Quality Initiatives

Long- Acting reversible Contraceptives (LARC) Mentoring Program

The LARC Mentoring Program is aimed at increasing access to long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC) for all women of reproductive age in New Mexico. This is accomplished by training primary care providers in LARC procedures and improving clinic flow, billing and coding for more efficient patient care.

• Education: Training in Reproductive Health Counseling using a non-coercive approach.
• Training: Hands-on skills training and proctoring for primary care clinicians and staff.
• Tools: Development of clinical protocols and documentation templates.
• Addressing Financial and Administrative Barriers: Technical assistance with billing, coding, and support for clinic flow.
• Health Policy: Collaboration with state agencies, advocates and others to improve health policy for reproductive healthcare in New Mexico.

Our objectives include:

• Increase access to all forms of contraceptive including IUDs and implants.
• Improve provider communication on contraceptive options in the context of comprehensive patient-centered counseling.
• Increase administrative knowledge and support for LARC implementation in clinics.

Since November of 2016 we have trained over 1,000 providers and are expanding yearly into rural and urban communities across the state.

The LARC Mentoring Program is supported by members of the Early Childhood Funders Group and the New Mexico Department of Health.

For more information about the initiative, contact Andrea M Andersen, MPH (aanderse@salud.unm.edu)

Resources:

• LARC flyer
• LMP Calendar of training events
• The Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, Beyond the Pill Program at the University of California, San Francisco
• CDC US Medical Eligibility Criteria, Resources
• Bedsider Contraceptive Info Resource for Patients and Clinicians

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Optimizing Care for Neonates at Risk for Opiate Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS-NM)

NOWS-NM is a pilot initiative implemented by Envision New Mexico 2.0 within the Department of Pediatrics at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center to provide training and quality implement (QI) support to healthcare providers for infants born with Neonatal Opiate Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS) and their mothers in rural communities.  The pilot initiative entails preliminary assessment of current provider attitudes and practices concerning care for opiate-using pregnant women and NOWS infants.  Local healthcare practitioners are then provided with instruction and training to increase their knowledge of NOWS and their capacity to implement best practices regarding assessment, diagnosis, and treatment.  Practitioner training is administered through a series of web-based instructional video modules as well as telehealth case consultations with UNM Hospital physicians, nurses, and other NOWS experts.  Post-training improvements in targeted practitioner behaviors are reassessed through medical record reviews of specific service quality indicators.  A primary objective of the training and QI support is to increase capacity among local healthcare practitioners to provide appropriate care for NOWS infants and to reduce the number of medically unnecessary long-distance transports to UNM Hospital for prenatal care, delivery, and postnatal follow-up.

Strategic Implementation of SBIRT in School-Based Health Centers (SISS)

The SISS initiative is a three-year effort that began in January 2019 to build upon preliminary testing in 2014-2018 of the Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) model, an evidence-based practice approach to identify, reduce, and prevent substance use in school-based health centers in New Mexico.