Category: State Government Agency

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration contracts Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) to achieve high quality health outcomes for Floridians with low socioeconomic resources. In 2022, the baseline rate for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening among Florida Medicaid MCO enrollees was 45%. The Agency sought to rapidly increase that rate and therefore created a new healthcare policy that incentivized MCOs through a point system designed with input from the American Cancer Society, Exact Sciences, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over nine months of biweekly meetings, the group of public-private partners used real time data to share progress and strategies to increase CRC screening, including new data flows, gap analyses with physicians, outreach methods and events, social and text messaging campaigns, celebrity promotions, and focus on disparate subpopulations. Nearly 40,000 Floridians were screened in a 9-month period, representing a 6% increase to 51% and totaled 85,000 Floridians up to date with CRC screening in 2023. The Agency is most proud of the synergy achieved from this public-private partnership, which depended on a willingness to rapidly change business practices, interactive communication, and ingenuity among data scientists, Chief Medical Officers, quality directors, and outreach teams. Learn more about them here. 

Category: Health System  

Unity Medical Center is a non-profit critical access hospital with primary care clinics in Grafton and Park River, North Dakota, serving 20,000 people in Walsh County and the surrounding mainly rural areas. In October of 2022, Unity Medical Center developed an ambitious action plan to improve their colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates from a baseline of 41% to 70% by December 2023. Their plan employed evidence-based interventions such as provider and patient reminders, patient education, internal policy change, standing orders, EHR data and reporting, and improved provider recommendations to patients. Unity Medical Center also participated actively in the North Dakota CRC Roundtable through their provider champion, Dr. Jared Marquardt, the state roundtable chair. As of December 2023, their CRC screening rates have risen to 69% and are still rising. They are most proud of the huge amount of buy in from the staff, who are enjoying their innovative techniques to reach the community by focusing on their patients and unique partners.  Learn more about them here. 

Category: Community Clinic

Family Health Services is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in South Central Idaho serving over 30,000 patients in an eight-county rural area through eleven locations. In 2015, only 18% of the age-eligible population at Family Health Services was up to date with colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. The health center received state grant funding to increase their CRC screening rates and thereafter refocused their efforts on patient education and outreach, barrier identification, provider recommendation, navigation to colonoscopy for patients with a positive or abnormal stool test, and an innovative program that fundraises at least $25,000 each year for discount colonoscopies from referral partners. They continue to look for innovative ways to increase CRC screening by addressing various barriers, including those related to insurance, income, geography, or culture. January 2024 data shows the health center’s overall CRC screening rate has reached 56.2%, with some clinics and providers achieving rates of 60% to 75%. Health center staff are most proud of how their team set the bar high to reach their goal CRC screening rate. Through consistent quality improvement work and staff buy-in, they are reaching and exceeding expectations.  Learn more about the work that earned them their honoree status here or at their website here.

Category: Survivor Champion

Mikisha Longie is a colorectal cancer (CRC) survivor, public health nurse at the Quentin N. Burdick Memorial Health Care Facility of the Indian Health Service (IHS), and champion for CRC screening as a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Reservation. Her insistence on using data to drive decision making revealed a significant regression in CRC screening within the clinic post-COVID. To address this, Mikisha has worked to spearhead collaborative efforts between public health, tribal health educators, and the IHS clinics in her community. Strategies she has championed include patient education in multiple venues and forms, patient navigation, standing orders for average risk patients, and EHR improvements, such as building a provider assessment report to review at monthly meetings. From February to August of 2023, the clinic achieved a 42.8 percent improvement in CRC screening rates largely attributable to Mikisha’s work. Mikisha is most proud that her team’s efforts are making a difference in their community screening rates.