The Beacon Community Program goals include building and strengthening a health information

technology infrastructure; improving health outcomes, care quality, and cost efficiencies; and
spearheading innovations to achieve better health and health care.

Southeastern Michigan Beacon Community

Overview of the Southeastern Michigan Beacon Community
More than 1.9 million individuals reside in the five jurisdictions included in the Southeastern
Michigan Beacon Community (SEMBC). In 2008, diabetes became the sixth leading cause of
death in Michigan, and the costs associated with the disease consistently average close to $6.5
billion, a good portion of which results in uncompensated care. Approximately 9 percent of
Michigan residents suffer from diabetes; this figure rises to 13.5 percent for the city of Detroit. The
disease disproportionately affects individuals with low income: Those making less than $20,000 a
year are three times more likely to suffer from the preventable complications of this disease than
those with incomes greater than $75,000.

The SEMBC believes that eliminating the current fragmentation in the Southeast Michigan health
care system will improve care delivery and health and productivity outcomes for patients — while
reducing costs. SEMBC aims to construct a highly functioning, patient-centered coordinated care
network based on the chronic care model. This model places a strong emphasis on preventive
care and patient empowerment.

Goal of the Program

Through meaningful use of health information technology (health IT), the SEMBC is focusing on
goals that significantly address the care quality, health outcome, and cost issues in the region.
Specifically, the Beacon Community is using existing and expanded electronic health record
(EHR) and health information exchange infrastructures to:
Enhance the care coordination and health care processes with a focus on effective use of
networked patient information and EHRs
Improve quality of life for patients diagnosed with diabetes
Leverage existing technologies to enhance patient involvement in the management of their
own chronic illnesses
Reduce diabetes-related emergency department visits, hospital admission rates, and
readmissions within 30 days of discharge

Using Health Information Technology to Make a Difference

Through strong collaborative efforts in the past, the Detroit area has already seen improvements
in patient care resulting from effective use of health IT. The Michigan State Action on Avoidable
Rehospitalization Initiative, which began in 2009, utilizes information exchange focused on
medication reconciliation and handover information between sending and receiving organizations
to reduce hospital readmission rates. The IT-enabled initiative has brought together transition
teams including physicians, home health, extended care, patients and their families, and
community representatives.
When utilized to their full-potential within an organization’s workflow, advanced EHR systems can
provide the foundation for quality improvement initiatives. The Detroit Medical Center, a Health
Information Management Systems Society Stage 6 hospital system, showed 50-75 percent
reductions in the major class medication errors through the introduction of closed-loop medication
administration.

Further demonstrating this commitment to using health IT to provide better patient care, the
Beacon Community is using existing and additional technologies to improve the availability of
patient information at the point of care, including clinical decision-support features and
establishing the platform necessary for effective care coordination.

A Team Approach
The SEMBC is a diverse multi-stakeholder consortium with more than 60 members led by the
Southeastern Michigan Health Association. Leading the Beacon Community in its efforts of
leveraging health IT to achieve improvements in quality, efficiency, and population health is a
unique governance body that includes leadership of Federally Qualified Health Centers, local
health systems, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan,
MPRO (Michigan’s Quality Improvement Organization), Voices of Detroit Initiative, Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the State of Michigan.

Improvements for Patients and the Community

The SEMBC is working to improve the quality and coordination of care for patients with diabetes.
Through an integrated approach of promoting and supporting health IT, onsite coaching and
broad-based engagement of ethnic, community, and faith-based organziations, the Beacon
Community is in the midst of implementing a number of powerful interventions which are
targeting 20-30 percent of the catchment area’s hardest to reach diabetics. Efforts include the
following:
Improving diabetes care and reducing hospital utilization through onsite coaching in
approximately 48 primary care practices and up to 10 emergency departments
Assigning community-based care managers to high-risk patients to facilitate care transitions
Connecting various components of the care delivery system through a limited health
information exchange
Maximizing effective use of clinical decision-support tools already in place at the practice
level in order to improve chronic disease management
Utilizing mobile technology to send reminders to patients and relevant health information to
providers