2017 Hearst Health Prize

Intermountain Healthcare Awarded the 2017 $100,000 Hearst Health Prize

3/28/2017

Intermountain Healthcare is the winner of the 2017 Hearst Health Prize for its Mental Health Integration program, which incorporates mental health as a routine part of healthcare using a team-based approach. The program has made great strides in helping patients  to properly manage and treat mental health conditions, as evidenced in a 10-year study tracking more than 100,000 patients.

Population

Patients of Intermountain Healthcare system, with an emphasis on primary care patients

Intervention

Mental Health Integration program for patients that embeds mental health screening and treatment within primary care and select specialty practices, utilizing a team-based approach to help patients and their families manage the complexity of both mental and physical health

Impact

A retrospective longitudinal cohort study between 2003 and 2013 (data of 113,453 unique patients)comparing Team-Based Care to Traditional Practice Medicine showed that:

  • Patients perceived physicians were more sensitive to their emotional or mental health concerns, explained things better, and provided better overall quality of care and services under the Mental Health Integration approach (p<.05)
  • The Team-Based Care model had higher rates of active depression screening (46 vs. 24.1%); adherence to diabetes care bundle (24.6 vs. 19.5%); and documentation of self-care plans (48.4 vs. 8.7%)
  • Rates of healthcare utilization were lower for Team-Based Care patients (18.1 vs. 23.5 visits per 100  rson-years)
  • Significant reductions in payments to the delivery system were associated with Team-Based Care group vs. the Traditional Practice Medicine ($3,400.62 vs. $3,515.71) and were lower than the investments in the Team-Based Care program

Utah-based Intermountain Healthcare is a not-for-profit system of 22 hospitals, 185 clinics, a Medical Group with some 1,300 employed physicians, a health plans division called SelectHealth, and other health services.

The other finalists for the 2017 Hearst Health Prize were:

American Heart Association/American Stroke Association: “Target: Stroke” is a national initiative aimed at increasing the number of eligible stroke patients receiving tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) within the specified time frame in order to protect the brain from disability Participating hospitals dropped average door-to-needle times from 74 minutes to 59 minutes. Today, 75 percent of patients are treated within the 60-minute door-to-needle time.

California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative based at Stanford University (CMQCC): CMQCC’s mission is to reduce preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, and reduce racial-ethnic disparities in birth outcomes. Through a series of data-driven quality improvement projects, CMQCC’s work contributed to a significant decline in maternal mortality in California at a time when U.S. rates doubled.

The following organizations received Honorable Mention for their programs (in alphabetical order):

  • Baylor College of Medicine
  • Children’s Health System of Texas
  • Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH)
  • Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University
  • Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force
  • New York-Presbyterian Hospital
  • Rush University Medical Center