FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. – A team of 18 active-duty Soldiers and Department of the Army civilians from Blanchfield Army Community Hospital received the Fiscal Year 2020 Army Medicine Wolf Pack Award, second quarter, for their efforts to streamline patient access to behavioral health resources.
The Army Surgeon General and the Chief of the AMEDD Civilian Corps created the Wolf Pack Award to recognize exceptional teamwork by an integrated group of military and civilian team members focused on excellence in support of Army Medicine.
BACH’s team was recognized for their efforts to better incorporate the hospital’s behavioral health consultants within the hospital’s primary care clinics to enhance patient outcomes and medical readiness. Internal behavior health consultants are assigned to each of BACH’s medical homes, where beneficiaries receive their primary medical care. Consultants support healthy behavior changes such as increasing exercise, decreasing work or home stress, quitting smoking, cholesterol and blood pressure management, and weight management. They also help patients develop plans for improving sleep, managing diabetes, managing chronic pain, migraine management, and modifying alcohol use. Prior to the process improvement project which began in 2018, their services were underutilized.
“Having behavioral health consultants within our primary care clinics is a great benefit for all enrolled beneficiaries to receive behavioral health support immediately following a primary care visit or scheduled at a later time,” said Col. Patrick T. Birchfield, hospital commander. “This system makes the referral process easy for both the patient and the medical team.”
The behavioral health consultants operate within primary care treatment teams, offering behavioral interventions, counseling, and various treatment modalities and work hand-in-hand with primary care teams to improve a patient’s overall health and quality of life.
BACH’s project focused on four main areas: increasing referrals, improving integration into a holistic model of care, increasing self-referral appointments and warm hand-off of patients to behavioral health consultants, and removing barriers to referring patients.
“The same day warm hand-off in the clinic is one of the best opportunities for patients. They can often be seen the same day and it gives the patient an opportunity to meet the behavioral health consultant before their appointment,” said Birchfield.
The project more than doubled the number of face-to-face clinical encounters per day and decreased the patient no-show rate by 15 percent. The team instituted multiple revisions and changes that enhanced the overall patient-centered medical experience, and streamlined patient access for numerous behavioral health needs.
“Throughout the project our team members met regularly, identifying measureable goals, implementing protocols and tracking the data. By the end of the project, we could see the success it provided to our beneficiaries and we could share our model with other military treatment facilities within the military health system,” said Birchfield. “These efforts illustrate exceptional teamwork and noteworthy outcomes by our team.”
To learn more about the Army Wolf Pack Award visit https://ameddciviliancorps.amedd.army.mil/wolf-pack-award
| Date Taken: | 07.08.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 07.08.2020 16:59 |
| Story ID: | 373573 |
| Location: | FORT CAMPBELL, KY, US |
| Web Views: | 98 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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