Massachusetts Hospital Association & Geneia Partner to Provide Innovative Education to Hospital Patient Care Teams

BOSTON, Jan. 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA) and Geneia^® today announced a multi-year partnership to assist Massachusetts hospitals to achieve the Triple Aim of improving the quality of care, increasing patient satisfaction, and reducing the overall cost of health care.  Through its flagship offering The Geneia Institute, Geneia will deliver hands-on motivational interviewing courses for patient care teams, which will give team members needed skills and extensive run-through drills to impact behavior change in populations.

"Our hospitals are increasingly being asked to do more with less," said Lynn Nicholas, MHA's President & CEO.  "One important way that MHA provides value to our member hospitals and their patients is by providing The Geneia Institute's innovative education and skills-based trainings, which enable physicians, nurses, medical assistants, and other clinicians to work more effectively with patients."

Motivational interviewing is a goal-oriented, patient-centered counseling style to elicit behavior change by helping clients explore and resolve ambivalence and engage intrinsic motivation. The technique was initially used to encourage patients to modify abusive drinking behaviors but has also been used successfully to help patients change a range of behaviors that put their health at risk or exacerbate a chronic condition.  A meta-analysis of 72 randomized clinical trials on motivational interviewing's effectiveness in eliciting behavior change such as smoking cessation, weight loss, decreased alcohol use, HIV risk reduction, and cholesterol level control found that the technique has a "significant and clinically relevant effect in modifying behaviors in approximately 75% of the studies¹."

"Decades of research have shown that motivational interviewing works.  More recently, because of its success in improving patient engagement and behavior, motivational interviewing has emerged as a best practice for population health management," said Heather Lavoie, Chief Operating Officer of Geneia. "What's unique about The Geneia Institute's course is that we couple real-life application of the concepts with intensive practice – and that increases patient and clinician satisfaction and effectiveness."

MHA was awarded a Health Care Workforce Transformation Fund by the Commonwealth Corporation that will support the delivery of five motivational interviewing courses at Massachusetts hospitals in 2015 and 2016.  MHA members are invited to apply to hold one of the courses for their employees.  The first course will begin in April 2015.

ABOUT MASSACHUSETTS HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION
The Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA) is a voluntary, not-for-profit organization comprised of hospitals and health systems, related organizations, and other members with a common interest in promoting the good health of the people of the Commonwealth. Through leadership in public advocacy, education, and information, MHA represents and advocates for the collective interests of its members and supports their efforts to provide high quality, cost effective and accessible care. For more information, visit www.mhalink.org.

ABOUT GENEIA
Geneia specializes in the development of advanced clinical, analytical, and technical solutions for health care.  Our dedicated team of physicians, nurses, technologists, analytics experts, and business professionals brings significant experience in all aspects of health care to create solutions that improve health care cost, quality, and accessibility.  Geneia helps hospitals, physicians, health plans, brokers, employers, and consumers succeed in the post health care reform environment.  The Geneia Institute, one of the company's flagship offerings, delivers education and skills-based courses in population health management, behavioral change, and team-based care delivery to physicians, patient care teams, and health leaders.  The company has offices in Harrisburg, PA and Concord, NH.  To learn more, visit geneia.com or geneiainstitute.com or connect with us Twitter and LinkedIn.

SOURCE Geneia

Related Links

http://www.geneia.com