• PAD Enrollments: Physician patient referrals are thriving
• GROWTH in volunteer physician network
• Pharmacy Costs IMPROVING
• Care Navigation can improve no-show rates
• Specialty care referral services IMPROVING
  

Headline Details:

PAD Enrollments
Thank you to our private physician volunteers who have sent us their patients to enroll in Project Access Dallas. This is one of the many benefits of volunteering for PAD — you can help the uninsured patients in your practice in a tangible way by referring them to PAD for their health care. Since September 2011, our physicians have enrolled 80 patients from their private practices. Keep up the great work!

GROWTH in Volunteer Physician Network Update:

• 32 physician volunteers have been recruited since January 2012
  • 18 primary care physicians
  • 14 specialty care physicians
• Current recruiting efforts are focusing on rheumatologists and pulmonologists.

Physician Highlight
Marsha James, office manager for the North Texas Endocrine Center at Carrell Clinic, has been spreading the word about Project Access Dallas to her physicians. Jonathan Leffert, MD (right), signed up to join his colleague Peter Bressler, MD, a longtime volunteer. Both physicians will contribute to the care of almost 20 patients in need.

John Westkaemper, MD (left) has joined his colleagues at Irving Orthopedics and Sports Medicine as a volunteer physician. Drs. R. Mills Roberts and Westkaemper, with help from two PAs, will see dozens of patients in need of orthopedic care. Thank you to office manager Kimberly Smith for helping these physicians care for the working poor in Dallas County! Marilyn Haspany, PAD physician network director (second from left), presented Ms. Smith with an iPad 2 to recognize her recruitment efforts.

Pharmacy Costs IMPROVING

Prescription costs have fallen 11.5% since August 2011. (February Rx cost per patient was $22.40, compared to the August cost of $24.31.)

The 12-month Rolling Average Number of Rx filled has fallen 11% since August (February average of 2,261 compared to August average of 2,949).

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Community Health Navigation HELPS Patients and decreases no-shows

• 358 PAD patients received care navigation services in February
• Full-time navigation = 180
• Episodic navigation = 69
• Pharmacy Assistance Program navigation = 115
• Recent Health Navigator staff turnover has illustrated the importance of this service as we saw a Specialty Care No-Show Rate in February of 12.9%, compared to the February 2011 rate of 5.8%. This increase may be attributable to turnover in Community Health Navigation staff and training of new Community Health Workers. Community Health Navigator Director Edd Eason expects the department to be fully staffed by early May.

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Specialty Care Referral Services IMPROVING

• February Referrals Completed = 121 (26% Completion Rate compared to 22% in February 2011)
• Referrals Pending at the end of February = 262 (397 were pending at end of February 2011)
• Average wait time for Specialty Care Consultation = 49 days (Acute referrals were completed within 14 days)
• Most frequent referral request? Gastroenterology.

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