HIBC Initiatives

Expanding development and adoption of culturally appropriate strategies to help patients from diverse backgrounds manage chronic illnesses through education. Integrating community-based services into health care. Streamlining processes and creating new health care professions to provide additional resources and care management across multiple care settings for patients with chronic, complex illnesses. Enhancing communications between hospitals and Primary Care Physicians by piloting standardized patient discharge tools. Supporting training to help providers move patients between stages and settings more effectively and efficiently. Supporting 19 Healthy Eating and Active Living (HEAL) projects and developing an island-wide, free, online Health & Wellness Directory. Working to empower people to commit to healthy living. Tracking performance across all initiatives to link investments with improvements in health care cost, quality, and population health. Providing training for Primary Care Physicians to fast-track the adoption of the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model of preventive, collaborative care that engages patients. Providing physicians with technical support to set up and use Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and demonstrate Meaningful Use. Building and strengthening the infrastructure for effective information exchange. Leading two of the first pilot systems in our state. Advancing collaboration between providers, enabling communication across the industry, and providing tools and data to aid clinical decisions. Collaborating with payers and providers to implement the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) model. Transforming health care from reactive to proactive and from pay for service to pay for outcomes.

Bringing the System Together
In our approach, we draw on the concept of traditional Hawaiian land divisions or ahupua‘a: wedge-shaped areas running from the mountains to the sea, following natural watershed boundaries. Each ahupua‘a contained all of the resources for a community to thrive—not just in the immediate present, but well into the future. The success of the ahupua‘a called for laulima (many hands) and an understanding of kuleana (responsibility) by each member of the community to ensure the long-term well-being of all in a way that was pono (righteous).

That is the spirit that informs the way the Hawai‘i Island Beacon Community (HIBC) is working with the community and health care partners to transform health care for the well-being of the people of Hawai‘i Island.

Initiative Overview
The Hawai‘i Island Beacon Community (HIBC) is helping to create a future where hospitals, clinicians, and patients are meaningful users of health information technology. Working together, the community can attain measurable improvements in health care quality, safety, efficiency and population health. Collectively, these initiatives are intended to lower the cost of healthcare, increase quality, and ultimately improve the health of our Hawai‘i Island residents as part of a larger effort to modernize the nations health care deliver system. To address this opportunity, HIBC developed a series of inter-connected approaches which lay the foundation for transformative change integrating clinical care delivery transformation, health information technology and community engagement focused on wellness and prevention on Hawai‘i Island.

Areas of Focus
Clinical Transformation is accomplished through the collaborative creation of improved systems and workflows.

Technology provides the tools to connect all participants in the health care system, overcome geographical and socioeconomic challenges, and enhance access and quality of care. 

Wellness and Prevention is also important to the HIBC initiative. Fostering healthy behaviors through lifestyle choices, disease prevention, and personal health management will yield longstanding positive results. 

Target Quality Measures
HIBC projects address four key program aims and demonstrated significant progress toward meeting related quality measures in 2012:

    Aim 1: Improve access to care
    Aim 2: Avert the onset/advancement of diabetes, hypertension, and lipidemia
    Aim 3: Reduce health disparities for Native Hawaiians and other populations at risk
    Aim 4: Achieve electronic health records (EHR) adoption and meaningful use