Management FAQs
Q: What is the PTN?
A: The Practice Transformation Network is a collaborative of healthcare organizations and associations that will provide health centers with resources, quality improvement expertise, coaching & training, and shared best practices. Most importantly for managers will be staff development provided for staff members by subject matter experts. The result will be a high quality environment that benefits both clinical teams and patients.
Q: Why is this happening now?
A: Healthcare affects us all. The first phase of the Affordable Care Act was to increase the number of individuals with healthcare coverage. The second phase is to improve quality of care. This means that more care will meet CDC, NQRA, and other medical standards. Care will continue to evolve over time as organizations learn how to better manage their resources and clinical decision-making. Further, with payment reform on the horizon, which will be heavily influenced by quality of care, all organizations want to prepare themselves for the changes that are to come.
Q: How is this different from what we are already doing?
A: No matter where you are on the quality spectrum, there is always room for improvement. The purpose of this program is to raise the bar on your quality improvement program. As a part of the PTN, your efforts will become more data driven, as your organization will be compared to peer organizations. Through this increased visibility to the performance of your peer organizations, you will gain increased clarity of your quality scores
Q: How do we know that this work will result in positive changes in our organization?
A: This is a data driven process. It is important that we ensure that the data is being collected, catalogued, and reported correctly to show impact. This process will take time, as shown by CMS’s commitment to a 4-year project. That process begins today and will manifest over time. While not everyone will achieve excellence during this project, we expect everyone to improve. The government does expect results to be shared (transparency) and compared to peer groups for greater visibility of performance.