We are extremely proud of the winners of Building Michigan’s Health Care Workforce awards. The board and staff of the Michigan Health Council see all of the great work our partners are doing around the state to develop high-quality programs to address the concerns facing health care professionals and employers.
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Here are more details about each award-winning program:
Community and Regional Collaboration
Spectrum Health System
The Spectrum Health Healthier Communities team has dedicated more than $6 million each year towards community-based programs that focus on prevention, early intervention, and improved access to health care for at-risk and underserved communities.
These programs include:
– Core Health: A free, 12-month program for adults with diabetes or health failure that gives patients access to home visits, education, mentoring, and community services. This program has led to improved health outcomes for diabetic patients and reduced emergency room visits from heart failure patients by nearly a third.
– School Health Advocacy: In collaboration with local schools, a health care team worked with educators provided on-site clinical services and education to students.
– Mothers Offering Mothers Support: A maternal-infant health program that provide services to at-risk pregnant women and new moms.
– Programa Puente: A health navigation program to Spanish speaking families and community to increase health literacy in Latino communities.
– Commit to be Fit Workplace Wellness: A collaborative effort to improve the health status of workers at seven manufacturing companies with 1,300 individuals. Over 98 percent of program participants reduced their blood pressure to under 140/90.
Lansing Community Primary Care/Mental Health Co-Location Project
This project is a partnership among the Michigan State University Department of Psychiatry, Community Mental Health of Clinton, Eaton, Ingham Counties, MSU/Sparrow Family Medicine Residency Program, Ingham County Health Department, and MSU Department of Family Medicine to increase access to mental health and primary care for underserved community residents.
The project involves both a primary care health center pilot at Community Mental Health of Clinton, Eaton, Ingham Counties with a Mobile Health Unit and plans for full-time expansion as well as embedded collaborative mental health care at two MSU/Sparrow Family Medicine Residency Program locations within two Sparrow Family Health Centers. Interprofessional education is central to this collaborative effort with the following students involved in this project: psychiatry residents, family medicine residents, internal medicine residents, and social work students.
Education and Training
Davenport University
Davenport University responded to a need to create a bachelors-level certified Health Information Management program and includes 300 bachelor-level students.
All of the graduates from the Health Information Management program passed the certification exam and 87 percent of Health Information Technician students passed the RHIT exam. In 2011, 100 percent of employers surveyed said they were satisfied with the education Davenport students received.
Hope College Nursing Department
Hope College forged a partnership with the Michigan State University College of Nursing to create a pathway to increase the number of Ph.D. trained nurses to expand the capacity of nursing faculty in Michigan.
Approximately 40% of the 2012 Hope nursing graduates reported enrollment in graduate programs, demonstrating the Hope program of increased mentoring and exposure to graduate-level work has begun to pay dividends.
Health Care Workforce Recruitment
Michigan State University College of Nursing
The Michigan State University College of Nursing created a collaborative agreement with two community colleges: Macomb and Lansing Community College; to create a smoother transition for RN-track students to obtain a Bachelors of Science in Nursing.
This program will help ease the transition and deepen the pool of qualified Bachelor’s-trained nurses in Michigan.
Portage Health
Portage Health, located in Hancock Michigan on the Keweenaw Peninsula dramatically increased the number of providers it hired after investing in a full-time staff recruiter, emphasizing site visits, clinical rotations, and community investment.
This program has saved approximately $90,000 a year, and Portage Health has hired almost seven new providers each year since the program started. This is truly a remarkable achievement for a Critical Access Hospital.
Trinity Health West Michigan
Trinity Health West Michigan created a multi-state talent acquisition program to screen and select job candidates and match those candidates to jobs that best match their skills, abilities, and knowledge using objective measures.
After implementing this program, the health system has decreased staff turnover, increased retention, . and improved the quality of candidates hired.
Health Care Workforce Retention
Hills and Dales Hospital
Hills and Dales General Hospital addressed low employee morale and high turnover by creating a team interviewing and new-hire support system to provide new employees additional support and feedback during the critical first 90 days of employment.
After implementing this program, employee turnover is only 5% and now almost every employee responds and returns the employee satisfaction survey.
Kalkaska Memorial Health System
Memorial Health System in Kalkaska created a program to encourage on-going training and advancement with their staff. The program includes tutition assistance, loan repayment, encouraging rotations for clinical students, and scholarships for the children of current staff.
The program has been used by 20 percent of employees and 98 percent of employees who use the programs have worked for the hospital longer than two years. Turnover decreased from 34 to 14 percent and long-term staff make up over half of the Kalkaska workforce.
Cadillac Family Physicians
Cadillac Family Physicians sought to reduce the turnover with their nursing staff by increasing the practice opportunities for nurses by allowing enabling nurses to train to the fullest extent of their scope of practice.
Through this process the office was able to obtain a NCQA Level 3 Patient Centered Medical Home status.
HOSA Trailblazer Award
This Year’s Health Occupations Students of America Award was given to Marti VanEenenaam-Iwanicki, the HOSA advisor at Fraser High School. Marti is a certified Athletic Trainer and has led her students to be successful individuals in the classroom, on the field and in their future profession.
Under Marti’s leadership, the Fraser High School HOSA chapter has adopted their community and engaged in many community events to share their specialized health care knowledge. During the winter of 2012, over 120 fourth grade students visited Fraser High School for a health fair conducted by HOSA students.