Behavioral Health

strategic plans. The need for highly educated APPs to be quickly oriented into their specialty practice areas and reach full productivity in a structured and coordinated fashion has been identified as an emerging issue across the clinical enterprise.

To address this, the CommonSpirit National Office of Advanced Practice has completed a structured assessment of the need for APP fellowship and post graduate training programs across CommonSpirit. We are currently developing a program proposal with business justification and completing a stakeholder-driven planning process. We will launch the first pilot cohort in the summer of 2023. For more information or to get involved, email

advancedpractice-communications@

commonspirit.org. •

Exciting things have happened in the CommonSpirit Behavioral Health Strategy throughout FY2022. The Behavioral Health Service Line is led by Paul Rains, RN, MSH. The two main areas of focus for Behavioral Health are supporting our Emergency Departments and improving access to care.

Behavioral Health has supported our Emergency Departments (EDs)

by improving the quality of care, improving workflow, decreasing unnecessary lengths of stay, and more effectively planning for care coordination. The Behavioral Health Clinical Council partners with the ED Medicine Council to identify and prioritize opportunities to achieve the objectives noted above. Additionally, standardization of the system-wide suicide risk assessment with the Columbia University Suicide Assessment tool(s) is being supported by a training presentation from the Lighthouse Project. The Columbia Lighthouse Projects’ mission is to light the way to ending suicide. In FY2022, we offered this training presentation several times to all CommonSpirit clinicians.

Paul Rains RN, MSN, System SVP, Behavioral Health

We have also improved access to care

by connecting our internal behavioral health services across CommonSpirit and identifying/filling gaps in care. Every effort is being made to maximize internal resources by using innovative and cost-effective value based care models. Pilots for Maternal Mental Health and Victims of Human Trafficking via telehealth are underway.

Other contributions have been made through the ongoing work of subcommittees of the Behavioral Health Clinical Council and Behavioral Health Collaborative. •