Forest Hills Pediatric Associates: Using PCMH and Collaborative Care to better serve patients

This is the fourth article in a series highlighting some top performers in the Patient-Centered Medical Home Designation Program.

Dr. Barbara Periard

Asked how the Patient-Centered Medical Home program has helped to improve the value of health care delivered at the practice, Barbara Periard, M.D., was quick to reply: “PCMH provides structure to our processes. It helps us identify the metrics we need to push forward. It also helps us to explain to families and staff why we’re doing what we’re doing, to monitor progress and put a framework around the work we do.”

Dr. Periard is one of 12 physicians at Forest Hills Pediatric Associates, located in Grand Rapids. The practice also includes a care management team that helps patients and their families manage asthma, ADHD, mental health issues and other chronic or complex conditions. They hired a mental health care coordinator more than five years ago, long before they joined Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s Collaborative Care Designation Program, which was launched last year.

“Care management has changed the way we practice and has brought about increased provider and patient satisfaction,” Dr. Periard said. “For example, kids with special needs used to require a lot of prep time for providers prior to appointments, but now care managers take care of the family’s needs before and in between visits. Pediatricians now report that visits are pleasant instead of stressful, allowing them more time to spend with their patients.”

One of the first metrics the practice delved into was well-child visits. The practice had been using recall reminders, texts and email blasts but wanted to improve its metrics. They started out by opening up their schedule to the year ahead so that patients could schedule their next annual appointment before leaving the office.

The result? Within a few months, they reduced the number of “missed” visits from 20% to 12%. Now, one year later, it’s below 10%.

“This has helped us improve the care delivered and made us more efficient by freeing up phone lines,” Dr. Periard said. “The overall benefits far outweigh any effort put forth.”
Other areas of success include:

Portal usage — The practice now has at least 93% portal usage and is looking at ways to use the portal in the future for remote patient monitoring.

Building remodel — With the recent remodeling of the building, half of it now features spaces with negative airflow, which is where they treat all sick patients. The practice also downsized the waiting room to create newborn-specific rooms at the front of the building to avoid exposing them to germs.

Vaccine process — The practice has established a vaccine process in its office to better support patients and their families. On any given day, all vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, can be administered.
“The time we’ve spent outlining processes and training staff has really paid off,” Dr. Periard said. “We’ve been able to spread the PCMH work across all team members.”

To read more

To read about other practices that have been profiled as part of this series, check out the following articles:

• “The Pediatric Place: Creating a centralized hub to facilitate information exchange”
• “MyMichigan Family Practice Center: Building a high-functioning team”
• “Bronson Internal Medicine: Embracing team-based care to support patients”