Strategic Plan - Sierra Health Foundation

Primary Care/Specialty Care Integration
Health information exchange facilitates
cross-organizational patient data sharing.
The model of a patient-centered health home is premised
on a personal physician who works with patients and
their care teams to coordinate all health services. Success
of this model requires integration of specialty care
and primary care functions to provide integrated,
patient-centered care. The Sacramento Region’s efforts in
this area focus on innovations to better link primary care
and specialty care providers (especially technology-based
information sharing) to help improve continuity of care
and information transfer, while reducing specialty care
referrals for conditions that could be treated by a primary
care clinician. At the same time, integration efforts seek
to facilitate patient access to appropriate specialty care,
which has been lacking in the Sacramento Region.
Action Steps:
1. Create a specialty regional care network that includes
specialists and community health center physicians.
2. Identify best practices from those hospitals systems
that have reduced demand for specialty care referrals.
Consider ideas such as:
i. Telemedicine for primary, dental and mental
health services as well as specialty care.
ii. Develop a map showing locations of specialists
in the region by specialty.
iii. Share information and connect patient
navigators and consumers with networks of
specialty providers in the region.
3. Identify and address other barriers impacting patients’
access to care, such as transportation.
Network Integration Goal
By January 2014, primary care physicians and other
providers will meet safety net patient demand, reduce
unnecessary specialty care referrals, treat conditions at the
lowest and most appropriate level of care, and create a
sustainable financing system that will support patients’
access to specialty care in the Sacramento Region.
S A C R A M E N T O R E G I O N H E A L T H C A R E P A R T N E R S H I P | P a g e 2 3