Value-Based Care: Prioritizing Patient Experiences and Quality Care

Hi! My name is Morgan (she/her) and I’m an NHC member serving as a value-based care coordinator with the SFDPH Value-Based Care Team at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFGH)! I grew up in Santa Barbara, CA and graduated from Pitzer College in 2021 with a major in Human Biology. After graduating, I worked as a research associate at UCSF where I studied disease progression and immunology. I was drawn to NHC because I wanted to spend a year engaging with the San Francisco community through service and to learn more about health care systems in San Francisco.

Value-based care is, to put it simply, a framework for healthcare that prioritizes quality of care and patient experiences. The value-based care team here at ZSFGH works to drive quality improvement at clinics within the San Francisco Health Network (SFHN) – a network that primarily serves patients who are uninsured or publically insured. The team tracks and analyzes clinics’ performances regarding metrics described by the Quality Incentive Program (QIP) – a “pay for performance'' program that incentivizes health care systems to reach certain quality of care metrics to receive additional federal funding.

As a Value-Based Care Coordinator, I have had the opportunity to work on many different metrics including adult and pediatric flu vaccination rates, asthma medication ratios, zoster immunization rates, and various perinatal metrics. This often looks like data analysis, patient outreach, and/or in-clinic projects in collaboration with nurses and clinicians.

My primary project currently involves working closely with the Women’s Health Center at ZSFGH to identify challenges, successes, and areas for improvement regarding perinatal care (addressing metrics like timeliness of prenatal care, rates of depression screenings, and postpartum care). It has been inspiring to work with nurses who are passionate about driving projects to improve the quality of patients’ care experiences. In order to get a sense of the clinic workflow, I’ve been able to shadow prenatal appointments and to conduct questionnaires to hear direct feedback from nursing staff. Our team has since been working with nurses, health educators, and social service teams to assist with projects including data cleanup, updating scripts and electronic charting, standardizing workflows, and updating educational/referral flyers to increase accessibility of outside resources for prenatal patients.

My service term so far has been illuminating in expanding my understanding of how healthcare systems work and the role of healthcare professionals/leaders in driving progress to improve the experiences and outcomes of their patients. I am excited to continue learning and to see what else is in store for the rest of my service term!