Dr. Brisa Hernandez has published three articles in 2021, that span the topics of community based research, COVID-19 outreach, and social needs screening in urology. One article focuses on the process of developing a COVID-19 messaging campaign to promote access to healthcare during the pandemic, including testing for COVID-19. Another article focuses on sharing lessons learned from a community based participatory research project aimed at developing Latina community groups in Charlotte, NC. Dr. Hernande’z most recently published article focused on assessing the feasibility of integrating social needs screening in a urology clinic.

Congratulations to our clinics and quality teams across CommonSpirit Health for reaching and exceeding our quality goals in hypertension and diabetes management. I commend you and your teams on the progress made during this challenging year and how you have improved the lives of our patients with hypertension and diabetes. Your work has truly saved lives.

• Hypertension: Four markets reached our Target Goals (HTNTarget.pdf) and 25 reached our Stretch Goals (HPT.pdf) resulting in positively impacting almost 19,000 patient lives by reducing associated complications such as stroke and cardiac events
• Diabetes: Nineteen markets across our ministry reduced poorly controlled hemoglobin A1c levels in almost 3,000 patients. ( DMPDF.pdf)

Dr. Julian Mitton, system director for population health policy at CommonSpirit Health, in collaboration with Dr. Benjamin Bearnot and co-researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, MA), submitted journey maps to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) that captured the care experiences of patients treated for injection drug use-associated endocarditis (a serious heart infection). These journey maps are a novel research tool borrowed from the marketing trade that visually represent the often complicated transitions of care that patients experience as they move across the care continuum and engage in health care in often fractured and unexpected ways. NIDA is interested in this work as a way to highlight opportunities to better care for these often marginalized, and costly, patients with drug-use associated infections. Drs. Mitton and Bearnot interviewed several patients in creating these maps, learning about their successes, challenges and the system failures they confronted in treatment for both endocarditis and addiction. Their work illustrated several opportunities for care improvement, including the value of early addiction treatment and intensive, interdisciplinary outpatient care that follows patients across the care continuum. This novel work highlights the ways in which our population health team is committed to caring for the most vulnerable patients.

The CommonSpirit Health Population Health Policy & Innovation team was honored to speak at The Root Cause Coalition 6th Annual National Summit on the Social Determinants of Health. The team shared its lessons learned in its first year of establishing the Vulnerable Populations Council at CommonSpirit Health, an executive steering committee focused on health equity. To learn more about its goals and strategic design, please see the article published earlier this year, titled ” Disruptive Resilience: Harnessing Leadership to Build a More Equitable Health Care System After COVID-19“.

In June of this year, CommonSpirit Health Physician Enterprise and Population Health launched a peer-to-peer provider mentorship program for clinicians caring for patients with opioid use disorder. The MAT Champions (MATch) mentorship program aims to provide clinicians with the support and education they need to be confident in providing evidence-based medications for addiction treatment (MAT), or buprenorphine. The inaugural program brings a cohort of six MAT champions (mentors) together with six providers new to addiction care (mentees) for a half-year of supported curriculum, group education sessions and peer-to-peer mentorship. Didactic topics include, among others, the basics of opioid use disorder diagnosis, the value of an interdisciplinary care team and an introduction to harm reduction. We are excited by the diversity and breadth of clinician involvement, with twelve CommonSprit clinicians, both physicians and advanced practice providers (APPs), from five different states across our enterprise, representing inpatient specialists to outpatient primary care providers. This cohort will come to an end in November, at which point the program will be reviewed and adjusted to better serve clinician interests and needs before launching another cohort in early 2022.

CommonSpirit Health Physician Enterprise and Population Health is thrilled to announce our inaugural participation in the Baylor College of Medicine’s Center of Excellence in Health Equity Research and Training fellowship program. Two of our stellar junior faculty physicians, Drs. Tiffany Anaebere (Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton, CA) and Maria Guevara Hernandez (MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center in Des Moines, IA) will represent us in a year-long academic program led by core faculty and national-thought leaders in health equity. The fellowship provides underrepresented in medicine junior clinicians intensive mentorship and professional development support to strengthen their skills in health equity research and leadership. Drs. Anaebere and Guevara will undoubtedly represent us well and we’re excited to see how they bring their learnings back to impact the communities they serve in California and Iowa, respectively. Congratulations! For more information, please contact Dr. Alisahah Jackson.

Since Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health aligned to form CommonSpirit Health in 2019, our ministry has been focused on the pursuit of clinical excellence, operational alignment and efficiency, and the shaping of a culture that unites and uplifts the 150,000 people within the ministry who answer their calling to serve each and every day. As physicians, advanced practice providers, and clinic leaders (whether in direct patient care or behind the scenes), your contributions in all of these areas have been instrumental in our maturation and our success as an aligned ministry.

We have learned a great deal from the ministry’s collective (and ongoing) experiences during the pandemic. The time is right to introduce not only the ministry’s first strategic roadmap but also the path to its success: CommonSpirit 2026 is outlined in today’s message from CommonSpirit CEO Lloyd Dean.

CommonSpirit 2026 focuses the ministry’s effort and attention in three key areas: Our People, Our Excellence, and Our Future. And within each of those areas, a small number of priorities or drivers have also been identified.

As the front door to this ministry with more than 14 million patient encounters each year, the Physician Enterprise will play a critical role in these priorities. Each of you has an important role in building our future, whether it’s driving the highest clinical standards and delivering evidence-based medicine, designing a practice environment that engages our patients and enables our clinic teams to deliver exceptional care, finding efficiencies in our revenue cycle, engaging with our patients to bring them in for their missed screenings, developing new workflows, or building an integrated delivery network that is easy to navigate across the care continuum. These are just a few examples. There are so many more.

CommonSpirit 2026 celebrates effort and progress, and invites every member of our ministry to see their work reflected in our success and our future. And so as you review the pillars and our strategic roadmap, I hope you will take an opportunity to do just that: Appreciate how your daily contributions are strengthening the future of this ministry.

Thank you for everything you do.

The pandemic can feel like a marathon, and now, the finish line is moving. But know that no matter your role, your work is appreciated and we’ll get through this together. View this message of gratitude from Dr. Thomas McGinn, EVP, Physician Enterprise.

Two CommonSpirit leaders have been named to Diversity MBA Magazine’s prestigious annual list of Top 100 Under 50 Emerging and Executive Leaders. Congratulations to Alisahah Jackson, MD, System Vice President, Innovation and Policy, Population Health, and Marijka Grey, MD, System Director, Transformation Implementation, Physician Enterprise.

Honorees are selected for their tremendous impact on their companies and communities. Over the past two years, Dr. Jackson and Dr. Grey have stood out as leaders in CommonSpirit’s COVID-19 response as well as its vaccine rollout and education campaigns. They’ve also been critical leadership voices in addressing health disparities.
They will virtually accept their awards and be recognized for their achievements at Diversity MBA’s 15th Annual National Business Leaders Virtual Conference and Awards Gala. They will also be featured in the Winter 2021 Top 100 under 50 issue of Diversity MBA Magazine.