Kim is our Data Quality Lead. Her contributions ensure CRPCN can support our physicians and other providers with:
- measuring number of patients treated,
- improving work flow processes in physician offices, and
- advancing information technology.
She works towards ensuring doctors have “clean panels,” which is a clearly defined list of patients under each physician’s care. This is important because once clinics identify the patients whose care they are responsible for, they can manage the panel by using the electronic medical record (EMR) and clinic team to provide proactive care for patients.
She works to highlight that patients assigned to a family physician are up to date on basic preventive care - like cancer screenings or immunizations. She is also able to help physicians identify at-risk populations so they can ensure extra care is given when needed.
Panel management requires practitioners to think beyond the patients scheduled for this week’s appointments, so they are able to plan for opportunistic appointments and programs.
This “thinking beyond” identifies care gaps (deficiencies in preventive or chronic condition care), and provides opportunities for those gaps to be addressed. Care gap examples are a 55-year-old woman failing to have a mammogram for four years, or a diabetes patient who is overdue for a foot or eye exam.
Kim helps build capacity in the clinic environment by supporting panel processes, as well as other priorities such as Central Patient Attachment Registry (CPAR) and Patients Collaborating with Teams (PaCT). She can also help clinics measure access so they are able to see if they are providing their patients with timely care.
By working collaboratively with physicians, clinic staff, and CRPCN health team members, she helps design and implement strategies into existing clinic processes to help achieve both clinic and CRPCN healthcare goals and priorities.