January 26, 2012

Brown to take part in CMS innovation program

Brown to take part in CMS innovation program

Laura Beth Brown, president of Vanderbilt Home Care, has been selected to participate in the new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation Advisors Program.

Laura Beth Brown

Laura Beth Brown

The program helps health care professionals deepen their knowledge of health care economics and finance, population health, systems analysis and operations research — all with an eye to making improvements to patient care and reducing costs.

Innovation Advisors will work with the CMS Innovation Center to test new models of care delivery in their own organizations and communities.

Brown said her participation in this program will help Vanderbilt in distinct ways.

“This is a way to discover and generate new ideas that will drive improvement in patient care and reduce costs,” she said.

“Another benefit is this program offers us an opportunity to cross pollinate intelligence and discovery within our own organization and community, and it also gives Vanderbilt the opportunity to test new models of care delivery.”

Brown’s interest lies in creating an action plan focused on lowering readmission rates.

She is looking forward to working with other health care professionals on developing a system improvement project geared to preventing unnecessary readmissions.

Brown is one of 73 participants selected from 920 applicants. For more information, go to www.cms.gov.