1. We aren’t even sure all of our leadership team is on the same page with the changes we need to make. What advice do you have for us?

This is a typical concern of most leadership teams when they plan to embark on this journey. It’s normal, although it’s not ideal. The leadership team members, just like each front-line staff member, need their own time to process their need for change and their need to bring in “outside” help.

This is why organizations going through the Coleman DPI™ Collaborative program also engage in the High Impact Management Program. It provides leaders the tools they need to manage change, to rachet up trust, commitment, and accountability, and to decrease the workplace drama around change.

2. How is this DPI™ collaboration approach different from a Rapid DPI™?

While the Rapid DPI™ happens at your clinic site while patients are being seen, the DPI™ collaborative approach pulls a key team of staff members out of the clinic to take time away from the hustle and bustle and learn the concepts and best practices of other centers like themselves and then create their own plan for testing and implementing (with expert advice and coaching guidance all along the way). This process is slower than the Coleman Rapid DPI™, costs about half the price, and teaches more of the DPI™ and Quality Improvement theory along the way.

3. How do we decide whether the Rapid DPI™ or the DPI™ Collaborative is a better fit for us?  
There are many things to consider when deciding between the two options including timeline and urgency for change, openness for change, the size of your organization, and budget. The Rapid DPI™ is not for the faint of heart, it is more labor-intensive, costs more, and yet if it’s what you need…it makes change happen almost immediately. Top leadership must be fully supportive to make a Rapid DPI™ successful.

The DPI™ collaborative is ideal for organizations with more than two distinct clinic sites. It is slower, gives more staff time to “kick the tires” regarding change, helps to develop standardized processes across the organization, and creates more of an internal R & D (Research and Development) team. Collaboratives are most successful when there are three or more peer clinics in your organization being trained simultaneously, as it fosters a sense of internal support and competition—healthy competition in which the patient is the clear winner.

In the Before you Get Started section of this website, you will find a tool to help you assess your Rapid DPI™ readiness.

4. We are moving toward Alternative Payment Models. Will our goals be at cross purposes?  How will DPI™ help us?

APMs want both efficient care, great access for patients (established and newly attributed), and high-quality outcomes. DPI™ helps the organization to get a better handle on where it is on this continuum of preparation and take some big steps forward to prepare the care teams for a new way of working. The organization that is able to manage day-to-day work as well as “outside of the visit work” like referrals is better positioned to meet the needs of a patient outside of a strict fee-for-service environment. DPI™ helps you to create a transformed experience that is fully compatible with your next steps toward APMs.

DPI™ teaches your staff, managers, and Patient Care Teams how to focus on the needs of the patients and optimize the visit. It will even teach your team members how to call into question whether or not the visit, in its traditional sense, is even needed by the patient or the provider. In the evolving world of payment reform, it is now not just in the interest of the patients’ time and needs but also in the interest of the practice’s finances to think about alternative ways to meet the patients’ medical needs without requiring them to come in for a traditional visit. DPI™ will help your team explore those options and think about how the visit workflows can best meet everyone’s needs.

5. Our providers are already accustomed to having a personal medical assistant, will this make it harder for them to accept working in the full-blown team model that you present?  
It depends on the traits of the individual clinician. Some are team players and some are not. Patient care teams include clinicians but they are patient-centered rather than clinician-focused, as in a system of clinicians and clinical assistants. This is a whole new way of working for clinicians and non-clinicians alike.  An ideal care team includes providers, MAs, front office staff as well as other support staff like nurses, behavioral health specialists, phone staff, and/or community health workers when they are already part of your mission and staffing model. More robust teams have included clinical pharmacists, dental hygienists, and other care coordination staff.

6. What are the criteria used to select the DPI™ team?
Choosing the best and brightest staff to initially design and test ideas is crucial to dramatic transformation. No staff member should be excluded from consideration. We are looking for people who possess the characteristics of successful DPI team members: Great communicators, terrific team players, proven problem solvers, and embracers of change and new technology. DO NOT SELECT YOUR TEAM WITHOUT OUR COACHING YOU THROUGH THIS PROCESS.

7. What is this Tactical Nurse™ role I keep hearing about?

With improved access comes a change in triage and other team member functions, which frees up nurses to work with greater agility on the floor with the patient care team. This allows for increased clinician support and helps all team members to work at the top of their licenses. Part of our collaborative process includes an optional (depending on the progress made in other areas of team-based care and access) Tactical Nurse™ Training. This is a dedicated session with nurses and key providers (typically in LAP3 or after the final LS), which provides training for clinic nurses so that this role becomes integrated into the team and allows all nursing staff to work at the top of their license.