Clinical Corner

Christopher Pezzullo, DO, MPCA’s new Clinical Director, has jumped right in to his role and is currently building a Clinical Quality Team (combining expertise on Health Information Technology, Social Determinants of Health and Quality Improvement) that can respond to and inform the CHC network on items and issues like:

• Alternative Payment Models
• Value Based Purchasing
• Quality Metrics
• Practice Reform and Systems Redesign

At MPCA, we are envisioning a Clinical Team focused on Excellence in Healthcare Quality that can:

• Review trends in chronic disease reporting and outcomes
• Bring QI teams to FQHCs to provide F2F practice redesign
• Effectively partner with Maine DHHS in payment and quality reform
• Organize regular conferences and webinars focused on clinical issues of concern to members

Additionally, the Maine Primary Care Patient Safety Organization will be expanding beyond its pilot phase with an increased level of standardization and data analysis. The hope is that all members of MPCA will connect to the PSO during this expansion phase.

As a review:

Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs) conduct activities to improve the safety and quality of patient care. PSOs create a legally secure environment (conferring privilege and confidentiality) where clinicians and health care organizations can voluntarily report, aggregate and analyze data, with the goal of reducing the risks and hazards associated with patient care. The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (Patient Safety Act) authorized the creation of PSOs and the development of Common Formats for uniform reporting of patient safety events.

PSOs serve as independent, external experts who can assist providers in the collection, analysis and aggregation of patient safety events to develop insights into effective methods to improve quality and safety. Providers who establish relationships with a PSO receive uniform Federal protections (conferring privilege and confidentiality) that are expected to remove fear of legal liability or professional sanctions.

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