The 2010 Affordable Care Act created the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation at CMS with $10 billion in funding to test innovation and service delivery models to improve health care delivery and outcomes and reduce costs. To date the CMS Innovation Center has funded one round of innovation awards throughout the US (a second round of awards are expected to be announced this summer). In DC, Mary's Center was awarded in 2012 a three-year $15 million grant to create the "Capital Clinical Integration Network" (CCIN). The CCIN promises to save $17 million over three years by implementing and testing an integrated clinical network to improve care for chronically ill DC residents whom typically rely on emergency room visits for health care. To do this Mary's Center will, in part, train and hire 44 health care workers to serve as care managers and community-based care coordinators.
During this 18 minute discussion Dr. Pistulka discusses Mary's Center's work generally, how the CCIN is organized, the clinical care and social service support work CCIN is doing via care coordinators and others and results they've been able to achieve now two years into the three year CMMI award.
Gina Pistulka joined Mary’s Center in 2006. During her 17 years in nursing, she has also worked as a rural public health nurse and as an urban health nurse educator in Minnesota. She has also done nursing work overseas in Central America. Her research background includes having done cross-cultural intervention research. She has also served on boards to further nurse training through Catholic University of America and via the nonprofit organization Truth About Nursing. Gina was graduaged from Johns Hopkins with a duel Master’s in Public Health and Community Health Nursing and in 2007 received her Ph.D. in Nursing also from Johns Hopkins.
To learn more regarding CMMI's innivation awards see: http://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/map/index.html.
ACA and Innovation: Mary's Center's Efforts to Improve Population Health: A Conversation with Gina Pistulka (April 28th)