ArchiTools: A Member Benefit That Offers Best Practices, Tools, and Education Programs for Patients, Case Managers, and CM Leadership

Pat Stricker, RN, MEd
Senior Vice President
TCS Healthcare Technologies

Case managers always amaze me! They need to have a wide-ranging knowledge base that includes all types of diseases, conditions and procedures in order to educate the variety of patients they help every day. In addition to educating their patients and caregivers on the specifics of a disease, condition or procedure, they also help patients develop a customized care plan, assist them in navigating the healthcare system, provide information about resources, investigate possible financial assistance that may be available and do whatever else needs to be done. That requires an immense amount of knowledge.

This type of information is also needed by staff educators for the initial onboarding of new case managers and for routine ongoing staff education. In addition, management staff also need information like this, as well as access to best practices, case studies, surveys and other tools to improve current programs or develop new initiatives.

Now, in the technology and internet era, there is no lack of sites that can provide that type of information, but it takes time to research it, not to mention additional time to organize and save it for later use.

One of the main goals of the Case Management Society of America is to provide this type of information on its website and in its educational programs. CMSA.org provides case managers with access to a large variety of educational offerings and program content. One of these is the Pfizer AchiTools program, a comprehensive grouping of information and resources designed for case managers to work with and educate their patients. It also provides case management leadership training programs to educate case managers and tools to improve care programs or develop new, innovative programs.

ArchiTools helps case managers to:

• Understand the ever-changing healthcare landscape
• Enhance a holistic, team-based approach to healthcare
• Identify risks and avoid unnecessary admissions and readmissions through improved medication reconciliation and discharge planning
• Encourage and teach patients to improve interaction skills and participate more fully in their care, so they can self-manage their condition and make choices that help them stay healthy

The patient education portion of the program consists of patient brochures and educational materials, infographics, videos, annotated articles, case studies and actionable tools (forms, evaluations, checklists and toolkits) that can be download and shared with patients and caregivers.

In addition, ArchiTools can be used by CM leadership to provide onboarding training programs for new CMs or ongoing staff training using interactive, self-paced learning modules, presentations with slides and audio, videos, infographics and white papers. Leadership will also find best practices, surveys, case studies, proven strategies, outcome studies and actionable tools (forms, evaluations, checklists and toolkits) to improve current care programs or to develop new, innovative programs.

AND – all of this is offered as a free benefit to all CMSA members!

Now let’s take a look at ArchiTools. It consists of the following seven programs with each program including up to six assets (different resources or types of content).  

The ArchiTools Programs

• Adherence  – Adhering to a care and treatment plan is key to achieving health outcomes.
  • 23 resources with information and strategies to help improve adherence (best practices, case studies, toolkits, videos, and patient education on condition management and treatment).  

• Care Coordination – Helping to ensure the patient receives the right care, from the right provider, at the right time.
  • 10 resources with information and tools to help understand, implement, and improve care coordination (case studies, self-paced learning modules, toolkits and white paper).

• Care Transition – Appropriate care transitions are key to improving quality and reducing avoidable hospital readmissions.
  • 6 resources that address continuity of care at discharge, as well as transfers between providers, settings and levels of care (case studies, self-paced learning modules and toolkits).

• Patient Engagement – Patients engaged in their care tend to have better outcomes.
  • 32 resources that offer information, strategies, and educational to increase patient engagement (patient brochures and education on condition management, case studies, self-paced learning modules, videos, toolkits and white paper).

• Population Health – Programs and interventions aimed at improving the health and outcomes of a defined population.
  • 20 resources that address health needs of different patient groups (patient brochures and education on condition management, case studies, self-paced learning modules, videos, toolkit and white paper).

• Quality – Information and insight focused on quality improvement efforts.
  • 6 resources providing an understanding of healthcare quality and approaches to improve it (case studies, self-paced learning module and toolkits).

• Value-based Health – Aligning incentives across the healthcare delivery system can improve patient health outcomes, decrease costs, and enhance quality.

The Assets (Resources or Types of Content) noted above include:    

• Self-paced Learning Modules (7) – designed for case manager onboarding & ongoing education
• Toolkits (6) – includes patient education, evaluations, forms, checklists, FAQs, planners, how-to guides, sample emails, scripts and tips
• Infographics (20) – patient education on management and treatment of conditions
• Patient Education Brochures (22) – included in toolkits and as patient education brochures
• Case Studies (17) – addressing medication adherence, patient engagement and value-based health care
• Videos (22) – dealing with specific conditions and medication adherence

o   15 resources that describe how payment models are moving from volume to value, and how organizations can prepare to implement new approaches (case studies, self-paced learning modules, toolkits and white paper).

• White Paper (1) – “Team-based Practice: A Panel Management Primer”

The content can also be searched by Healthcare Topics or Health Conditions, which all have numerous resources listed, as noted below:

Healthcare Topics	Health Conditions
Avoidable Readmissions (17)	Cancer (13)
Behavior Change (1)	Cardiovascular/Metabolic Conditions (12)
Chronic Disease Management (42)	Depression (12)
Communication Strategies (11)	Hemophilia (10)
Health Information Technology (6)	Pain (10)
Health Literacy (38)	Pneumonia (4)
Health Promotion (21)	Psoriatic Arthritis (4)
Patient Centered Care (16)	Rheumatoid Arthritis (10)
Patient Education (72)	Smoking Cessation (4)
Patient Safety & Satisfaction (15)	Vaccinations (5)
Self-Management (34)
Senior Health (11)
Specialty Pharmacy (18)
Total Cost of Care (9)

ArchiTools also provides additional resources in the form of:

• Related Resources (10) – additional staff training programs from other organizations
• External Links (36) – links to other healthcare organizations, associations, societies, regulatory agencies and health information technology sites that offer additional information to case management staff and patients
• Article Reprints (6) – articles dealing with care coordination and transitions, strategies, reduction of hospital readmissions and results of a transfer study

The ArchiTools technology platform makes it very easy to find what you are looking for. You can search by Program Type, Asset Types, Healthcare Topics, or Health Conditions. It also allows you to save your “Favorites” so that you can find them again quickly and easily. You can see how the ArchiTools works in a recorded webinar, CM Practice Spotlight, on the CMSA website. It was presented by CMSA’s President, Dr. Jose Alejandro, as part of a monthly all-member call to highlight different aspects of case management and review the CMSA membership benefits. (The demonstration is located about half way through the presentation.)

As you can see, ArchiTools offers a wealth of information in a very easy-to-use format. The content is certainly helpful to both case managers and CM leadership. If you haven’t tried ArchiTools yet, check it out. You will be glad you did.   

Pat Stricker, RN, MEd, is senior vice president of Clinical Services at TCS Healthcare Technologies. She can be reached at pstricker@tcshealthcare.com.