2012 PGIP Initiatives

Participating physician organizations determine which initiatives their physician members will work on each year. Each initiative looks at a specific aspect of health care. Brief descriptions are provided here, with full fact-sheets available by clicking on the titles.

Clinical information technology-focused initiatives

Accelerating the adoption and use of electronic prescribing — Participants will implement electronic prescribing or increase consistent use of electronic prescribing.
Patient portal — Participants in this initiative develop web-based portals that allow for improved communication between physicians and patients. The portal provides patient education, access to patients' medical information and other tools that help manage patients' chronic conditions.
Patient registry — Participants establish a comprehensive patient registry that can be used to manage patients' health status and ultimately lower health care costs.

Condition-focused initiatives

Cardiac care — Participating physicians focus on diagnosing and treating cardiovascular disease with an emphasis on reducing costly and unnecessary imaging and interventional procedures, decreasing avoidable cardiac procedures, and analyzing the association between diagnostic tests and subsequent diagnostic tests and therapeutic procedures, all to improve the quality of cardiac care.
Chronic kidney disease — This initiative uses evidence-based guidelines to improve primary care physicians' management of patients with chronic kidney disease.
Encouraging evidence-based utilization of hysterectomy : Focuses on reducing unnecessary hysterectomy in female patients aged 15-64, by encouraging evidence-based utilization.
Encouraging evidence-based utilization of labor induction — The initiative encourages evidence-based utilization of labor induction aiming to reduce elective labor induction rates prior to 39 weeks completed gestation.
Environmental Cancer — Designed to help PGIP physicians identify patients with exposure to environmental toxins, correctly diagnose related illnesses, and treat or refer patients with conditions associated with exposure to these toxins.
Michigan Oncology Clinical Treatment Pathways — Oncologists participating in this initiative are establishing evidence-based oncology treatment pathways to decrease variability in care delivery, and to improve quality.
Michigan Oncology Quality Collaborative – Oncologists who participate in this initiative track and report data on core measures, end-of-life measures and disease-specific measures, to help improve oncology practice.
Michigan Urological Surgery Improvement Collaborative – Urologists will collect and share data on patients with prostate cancer to compare performance and outcomes and to develop best practices for cancer treatment.

Service-focused initiatives

Advance Care Planning – This initiative will look at how to best address patient needs for advance care planning and managing end-of-life care issues and concerns.
Increase the use of generic drugs — This initiative focuses on increasing the rate at which generic drugs are dispensed for Blue Cross members.
Inpatient utilization — Physicians in this initiative create interventions for patients with specific conditions, to best manage their care and prevent or reduce their need for hospitalization.
Michigan Anticoagulation Quality Improvement Initiative — This initiative focuses on proactively and consistently coordinating anticoagulation care to improve quality and long-term outcomes of patients receiving anticoagulation care.
Radiology management — Physicians aim to use the most appropriate type of radiology for their patients in this initiative.

Core clinical process-focused initiatives

Coordination of care — Participants in this initiative focus on coordinating their patients' care across the whole spectrum, including collaborating with specialists and other care providers, and communicating with patients and caregivers.
Evidence-based care tracking to reduce gaps in care — This initiative asks physicians to develop tracking systems to help manage the care of patients with chronic illnesses, so patients get the care they need and prevention from potential complications.
Extended access — Participants in this initiative focus on making operational changes so that patients have "extended access" to the doctor practice. This may include 24-hour phone access, after-hours access and additional language capabilities.
Individual care management — This initiative helps physician practices better manage patients' care by having them establish multi-disciplinary, integrated teams to provide care management, offer planned visits and group visits, and ensure follow-up on needed services.
Lean for clinical redesign — This initiative offers professional coaching and tools to help practices improve their workflow, resulting in efficiencies and improved quality of care.
Linkage to community services — Participants help patients with receiving needed community services through a systematic process for referrals and follow-up.
Patient-provider partnership — Participants create and use a patient-provider agreement or documented patient communication process regarding mutual roles and responsibilities in the patient-centered medical home.
Performance reporting — Physician organizations and practices create reports to help them track and manage processes and outcomes of care, and improve service efficiency and patient experience for their entire population of patients.
Preventive services — Participants actively counsel their patients on preventive measures to help patients manage their health, control their condition or prevent complications.
Self-management support — In this initiative, physician practices learn patient-education strategies and techniques to help teach their patients self-management skills for chronic conditions.
Specialist referral process — This initiative improves the speed and efficiency of referring patients to specialists, and helps to ensure that all providers receive timely patient information for providing optimal patient care.
Test tracking and follow-up — In this initiative, physician practices develop processes for tracking patients' test results and following up with patients who need additional attention.
Transitions of care — This initiative aims to improve the process and communication among care providers when moving a patient from inpatient to outpatient care. The goal is to keep patients safe and prevent them from needing rehospitalization within a short time.