Great Lakes Practice Transformation Network

The Great Lakes Practice Transformation Network (GLPTN) is a three-state coalition of 31 partners including four Regional Extension Centers (RECs), three State Departments of Health, five regional Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), one Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO), and six universities. GLPTN was formed in response to the CMS Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative with an overall goal of transforming the practices of 11,500 clinicians across Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan into learning practices capable of providing better health and better care at a lower cost for a population of approximately 10 million Americans. The network will train and deploy more than 60 Quality Improvement Advisors (QIAs) to coach the 11,500 clinicians through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation’s five phases of patient-centric practice transformation. The network will utilize a “Change Toolkit” that integrates three practice transformation approaches: 1) implementation science, which is an emerging second generation of continuous quality improvement; 2) lean and six sigma process improvement tools; and 3) patient centric, personalized population health management. Furthermore, the QIAs will provide direct technical assistance in meaningful use (MU), physician quality reporting system (PQRS), and local quality improvement efforts to help prepare clinicians for participation in value-based payment systems.