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Continuous Quality Improvement
Tammy Chabot - Operations Director
06/21/2007
In 2004, Health
Access Network (HAN) Board of Directors approved a Quality Improvement
(QI) Plan. Our QI activities
are overseen by a board committee that meets monthly.
Two of the primary goals within our QI plan are to improve
overall patient satisfaction and increase preventative care.
The QI program consists of the following:
- A “Question of
the Month” is given to patients at the time of their visit.
These results are tallied and shared with the QI Board, as
well as HAN medical staff, management, and support staff.
- Bi-Annual
Patient Satisfaction Surveys are mailed to patient’s homes and
distributed at HAN clinics.
- Bi-Monthly
medical chart audits are performed to review how well we provide
preventative care like physical exams, diabetes care, and other
types of chronic health care. Through our chart audit process we are
able to identify and correct system problems within our offices
- Staff attend
monthly training to review patient concerns, discuss ways we can
improve, and receive current medical guidelines.
In addition, we
have partnered with the March of Dimes to provide female patients with
free daily multi-vitamins (available at any HAN location).
We have also developed several new clinical and operational
policies/ procedures and are in the process of implementing an
Electronic Medical Record (EMR) at all HAN sites.
The EMR will allow us to closely monitor your medical needs.
As an example, if a HAN patient has not had a physical, or a
recommended cancer screening or immunization, our EMR will flag the
patient’s medical file to our staff.
The staff will then contact the patient to determine if they
would like to have these services scheduled.
We are continuing
to work with the Maine Primary Care Association (MePCA), and participate
in a national program, to create and maintain a quality improvement
program for chronic illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular
disease. The MePCA works with health centers throughout the State of