Humans of NHC: Alec Parker

Guthrie Buehler's thoughts on his conversation with Alec Parker: 

Alec Parker came to WellSpace Health in the Fall of 2023 as a care engagement intern, hoping to gain experience in health care before applying to medical school. However, Alec quickly fell in love with Clinical Quality, and made himself an essential member of the department, devising new ways to help engage WellSpace’s patient population to achieve their preventive care and chronic condition management goals. Transitioning into the role of clinical quality outreach specialist, Alec developed the Wellness Ambassador program, which has been a successful integration of clinical quality into our care teams in the clinical setting. Splitting his time between one of WellSpace’s health centers and the administrative office, Alec “[has] the opportunity to really make a difference… I work with people across lots of departments, and in pretty high up positions.” Through his on the ground work in the health centers, Alec is able to bring a unique perspective to weekly meetings with the clinical quality department, identifying opportunities and challenges that might not be immediately apparent. Additionally, Alec has loved the freedom he has to identify areas of improvement and develop his own projects. His proudest achievement is the development of a chart abstraction program with a three-pronged approach: to identify gaps in care; to determine action needed to close gaps; and to implement interventions to ensure gap closure. Our team observed that providers struggled to address patients’ preventive care needs in addition to acute medical issues given strict time constraints. To assist with this, we created an automated chart tool that summarizes gaps and identifies actions for each missing care need. The tool presents the information in a manageable way that saves time for providers while ensuring that all health maintenance checklist items are addressed. Finally, care teams reach out to Alec and his team members to connect their patients with any follow-up services they need. The program has expanded from a pilot of four care teams to 25 across ten health centers, impacting thousands of patients.