How Can Chapters Help Their Members Access ACP Resources to Improve Quality?

Michael Barr, MD, MBA, FACP, ACP vice president for Practice Advocacy and Improvement, discussed how chapters can help their member access ACP resources to improve quality and their practices, including the new Center for Practice Innovation (CPI), the Practice Management Center (PMC), and the Medical Laboratory Evaluation (MLE) programs. Dr. Barr highlighted the PMC website and the resources under its management such as the electronic health record (EHR) adoption program and the Medicare Part D page where members are able to post questions and have them answered. Part D updates are also posted. He said that the MLE program provides an opportunity for quality improvement through its proficiency testing program. The proficiency testing program allows participating physician office laboratories to compare how well their laboratory testing procedures would do against other laboratories using the same methods. In addition, he reviewed the new Center Practice Innovation (CPI) objectives - one being to develop and disseminate practical quality improvement strategies for practices. He noted that a current CPI pilot program invited 30 small/medium internal medicine practices to take part in a pilot program that would help small practices improve quality and practice management. Lessons learn from this pilot program will be shared on the Practice Innovation web site. Dr. Barr said that members are unaware and thus underutilize these ACP programs. He asked chapter leaders to help let members know that these programs are available and to provide feedback/ideas on how to make these resources better.

View the PowerPoint Presentation.