health, at 952-853-8553.

Member/Sponsor Spotlight

Lake Region Healthcare Receives DHS Commissioner’s Award

Lake Region Healthcare in Fergus Falls received the 2014 Commissioner’s Circle of Excellence Award from the Minnesota Department of Human Services for its commitment to supporting healthy people, stable families and strong communities. Lake Region Healthcare is an ICSI member, and CEO Larry Schulz is on the ICSI Board of Directors.

Lake Region Healthcare is dedicated to helping improve the health of the people in the community through a variety of wellness initiatives, including a community garden. In 2014, 4,500 pounds of fresh produce was donated to WIC families and area food shelves, serving more than 3,000 individuals. The goal of the hospital’s wellness efforts is to make Fergus Falls one of the healthiest places to live in Minnesota. Watch this short video describing the community garden. Learn more.

Welcome New ICSI Board Members

With the start of 2015, ICSI’s board has approved the following new directors:

• Anne Edwards, MD, chair, Pediatrics, Park Nicollet Health Services
• Russ Kuzel, MD, MMM, CMO and senior vice president, UCare
• Nathan Moracco, assistant commissioner of health care, Minnesota Department of Human Services
• Sahra Noor, CEO, People's Center Health Services (a Federally Qualified Health Center and an ICSI member through the Minnesota Association of Community Health Centers)

We also wish to thank the following members who are leaving the board: Pete Benner, retired, AFSCME Council 6, AFL-CIO; Scott Ketover, MD, president and CEO, Minnesota Gastroenterology; and Robert Karasov, MD, pediatrician, Park Nicollet Health Services.

UCare Bolsters Partnership with ICSI

The UCare board of directors has approved UCare’s transition from associate sponsor to a principal sponsor of ICSI. Russ Kuzel, CMO and senior vice president, UCare, has now joined the ICSI board of directors. We’re extremely excited about this greater collaboration with UCare, as it is an independent, nonprofit health plan providing health coverage and services to more than 450,000 members in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. UCare also serves many people from diverse cultures as well as those with disabilities enrolled in Medical Assistance.

Our Work: Progress Reports and Updates

​New Members-Only Clinical Decision Support Resource

There is a new addition to the “members only” content on the ICSI website—a Clinical Decision Support (CDS) Repository.

Clinical decision support provides clinicians, staff, patients and others with a variety of tools to enhance decision-making in the clinical workflow. These tools include such things as computerized alerts and reminders to care providers and patients; clinical practice guidelines; condition-specific order sets; focused patient data reports and summaries; and documentation templates. In order to access these resources, you must be logged into the ICSI website as a member.

This new repository is under construction. ICSI plans to continue adding resources and welcomes your input. Please email your content recommendations to Joann Foreman.

MD News Highlights Top Colorectal Cancer Screening Strategies

Build patient awareness. Implement a tracking system. Involve the physicians. These are just three of 10 strategies for increasing appropriate screening for colorectal cancer described in the December, 2014 issue of MD News. The article highlights work done by Minnesota and Wisconsin medical groups as part of a series of learning collaboratives led by ICSI, the Minnesota Department of Health and the American Cancer Society to increase the state’s rate of screening. The collaboratives were conducted from 2011 to 2014, and the various strategies highlighted helped raise the statewide screening rates for colorectal cancer to 69 percent in 2013, a 7 percent increase, according to MN Community Measurement. Read the article.

Survey Shows Increased Awareness of Choosing Wisely®

As grantees of the ABIM Foundation, ICSI, the Minnesota Medical Association and the Minnesota Health Action Group launched the Choosing Wisely Minnesota campaign in the fall of 2013. The goal was to increase statewide awareness of the campaign, which is designed to foster conversations between clinicians and patients on tests and procedures that medical specialty groups have indicated are unnecessary, overused or, at times, even harmful.

Before the campaign began, ICSI surveyed stakeholders to assess their baseline awareness. A just-completed survey of Minnesota clinicians in December 2014 indicated that our yearlong effort:

• Increased overall awareness of Choosing Wisely by 11 percent over the previous year
• Influenced more than half of the respondents on their decisions to order a test or procedure
• Convinced more providers to factor in costs before recommending or ordering a test
• Caused more providers to order fewer tests in the face of patient demand.

A more detailed summary of the survey results will be available soon on ICSI's Choosing Wisely webpage.

Best Practices in Anticoagulation Control Management

At the request of members, ICSI convened two meetings in 2014 to discuss best practices for anticoagulation measurement and management in primary care and EHR tools for data tracking and documentation of INR measurements. Download this summary of the meetings discussion.