A Case Study Report - Altarum Institute

4.
Case Study Findings
Description of the integration development process
Integration development workgroup activities
At the beginning of the initiative, executive leaders contacted a variety of employees across
the three organizations to request their involvement as part of several workgroups tasked
with planning the integration initiative. Leaders recruited staff members in two different
ways. either the staff member notified the leaders that he or she was interested in becoming
involved, or the staff member possessed specific abilities that the leaders sought out. The
participation of these staff members in the workgroups was voluntary, and their roles and
responsibilities related to the integration initiative were in addition to regular job responsibilities.
Workgroup members did not receive compensation for their participation in the
integration initiatives beyond their regular salaries. In order to coordinate and track the
many pieces of the integration development, including tasks, timelines, and communication
between workgroup members, the leaders selected one staff member to be the initiative’s
manager.
The workgroups focused on 10 areas that the organizational leaders believed were crucial
to the development of the integration initiative. Throughout the course of this phase, the
responsibilities and time commitment of most workgroup members fluctuated. Tasks for
some workgroups were frontloaded, such that once a certain goal was accomplished, the
tasks for these groups diminished. For example, the curriculum development workgroup
members spent more time at the initiative’s onset to develop and schedule the training
modules compared to after the IDT training occurred. In contrast, other workgroups
assumed more continuous roles and responsibilities. The finance workgroup, for instance,
continuously worked to determine which codes IDT members could use to bill services and
what the billing process would look like once the electronic health record (eHR) system
became integrated across the three organizations. The space workgroup also worked continuously
as the agencies were in the process of constructing the Heart of the City Health
Center building in preparation for co-location. Regardless of their past and present roles
and responsibilities related to the initiative, most workgroup members recognized that their
involvement with the initiative would increase again during the piloting phase.
Integrated Primary Care and Behavioral Health www.altarum.org 27
A Case Study Report