Methodist Healthcare Ministries receives Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award

Award to implement Advancing Health in South Texas Engagement Series

Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc. received the Eugene Washington Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Engagement Award to implement a community engagement series called Advancing Health in South Texas. The series seeks to convene patients and key stakeholders across a 20-county area to develop a coordinated regional approach for patient-centered research and evaluation among university systems, academic institutions, managed care organizations, and public health systems. The desired outcome is to promote actionable and measurable engagement opportunities to create a clear and intentional framework to guide system alignment and ensure authentic patient engagement in the future dissemination of research and evaluation findings. The series is focused on the Rio Grande Valley and Coastal Bend regions of Texas to include Aransas, Bee, Brooks, Cameron, Dimmit, Duval, Hidalgo, Jim Hogg, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kleberg, Maverick, Nueces, Refugio, San Patricio, Starr, Webb, Willacy, Zapata and Zavala counties.

The engagement series consists of five sessions taking place in the Rio Grande Valley and Coastal Bend regions of Texas all with specific audiences and purposes:

  • What Matters to You? (February 2016) consisted of six, two-hour focus groups in Cameron, Hidalgo, Jim Wells, Nueces, Webb and Zavala counties. These sessions solicited community feedback to frame and shape conversations among academic institutions, managed care organizations, and public health systems. The sessions gathered valuable patient feedback regarding what patients identify and define as important health issues for their communities. We also explored how health issues are communicated to patients and whether these strategies are effective, and if they believe they are actively engaged in co-constructing solutions. Read summary report
  • Knowledge Sharing Champions (May 2016; McAllen) brought together university systems and academic institutions with a regional footprint to discuss current areas of research; opportunities for intersection and alignment around population health outcomes; opportunities to share meta-data sets; how and/or if patient stakeholder groups are currently engaged throughout the research process; and how research findings and evaluation results are, or are not, shared and communicated with patient stakeholder groups.
  • Engaging Health Payers (August 2016; Austin) will bring together managed care organizations to discuss findings from the first two sessions; opportunities to develop a consensus around the need for patient-centered research and evaluation; opportunities to identify areas of alignment and gaps based on patient input; how to redefine engagement and participate in effective care models and improved population health outcomes; how planned research and state funded projects can help shape and inform market growth and reimbursement strategies; and how policy changes can be made under the purview of the public health systems, policy makers and managed care organizations to incentivize and encourage future alignment and integration of patience-centered research and dissemination .This session allows historically disjointed systems to connect around shared population health outcomes and measurements, as well as, realize the importance of patient engagement strategies and identifies possible gaps.
  • Engaging the Community Voice (October 2016; TBD) will gather end users, such as consumers, caregivers, policy makers and health advocacy groups to discuss best-in-class strategies for research dissemination. The results of these sessions will allow regional academic and public health systems to align dissemination practices with the realities of consumers. Essentially, this meeting will determine the best way to package and communicate information for patients.
  • Building the Patient-Centered Partnership (February 2017; TBD) will bring back participants from the Knowledge Sharing Champions session to discuss systems redesign based on the information gathered throughout the engagement series and discuss how they will incorporate consumer feedback in their dissemination strategies and research plans. During the session, participants will hear from patient-identified community leaders who will share health-related research questions, ideas, and suggestions developed throughout the patient-focused discussions with systems leaders. This session will also have a call to action to engage all academic and public health systems to create a clear and intentional framework to guide system alignment and ensure patient feedback and authentic patient engagement in the future dissemination of research and evaluation findings.

Methodist Healthcare Ministries is committed to hosting meetings throughout the region to build the infrastructure necessary for relevant and meaningful research dissemination for the next decade.

"We at Methodist Healthcare Ministries believe the quality of health care is immensely improved when patients are well-informed to become their own advocates. We are honored to be selected by PCORI, and to be recognized for our ability to assemble community members in a collaborative and meaningful way," explains Rebecca Brune, Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning & Growth. "The engagement series will provide us with a stronger platform upon which to make systems changes and facilitate further conversation on the topic of improving the health care landscape in South Texas. We are embarking upon a critical journey; a journey that has the potential to positively change the healthcare system in our community."

PCORI is an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress in 2010 to fund comparative effectiveness research that will provide patients, their caregivers, and clinicians with the evidence needed to make better-informed health and healthcare decisions. PCORI is committed to seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work.