Message from the Medical Director: 2014 EHP Recap

Paul Buehrens, MD,
EHP Medical Director

In 2014, EHP had its first year of operations with contracts in place to care for real people!  As a startup, we finished 2013 without any patients but we did have about 535 participating providers!  Last year we began with working with one contract for the EvergreenHealth employees and dependents, and later added a Cigna contract.  

What We Accomplished in 2014

Monique Ruyle, 
EHP Executive Director

2014 was a groundbreaking first full year for EvergreenHealth Partners. I’m going to quickly recap our many accomplishments, but first I want to say thank you. None of these accomplishments would have been possible without your interest in the EHP program, the work of you and your office staff to incorporate the EHP reporting program into your daily work flow, and your commitment to providing the best health care and value to our community.

Regence Accountable Health Network

EvergreenHealth Partners is now part of a new Regence BlueShield provider network and insurance product called Accountable Health Network (AHN). EHP is one of four approved AHNs at this time; the others are The Everett Clinic, UW Medicine and MultiCare Health System. 

Spotlight: EHP Otolaryngology and Podiatry

In this newsletter, we’re spotlighting two specialties – otolaryngology and podiatry.  Below is a listing of our EHP member practices in these specialties, along with their EHP quality measures:

2015 Evergreen Gala – Lights, Glamour, Auction

Please show your support and join us for the 2015 Evergreen Gala on April 25, in our signature clear-structured tent set in historic King County’s Marymoor Park. 

This year’s charitable focus is EvergreenHealth’s Home Care and its expansion into eHomeHealth, interactive technology to provide an innovative connection for home health patients with their family and care team. 

Funds Distribution Model

The EHP Board of Managers has approved the following model for distributing any bonus funds earned by EHP to participating providers:

Welcome Quality Coordinator Sara Rutherford

Sara Rutherford, Quality Coordinator

I’m Sara Rutherford and I am very excited to join EvergreenHealth Partners as Quality Coordinator and contribute to the exceptional care provided in our community.  Within EHP, I am monitoring the individual and collective performance of our providers across all of our quality initiatives, and providing support to practice managers and providers as needed.  I am your point of contact for any questions related to quality metrics, targets and strategies. I’d like to share a little about my background in healthcare, and the experience I bring to this new position with EHP.

Care Coordination Update

Debi Jefferson, Care Coordinator

Since September, I have been energetically assisting practice managers and providers to meet payer quality initiatives and financial incentive goals by:

• Establishing a unique process, by practice, to address high risk and care gap patients identified by our contracted payers
• Following and informing you of your hospital admits and discharges

EvergreenHealth Recognized for Clinical Excellence

We’re pleased to tell you about three recent recognitions EvergreenHealth has received:

Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence

EvergreenHealth has achieved several of the highest recognitions available for clinical excellence from Healthgrades*, including the 2015 Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence award. This places EvergreenHealth among the top 5% of hospitals nationally for its quality patient care and superior clinical performance. This is the sixth time we’ve earned this designation.