Access East, a subsidiary of Vidant Health and a preferred care-management (CM) partner of Vidant Integrated Care, has for more than 20 years provided complex CM and other essential health care services. Within our unique region’s large, and frequently high-risk populations, Access East provides comprehensive care management services to Medicaid, Medicare, uninsured, and employer populations.
Access East counts among its collaborative partners 175 primary-care practices, to include Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), community health centers, health departments, safety-net and social service organizations, and hospitals, including the region’s largest, Vidant Medical Center, in conjunction with the East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine.
NCQA ACCREDITATION
In November 2018, Access East earned its second three-year National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) accreditation for complex CM.
Three-year accreditation is the highest accreditation status awarded in Complex Case Management by the NCQA, among the nation’s leading health-care accreditation agencies. Access East has maintained the highest quality metrics across all populations.
THE ACCESS EAST CM MODEL
Access East CM involves local teams of nurse and social work care managers, patient advocates, coordinators, pharmacists and support staff.
At the heart of Access East CM is a Medical Home approach to care, to deliver comprehensive, continuous, targeted services that strongly weigh social determinants of health (SDOH) in addressing patient needs. CM includes everything from hospital visits with patients to begin their transitions home, joint visits with physicians in medical practices, follow-up phone calls, education efforts tailored to patients’ own circumstances, medication management, care planning and goal setting, and countless other support services.
ACCESS EAST SUCCESS STORY
The Access East Practice Improvement Team worked closely with a large multi-county health department to improve clinical outcomes in key chronic conditions (including asthma), and to reduce unnecessary ED visits.