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6 Design Components from Sentara’s New Model of Care

Analysis  |  By Laura Beerman  
   May 11, 2022

Serving Medicaid and uninsured patients, the hyper-local model will address clinical and medical needs in targeted communities.

Sentara Healthcare has announced an innovative model of care (MOC) that will combine prevention and primary care with wrap-around behavioral health and social services. The MOC will target Medicaid members and uninsured populations in Virginia and northeastern North Carolina.

“These centers will touch individuals in a way that has not been previously attempted,” said Dr. Keith Newby, co-director of Sentara health equity, along with Iris Lundy, RN, in a press release for the announcement.

Newby added: “Integrating both clinical medicine and, equally if not as important, lifestyle modification and mental health assistance gives a broader approach to what is needed to improve our patients’ health and well-being.”

Sentara Healthcare is a non-profit, integrated provider that includes 12 hospitals in Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina, a large physician network, and 900,000-member Sentara Health Plans division. Sentara’s MOC components include:

  1. Program Goals – The MOC’s three objectives are to: Create patient relationships that promote trust to ensure needed care; zero in on local needs and the programs that can help meet them; offer more convenience care rooted in neighborhoods and homes; and focus on prevalent and preventable health conditions.
     
  2. Operations – Sentara Health Plans (Optima Health and Virginia Premier) will operate the community centers, which will be supported by professionals from Sentara, other health systems, and community organizations.
     
  3. Where and When – The first community care location is planned for Hampton Roads, Virginia, in summer 2022, with multiple additional centers planned throughout the year and into 2023.
     
  4. Three components – The Sentara MOC will embed neighborhood clinics where its more vulnerable members live, while also providing transportation where needed via a Mobile Health Bus as well as a Homeless Residential Program for patients who are discharged from Sentara hospitals but have nowhere to go.
     
  5. Collaboration – Sentara worked with local leaders and groups identify, design, and create the new MOC.
     
  6. Data – Sentara complemented its community collaboration with a combination of geographic information system technology and de-identified data to identify and prioritize Sentara customers and markets for the MOC.
     

In the press release, Dennis Matheis, president of Sentara Health Plans and executive vice president of Sentara Healthcare, stated: “It is critical that we come together and invest needed resources to build stronger, healthier, more equitable communities … This model does just that and is a testament to the benefits of Sentara’s integrated delivery network.”

Laura Beerman is a contributing writer for HealthLeaders.

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