$1.65 Million Grant Earmarked for Nurse Practitioner Residency and Clinical Training Programs to Prepare Clinicians for Health Care Reform
University of Rochester/Highland Hospital Department of Family Medicine will Manage Programs
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Rochester, N.Y., July 29, 2015 — A $1.65 million grant will help prepare area clinicians to successfully practice in a fully transformed health care delivery system. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has awarded the grant -- $330,000 for 5 years to the University of Rochester/Highland Hospital Department of Family Medicine to create and manage the programs.
The Department of Family Medicine is one of only 32 organizations in the U.S. to be awarded funding for Health Workforce programs for primary care training and enhancement -- one of five in New York State.
The grant will fund a Nurse Practitioner (NP) Residency program which will be integrated into the University of Rochester/Highland Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program. Funding will also be used to create the Finger Lakes Center for Primary Care Clinician Education (FLC-PCCE) and provide educational assistance to physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, to ensure that they have adequate training, skills and tools to transform their practices and thrive in an integrated delivery system.
The Nurse Practitioner Residency program is being developed in collaboration with the University of Rochester School of Nursing. It will be the first program of its kind in New York state; one of only 40 across the country. “We are very excited about incorporating a nurse practitioner residency into our Family Medicine Residency program, one of the most respected in the country,” said Tom Campbell, M.D., Chair, University of Rochester Department of Family Medicine. “Our goal is to support the transition of highly skilled nurse practitioners into leadership roles in primary care offices that will function as patient-centered medical homes.” Mel Callan, FNP and Ginger Agnello FNP will direct the program.
The Finger Lakes Center for Primary Care Clinician Education, under the direction of Colleen T. Fogarty, M.D., MSc., will provide collaborative learning opportunities for primary care clinicians to prepare them for state and federal health care payment reform initiatives. Sessions will be held at Highland Family Medicine on South Clinton Ave. in Rochester and participants will spearhead quality improvement projects within their practices. An online learning component is also in development. The program is designed to accommodate 10 clinicians from 13 counties throughout the Finger Lakes region.
“This grant will help us support the goals of the Finger Lakes Performing Provider System (FLPPS), which represents a partnership of 28 hospitals, 3000 healthcare providers and more than 600 healthcare and community-based organizations in 13 counties, that have agreed to work together to transform the Medicaid healthcare delivery system using the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program,” said Campbell. “The goal of DSRIP is to improve clinical outcomes and reduce avoidable ED use and hospitalizations by 25 percent over five years.”