AMGA Foundation, Optum Expand Successful Pilot Collaborative to Improve Adult Immunization Rates
Nearly Half a Million Patients Were Vaccinated in 14 Months

Alexandria, VA –  AMGA Foundation and Optum, with support from Pfizer, are expanding a successful pilot collaborative to improve adult vaccination rates into two new groups of participating organizations that will reach millions more patients.

AMGA Foundation established the Adult Immunization (AI) Best Practices Learning Collaborative to develop specific interventions focused on pneumococcal and influenza vaccines. Each year, nearly 50,000 adults in the United States die from vaccine-preventable infectious diseases or their complications. Substantial improvement in vaccination rates can reduce the health consequences of vaccine-preventable diseases among adults. In 2016, seven care provider organizations across the country participated in the pilot program (group 1) of the collaborative. The pilot participants used an earlier version of Optum Performance Analytics to identify patients who were missing an adult vaccination, and track the number and rate of patients who were vaccinated.

“Close to half a million patients were vaccinated in just 14 months across the Collaborative’s seven participating care provider groups,” said John Kennedy, M.D., president of AMGA Foundation and chief medical officer of AMGA. “We anticipate an even greater increase in immunization rates in the care provider groups participating in groups 2 and 3 of the Adult Immunization Collaborative.”

One focus of the collaborative was on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)  guidelines issued in 2014 for pneumococcal vaccines in patients age 65 and older. Through analyses that matched providers and controlled for secular trends, the collaborative groups were shown to have successfully increased compliance rates with the guidelines. Further, integrated delivery system providers demonstrated almost twice the increased rates of vaccination.

Currently, 40 care provider groups participate in an expanded collaborative, 20 in group 2 and 20 in group 3. Participating medical groups and health systems design and implement strategies to identify and address gaps in recommended vaccination practices using intervention tools that target care providers and patients, including patient portals, alerts and point-of-care systems.

“We are encouraged by the high level of interest in the expanded collaborative and the potential it has to increase adult immunization rates,” said Mary Lantin, Senior Vice President, Optum Analytics. “This is a unique opportunity to leverage data and analytics with population health management techniques to prevent disease, and it’s a reason we are excited about the recent launch of our next generation platform, Optum Performance Analytics.”

Participants who are using Optum’s health care data and analytics platform and are also members of AMGA’s Analytics for Improvement (A4i) Collaborative will be able to identify patients and track performance. Data from the program will be evaluated after one year to assess its impact on relevant vaccination rates and to identify best practices that can be scaled broadly.

Group 2 Participants
The participating care provider groups include: Austin Regional Clinic, P.A., Austin, TX; Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH; Hattiesburg Clinic, P.A., Hattiesburg, MS; Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, Houston, TX; Mercy Clinic-East Communities, Washington, MO; Methodist Physicians Clinic, Omaha, NE; Norton Medical Group, Louisville, KY; Novant Medical Group, Winston-Salem, NC; Ochsner Health System, New Orleans, LA; Olmsted Medical Center, Rochester, MN; OU Physicians, Oklahoma, OK; Premier Medical Associates, Monroeville, PA; Sanford Health, Sioux Falls, SD; Summit Medical Group, P.A., Houston, TX; SwedishAmerican Health System, Rockford, IL; UnityPoint Clinic, Johnston, IA; UPMC Susquehanna Health Medical Group, Williamsport, PA; Western Montana Clinic, Missoula, MT; and WESTMED Medical Group, P.C., Purchase, NY.

The Group 2 intervention period ran from January 2017 through March 2018, with results reporting expected in fall 2018.

Group 3 Participants
The participating care provider groups include: AHS Oklahoma Physician Group, Tulsa, OK; LLC dba Utica Park Clinic, Tulsa, OK; CentraCare Health System, Saint Cloud, MN; Coastal Carolina Health Care, PA, New Bern, NC; Essentia Health System, Duluth, MN; Intermountain Medical Group, Salt Lake City, UT; The Iowa Clinic, P.C., West Des Moines, IA; Kennedy Health Alliance, Stratford, NJ; Lahey Health System, Burlington, MA; North Mississippi Medical Clinics, Tupelo, MS; Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Sunnyvale, CA; PinnacleHealth Medical Group, Lemoyne, PA; The Polyclinic, Seattle, WA; Prevea Health, Green Bay, WI; Quincy Medical Group, Quincy, IL; Scripps Medical Foundation, La Jolla, CA; Sentara Medical Group, Norfolk, VA; ThedaCare Physicians, Appleton, WI; USMD Health System, Irving, TX; Watson Clinic, LLP, Lakeland, FL; and Wellmont Medical Associates, Kingsport, TN.

The Group 3 intervention period runs from July 2017 through September 2018, with results reporting expected in early 2019.

About AMGA Foundation
AMGA Foundation is AMGA’s philanthropic arm that enables medical groups and other organized systems of care to consistently improve health and health care. AMGA Foundation serves as a catalyst, connector and collaborator for translating the evidence of what works best in improving health and health care in everyday practice. 

About AMGA
AMGA is a trade association leading the transformation of health care in America. Representing multispecialty medical groups and integrated systems of care, we advocate, educate, innovate and empower our members to deliver the next level of high performance health. AMGA is the national voice promoting awareness of medical groups’ recognized excellence in the delivery of coordinated, high-quality, cost-effective care. More than 175,000 physicians practice in our member organizations, delivering care to one in three Americans.

About AMGA’s Analytics for Improvement (A4i) Collaborative
An initiative to improve population health through comparative clinical analytics, using an unparalleled data resource provided by Optum as a springboard for collaborative shared learning and translation

About Optum
Optum is a leading information and technology-enabled health services business dedicated to helping make the health system work better for everyone. With more than 100,000 people worldwide, Optum delivers intelligent, integrated solutions that help to modernize the health system and improve overall population health. Optum is part of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH).

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Media Contact:

Sharon Grace
Chief Communications Officer
703.838.0033 ext. 393
sgrace@amga.org
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