UIS students and faculty take part in a national collaboration studying super-users of healthcare

UIS students Regina Bolin and Sicely Nicholas joined seven other student researchers in Camden, New Jersey in July to begin the collaboration.

Five University of Illinois Springfield students and two faculty member are part of a national collaborative that aims to better understand super-users of healthcare services in the United States.

Over the next six months, UIS students will partner with team members from the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, St. John's College of Nursing and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville to engage three to four high-utilizing patients.

The teams of five to six students, will learn about the barriers that medically and socially complex patients face to obtaining high-quality care and maintaining their health.

“Beyond the student opportunities, this program makes a huge difference in patients' lives and in the local community,” said Brittany Carls, a UIS graduate student taking part in the collaboration.

“By working directly with patients, we are able to provide social support, help patients navigate the healthcare system, get patients on track to reaching their health goals, and lower the economic burden that often occurs with super-utilizers," she added.

Through online curriculum and accompanying monthly case conferencing, the students will learn the key aspects of high-utilizer interventions: obtaining and using data for patient identification and selection, engaging patient and communities, motivational interviewing, transitioning patients to their primary care providers, and recording patient outcomes.

UIS Associate Professor of Business Administration Jorge Villegas and UIS Social Work Fieldwork Director and Advisor Vincent Flammini will assist the students.

UIS students taking part in the collaboration include Brittany Carls (MBA), Regina Bolin and Colleen McMahon (BBA), and Sicely Nicholas and Katherine Selway (Social Work).

The central Illinois team is one of 30 teams across the nation engaging with high-utilizing patients during the Interprofessional Student Hotspotting Learning Collaborative. Findings will be reviewed during a wrap-up meeting in January 2017 in Camden, New Jersey.

The collaboration is being held in conjunction with the Camden Coalition, Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and Primary Care Progress (PCP).