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Lt Gov Discusses Healthcare Initiatives with SLVH

April 25, 2019, Alamosa, Colorado 

   Dianne Primavera, Colorado Lieutenant Governor, and her chief staff members visited several healthcare agencies in the SLV on April 25, 2019. They met with leaders at SLV Health to discuss the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative (TCPI).

     Antonio Gurule, Director of Clinic Operations, explained that SLV Health has several initiatives to address overall population health outcomes and by combining their approach for each, they have documented how SLVH is transforming how healthcare is delivered. The main initiatives besides TCPI are the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative (CPC+), Team-Based Care and the Regional Accountable Entity (RAE). Gurule discussed how each of these is working together to reach the quadruple aim of improving healthcare with the overall goal of moving from volume to value:

  • Increase access to healthcare
  • Reduce healthcare costs
  • Improve patient outcomes
  • Improve provider and staff satisfaction

     According to Julia Bryant, Nurse Quality Improvement Manager at SLVH, “These initiatives help us improve our efficiencies. By focusing first on primary care, we were able to deliver these improved strategies to our specialty care clinics and ancillary services. We have been able to show a reduction in ordering CT scans with contrast and improve Emergency Department utilization."

     As Alan Newby explained, “Our metrics combine all of our clinics, not just Primary Care at Stuart Avenue. Improvements take time. This chart demonstrates ten different measures from 2017 to 2018.” 

     Shannon Gonzales, CNM at SLV Health, spoke to the audience from a provider point of view. "Transforming care delivery in our practice takes place by implementing a lot of small changes to improve the overall process. We developed a welcome letter and a process for new parents who may not be familiar with our pediatrics clinic and providers. We've made changes that improve patient and staff satisfaction. Adding care coordination to assist patients in need of extra resources like WIC or behavioral health has been really helpful."

From L to R: Antonio Gurule, SLVH Clinical Administrator, Alan Newby, Clinical Applications, Robert Copley, Clinical Applications, Cherise Minnick, MA, Carmelo Hernandez, MD, SLVH Chief Medical Officer, Crestina Martinez, Chief of Staff to Lt. Governor, Dianne Primavera, Lt. Governor of Colorado, David Gallegos, Specialty Clinic Director, Shannon Gonzales, Certified Nurse Midwife, Julia Bryant, Nurse/Quality Improvement Manager, Ressa Gonzales, Clinic Administrative Support, Justin Fricke, Clinic Manager (back), Kacey Wulff, Senior Policy Advisor & Lt. Gov. Deputy Chief of Staff, Konnie Martin, SLVH CEO, and Taylor Miranda Thompson, TCPI Specialist.