History

(service timeline from most-to-least recent)

2022	PHA changed to HealthTAP with a focus on consulting, coaching and training healthcare professionals in health IT security, Lean First process improvement, and quality reporting.
2021	PHA is awarded nearly $1M from HRSA to lead the Consortium for Opioids Response Engagement-East Central Indiana (CORE-ECI) to work on opioid epidemic response in east-central Indiana. PHA is awarded a $10.4M contract from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through the Indiana Department of Public Health (IDOH) to lead the Indiana Healthy Opportunities for Everyone (I-HOPE) initiative to reduce health disparities as well as improve collaboration and processes between private and public health statewide and within 30 communities ranked as most vulnerable to viral pandemic.
2020	PHA lean experts start work on improving chronic care management of congestive heart failure at an Indiana hospital through the Quality Process for Health Improvement grant. PHA's Health IT Services team folds into a newly formed Purdue cyberTAP
2019	PHA launches PHA Direct, an online platform for instruction, coaching and community building. PHA creates an online version of its Lean Daily Improvement Facilitator Training & Certification course. Through the LHTI, five critical access hospitals are certified lean by PHA. PHA begins work to help one rural Indiana community respond to prescription opioid abuse through an Office of Minority Health Empowered Communities grant, and two urban communities respond to the opioids crisis through an FSSA-funded Small Care Neighborhoods initiative. Additional state funding allows PHA to direct efforts toward improving transitions of care between hospitals and long-term care facilities in two additional communities. PHA serves as an interface between public health and eight hospitals in the Health System Change Partnerships, a multi-year initiative to create systems of intervention inside hospitals to help people quit smoking.
2018	PHA's work with State of Indiana is expanded to address several clinical challenges impacting smoking, long-term care and the opioids crisis. The LHTI adds a second cohort of participating organizations, and funding for its first cohort is extended.
2017	As a subcontractor for Altarum Institute, which was awarded CMS funds to implement the Quality Payment Program Resource Center (QPP-RC) for the Midwest, PHA staffs and maintains an Indiana QPP Resource Center Help Desk.
2014	PHA is awarded funds to oversee technical assistance and consultation for four programs: the Indiana Medicaid Promoting Interoperability (PI) Program; the Lean Healthcare Transformation Initiative (LHTI); the Great Lakes Practice Transformation Network; and Healthy Hearts in the Heartland. The Lean First process improvement program is initiated.
2012	HTAP's name is changed to Purdue Healthcare Advisors (PHA).
2010	With federal grant funding, H-TAP establishes the Purdue Regional Extension Center (PurdueREC) to provide direct technical assistance to providers who were eligible to report to the CMS EHR Incentive Payment Program (see summary below). Associated health IT security reviews, scans and risk assessments are provided as well. HTAP continues to certify learners in Lean and Lean Six Sigma for healthcare.
2005	Focused initially on lean training and population health assessments, the Healthcare Technical Assistance Program (H-TAP) is founded by Purdue University's Technical Assistance Program, the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering at Purdue, and the Indiana Hospital Association.

Former Programs

Purdue Regional Extension Center

PHA was one of 62 organizations chosen by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to implement the 2010-2015 Health IT Regional Extension Center Cooperative Agreement Program. Funded by a $13M grant to support and accelerate the efforts of primary care providers to become meaningful users of electronic health records (EHR), the Purdue Regional Extension Center (PurdueREC) provided information, guidance and technical assistance to 71 Indiana hospitals and more than 3,200 provider-clients, which enabled them to secure more than $200M in incentive payments. The PurdueREC helped providers navigate the EHR adoption process with all 25 Critical Access Hospitals and 5 Rural Hospitals successfully implementing an EHR, 83% achieving the Meaningful Use standard, and 98% achieving the first milestone. PHA was recognized nationally for excellence in Health IT privacy and security.

Healthy Hearts in the Heartland

PHA was one of seven universities and healthcare-industry partners that participated in Healthy Hearts in the Heartland (H3), a Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine-led research program from 2015-2017 that focused on quality improvement and the prevention of strokes and heart attacks. Funded by a $15 million grant ($1.4M to PHA) from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, H3 aimed to help providers in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan use population-based tools and implement performance-measurement software to improve the health of their patient population. PHA provided hands-on coaching to 60 small practices in Indiana on point-of-care support for Million Hearts^© cardiovascular measures as well as support geared toward optimizing EHR clinical decision functionality, such as clinical decision support rules and preparation for changes to quality-reporting and financial-incentive programs. Direct assistance focused on the EvidenceNOW project's six targeted clinical quality heart-health measures.

Great Lakes Practice Transformation Network

PHA was one of 32 partners in the Great Lakes Practice Transformation Network (GLPTN) led by the IU University School of Medicine, which was awarded funding by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to implement the CMS Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative (TCPi). From 2016 to 2020, PHA acted as GLPTN's lead organization in Indiana to guide more than 3,000 clinicians through the CMS-identified phases of patient-centric practice transformation necessary to effectively participate in value-based payment systems. Purdue faculty experts partnered with PHA's Quality Improvement Advisors (QIAs) to help 50+ clinics, health centers and practices meet associated TCPi milestones as well as self-identified clinical and operational goals. The 2019 GLPTN Indiana Program Summary lists the network's CMS Indiana Exemplary Practices.

Small Care Neighborhoods

From 2018 to 2020, PHA worked with several Indiana communities under the umbrella of the Small Care Neighborhoods initiative, which brought together collaboratives of community stakeholders who provide medical and non-medical services that impact a targeted chronic disease management or public health initiative. Through funding from the Indiana FSSA, PHA worked within these "neighborhoods" to provide community-building strategy, technical assistance expertise, and process improvement training and coaching. PHA worked with Allen County, Ind., (Fort Wayne) and Tippecanoe County, Ind., (Lafayette/West Lafayette) on an opioid epidemic response with the aim of developing a Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) Systems Intervention Model for Allen County and increasing access to addiction treatment/recovery services for Tippecanoe County. Stakeholders included Parkview Health as the Allen County anchor. PHA worked with Vanderburgh County, Ind., (Evansville) and Vigo County, Ind., (Terre Haute) to improve the quality and cost of care for long-term care and post-acute care patients through better care transitions, medication management, and improved processes. Specific goals included reduced hospital readmissions and reductions in unnecessary ER visits. Evansville's stakeholders included Deaconess Hospital, Deaconess VNA Plus, the Village at Hamilton Pointe, and Solarbron. Terre Haute stakeholders included Union Hospital, Westminster Village Health & Rehab, Meadows Manor East, and the Visiting Nurse Association.

Indiana Tobacco Control Program Health System Change Partnerships

The TCP Health System Change Partnerships initiative was created to build capacity within Indiana health systems to impact tobacco use, specifically supporting integration of tobacco dependence treatment. The multi-year partnership between the Cancer Support Community, Community Health Network, the Indiana Hospital Association, the Indiana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Rethink Tobacco Indiana, and Southwestern Behavioral Health aimed to create systems of intervention inside hospitals to help people quit smoking. In implementing systems-change initiatives, hospitals were supported with technical assistance/services targeting the implementation of best practices for tobacco dependence treatment with regard to care coordination; quality improvement; and the utilization of electronic health records. As a technical assistance partner to the initiative, PHA served as an interface between public health and Columbus Regional Hospital, Greene County General Hospital, Marion General Hospital, Baptist Health, Pulaski Memorial Hospital, Putnam County Hospital, Franciscan Health-Rensselaer, and Decatur County Memorial Hospital. PHA facilitated lean process improvement to build new standard work within several different value streams as each hospital selected an initial patient population for intervention (i.e. ICU, oncology, maternity, and prevention).

Empowered Communities

The Empowered Communities Initiative (ECI) was a three-year intervention in rural Fayette County, Indiana, (Connersville) with the dual aims of reducing prescription opioids use and increasing patient access to addiction treatment and recovery services. PHA facilitated community collaboration to set strategic direction and mobilize local resources. The initiative educated the community’s providers on best practices for responsible prescribing, including training for patient education to avoid prescription opioid addiction; empowered patients to change addictive behaviors through proven motivational interviewing techniques; instructed local retail pharmacies on the state-wide naloxone standing order to increase naloxone practical availability; and built capacity for the timely treatment of those who do become addicted to opioids, either through illicit or prescribed drugs, with the implementation of lean process improvement methodologies. PHA worked with Meridian Health Services, the Connersville Police Department, the Fayette County Probation Department, the Choices Emergency Response Team to create strategy maps and uncover resources.  

Indiana Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Program

From 2016 through 2021, PHA guided nearly 175 Indiana-based organizations (900 providers) to successfully participate in the Indiana Medicaid Promoting Interoperability (PI) Program (formerly EHR Incentive Programs/Meaningful Use) and/or the Quality Payment Program Merit-based Incentive Payment Program (MIPS). Remote/help desk and on-site services included direct technical assistance; a security risk assessment required by HIPAA; a documentation review, EHR optimization, external vulnerability scan, and phishing testing; and guidance on how to prepare for an audit. For information about an attestation previously submitted through the Medical Assistance Provider Incentive Repository (MAPIR), contact 855-856-9563 or MedicaidHealthIT@fssa.in.gov.

Quality Payment Program Resource Center (QPP-RC)

From 2017-2022, the QPP Resource Center™ for the Midwest help 35,000+ clinicians in Indiana and six other states prepare for and successfully participate in the new Quality Payment Program (QPP). The QPP was created by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) to determine levels of Medicare reimbursement for individual clinicians through a new, value-based system. As a coalition member of the MACRA Provider Resource Network (M-PRN),  PHA brought direct support to approximately 2,900 MIPS-eligible, Indiana-based clinicians to help them choose and report on quality measures. The multi-year program offered remote services ― including educational webinars, a help desk and a resource library ― to improve their MIPS metrics. Other coalition partners included lead organziation Michigan-based Altarum Institute along with MPRO, Michigan Center for Rural Health, Medical Advantage Group, Northwestern University, Northern Illinois University, Stratis Health, MetaStar, and the Kentucky Regional Extension Center at the University of Kentucky.