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Majors & Degrees

DSU awarded in transforming clinical practice initiative

October 5, 2015

On Sept. 29, 2105, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services awarded $685 million to 29 Practice Transformation Networks and 10 Support and Alignment Networks through the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative (TCPI). TCPI will help equip more than 140,000 clinicians with tools and support needed to improve quality of care, increase patients’ access to information, utilize health data to determine gaps and interventions, and spend dollars more wisely. TCPI is one of the largest federal investments designed to support clinicians in all 50 states through collaborative and peer-based learning networks that facilitate practice transformation.

DSU is thrilled to be a partner with the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative to implement a six-state Compass Practice Transformation Network (PTN) in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Kansas and Georgia for over 7,000 providers. DSU’s Center for Advancement of Health IT (CAHIT) will play a significant role as the South Dakota partner through Quality Improvement Advisors providing direct technical assistance to practices.

“This work will build on the work DSU has been doing since 2010 as HealthPOINT, the South Dakota Regional Extension Center for Health IT,” said Dan Friedrich, CAHIT and HealthPOINT Director.

DSU will receive close to $483,000 in first-year funding and could receive roughly $2 million (based on performance) over the four-year cooperative agreement to provide technical assistance support to help equip clinicians with the tools, information, and network support to assist clinicians in improving care, increasing the ability for patients to access their information, and making wiser spending decisions.

“South Dakota providers and hospitals have done a great job of adopting Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and South Dakota ranks only behind Wyoming in percentage of physicians that use EHRs in their practices,” Friedrich said. “As we move forward with this work, doctors will receive assistance to fully use their EHR systems to continue to improve care and prepare for the coming value-based reimbursement models.”