Upstream and Six Buildling Blocks Presentations

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You're invited to join Better Health Together for a presentation on Upstream and the Six Building Blocks Approach to Improving Care for Patients using Chronic Opioid Medications. Please join Better Health Together at these wonderful and informative presentations!

Upstream: 3:00–4:00pm

Upstream is a non-profit organization working in partnership with DOH, HCA, and ACHs across the state to empower more women to become pregnant only when they plan to, by improving access to the full-range of contraceptive methods wherever women seek care (in a primary care, family planning, or hospital setting).

Upstream is offering a quality improvement program to health centers across Washington, including training on best-in-class counseling and birth control methods, and technical and financial assistance to remove barriers clinics face in scheduling, billing, and stocking the full range of methods. They're currently running a similar statewide program in Delaware that's showing promising results, and have piloted their QI program in clinics in Massachusetts, Ohio, Texas, Arizona, and New York. This video case study of their work in Worcester, MA is a good overview of the type of partnerships they'll be establishing with clinics and health systems across the state.

The Six Building Blocks Approach to Improving Care for Patients using Chronic Opioid Medications: 4:00–5:00

Laura-Mae Baldwin, MD, MPH from the University of Washington Six Building Blocks Team will present the Six Building Blocks approach, and talk about how clinics and clinical organizations might consider including the Six Building Blocks in their Medicaid Transformation work. Dr. Baldwin is a practicing family physician who cares for patients with chronic pain, a Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Washington, and a researcher whose career has focused on access to and quality of health care in diverse underserved and rural areas. Laura-Mae currently directs the WWAMI region Practice and Research Network, a network of 65 primary care clinics in the five state WWAMI region committed to participating in research and quality improvement.

The Six Building Blocks Program, based on evidence from exemplar practices across the U.S., provides a roadmap for engaging clinical teams in providing safer care to patients who use opioid medications to manage their chronic pain.

The Six Building Blocks include:

  1. Engaging leadership and securing consensus
  2. Revising Opioid management policies and standard work
  3. Tracking and monitoring patients on chronic Opioid therapy
  4. Planning for visits and providing patient-centered care
  5. Developing resources to care for complex patients (e.g., addiction)
  6. Measuring success

The Six Building Blocks address multiple goals and strategies within the Medicaid Transformation Plan’s required activity to address the Opioid crisis. Several Accountable Communities of Health have included the Six Building Blocks as part of their Medicaid Transformation Plans.