Training Resources

Training Resources

The Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative uses multiple approaches to learning. Workshops are structured in a way that promotes discussions, practice, reflections, and experiences.

Patient activation workshops include practice with a simulated patient actor, which allows learners the opportunity to safely experiment with their new-found approaches.

Onsite training is augmented by virtual discussions and online community engagement.

Motivational Interviewing
Motivational Interviewing (MI) emphasizes the importance of understanding the patient’s perspective and feelings, eliciting their own reasons for change rather than overwhelming them with health information or judging current behavior.

PRHI is working with providers to help patients make positive behavioral changes within a number of PRHI initiatives – Partners in Integrated Care (PIC), Care of Mental, Physical, and Substance Use Syndromes (COMPASS), Minority Aids Initiative (MAI), and Primary Care Resource Center (PCRC).

PRHI’s coaching strategy involves real-time, point of care observation, feedback, and demonstration.

Partners in Integrated Care (PIC)
Behavioral health problems often complicate and exacerbate other chronic health problems that require coordination and chronic care management from a primary care provider. Without effective identification and treatment, patients with co-occurring physical and behavioral health conditions incur significant medical costs due to the systems of care.

With funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), PRHI led a three-year initiative called Partners in Integrated Care (PIC) to disseminate and implement evidence-based depression and unhealthy alcohol and other drug services in primary care settings.

Care of Mental, Physical, and Substance Use Syndromes (COMPASS)

One-third of Medicare patients have diabetes and another 30% have coronary artery disease. When depression is present (15% of the time), health care costs are 65% higher. Patients with depression and diabetes or cardiovascular disease have poorer self-care, greater functional impairment, and an increased risk of developing complications and mortality7.

There is substantial scientific evidence that collaborative care management for patients with chronic physical and mental health conditions can greatly improve their quality of care, outcomes, and satisfaction; and can generate healthcare cost-savings over time.

Minority AIDS Initiative
Many people with HIV/AIDS are considered "lost to care", in that they avoid diagnosis, enter treatment but then stop complying, or avoid prescribed treatment altogether. We call them “lost to care.” This has serious consequences for them, for their partners, and for their living or unborn children.

In April 2012, the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative was awarded a $1.4 million, two-year grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Health to tackle this difficult problem. Through the Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI), JHF is working with twenty AIDS Service Organizations across the state to improve the quality of patient services, develop or strengthen programs to re-engage individuals lost to care, and reduce avoidable hospital readmissions for persons with HIV/AIDS.

Primary Care Resource Centers
One in five elderly patients are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge. While some of these readmissions are planned, many are avoidable. As a part of the Affordable Care Act, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) instituted the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program.

In May 2012, the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative received a three-year $10.4 million award from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) to create a series of six hospital-based support hubs (Primary Care Resource Centers). These centers focus on effective care transitions of complex patients in order to assure they receive the level of care and support during and post discharge needed to reduce re-hospitalizations and the overall cost of care.

Fellowships
The Jewish Healthcare Foundation runs three annual fellowships that provide graduate students in health-related fields with interdisciplinary interaction:

Patient Safety Fellowship (focuses on quality and safety in healthcare settings and provides participants the opportunity to apply learnings in a real-world healthcare setting)
Jonas Salk Fellowship (focuses on major paradigm shifts in health care)
QI2T Health Innovators Fellowship (engages participants in exploration of the intersection of technology and healthcare quality improvement).

PRHI partners with regional educational institutions on promoting the ideals of patient collaboration and activation. Schools of nursing, medicine, dental health, and pharmacy are some of the organizations actively involved in onsite training.