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IPE Hotspotting Overview

The University of Utah is part of the Student Interprofessional Hotspotting Learning Collaborative, sponsored by the Camden Coalition/AAMC/Primary Care Progress.

By bringing together teams of students and faculty from across disciplines, we identify patients known as “super-utilizers” with excessive use of the emergency department and hospital. Rather than providing medical care, teams of students from across disciplines identify social determinants of health that contribute to excessive utilization of health care resources. 

In May 2016 we were selected to join 26 other US medical schools in this collaborative.

Unique Features

The University of Utah’s approach to hotspotting is characterized by 2 unique features: 

1. Community Health Providers: Our interprofessional advising team includes a community health worker as well as a faculty member with expertise in wellness coaching. Community health workers (who are members of the communities they serve) provide authentic relationships with patients that help ensure our program’s success.

Wellness coaches provide expert health coaching skills to help patients manage chronic illnesses. 

By including both community health workers and wellness coaches on our hotspotting team, patients benefit from their expertise. Our students also learn about community-based resources that might otherwise be overlooked. 

2. VDO Data: We use the University of Utah’s Value-Driven Outcomes (VDO) data to calculate the cost of care for each of our patient cohorts. We will also use VDO data to identify cost savings associated with the hotspotting program.

Multidisciplinary Student & Faculty Teams

As a member of this collaborative, our IPE program aims to provide a community-based interprofessional learning experience, while also demonstrating value to the health care system by reducing health care utilization such as unnecessary hospital readmissions.

University of Utah Health IPE (U of U Health IPE) assembled an interprofessional team of students, including a medical student, pharmacy, social work and nursing trainees, and two public health PhD students. Our team also includes faculty advisors including a family physician, social worker, clinical pharmacist and expert in wellness coaching. 

Project Timeline

In 2016, our interdisciplinary team started identifying patients who are defined as “super-utilizers.”

By January 2017, our team will work with two to three homeless patients to conduct visits at the Grace Mary Manor facility, accompany patients to physician visits, and assist with coordination of care. 

Additional hotspotting teams will be rolled out in 2017.

How Does Hotspotting Serve U of U Health Students?

UUHS IPE seeks to engage interprofessional student teams in authentic, self-directed learning experiences with appropriate faculty supervision.

Learning experiences from hotspotting reinforce the IPEC interprofessional competencies and prepare health sciences students for leadership roles after graduation in increasingly team-based clinical environments. 

Serving the Health System & Our Communities

UUHS IPE seeks to identify interprofessional education opportunities that add value to the health system and to the community.