About this Webinar Training

Effective Strategies to Engage Patients and Communities In Care A Person-Centered Approach to Data Collection

This course focuses on Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity (SOGI) data collection and patient/member engagement.  It is designed for all members of the care team who ask about and collect SOGI data, many of whom struggle to engage patients in clinical care and collect data of socioeconomic demographics, especially in LGBTQA+ individuals.  Many providers and clinical care teams struggle to engage LGBTQIA+ patients and collect their demographic data.

Attendees will learn how to ask crucial SOGI questions with ease and to navigate abrasion in ways that create space, possibility, and the compassionate de-escalation of fear-based reactions.

What You Will Learn

Participants will learn how to take a multi-faceted approach to creating a culture of affirmation, trust, and care, enabling improvement in SOGI data collection as well as compassionate de-escalation of member abrasion towards these new questions. By deepening foundations of knowledge, vocabulary, and relational tools, the module supports the creation of environments more conducive to building trust between SOGI diverse patients and their care teams, leading to better health outcomes. This learning module will help all staff to increase competence and confidence in discussing, reviewing, and completing patient demographic data at the time of patient updates and registration. 

In addition, participants will develop understanding of why SOGI questions are critical to ask, what vocabulary to use and avoid in order to build relationships and effectively collect data, and how to navigate turbulence amidst data collection with patients of different cultures, communities and ages. These questions come at a critical time in the weaving and unweaving of the fabric of inclusivity in the country, and it is essential to create the conditions for trustworthy spaces for all and on-going improvement in health outcomes. 
The webinars will be divided into three modules and include interactive, engaging components like role-play practices, journal reflections, Q+A, and audience feedback that promotes practice, retention, and exploration of new topics. 

Themes:  
1.    Why do we ask for SOGI data? Understanding population health needs
2.    Appropriate SOGI vocabulary and conversational patterns; building visibility through nonviolent language
3.    Asking and assuaging; building trust through holistic data collection and compassionate de-escalation  

After completing this learning path, participants will:
•    Recognize race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, income, and language as part of registration and patient interaction. 
•    Increase competency in completion of race, ethnicity, language (REL), sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI), and income at patient check-in. 
•    Increase comfort and capacity for front desk interactions when asking REL, SOGI, and income questions, by learning to ask questions of sexually diverse and gender diverse patients, effectively and compassionately
•    Understand the health implications of invisibility on SOGI diverse patients.

Who Should Attend

• Health plans
• Health systems
• Hospitals
• Managed behavioral healthcare organizations
• Population health organizations
• Wellness organizations leveragers are the federal government, states and employers

Faculty

Vanessa Guzman, ME, MS

Mrs. Guzman is an expert in health equity and population health strategies, including patient and physician engagement techniques, clinical reporting, health IT, quality management models, and CEO at SmartRise Health. With her personal story as a Latin American woman of color and diverse credentials in engineering, science, and coaching - Vanessa brings incomparable humility, authenticity, intellectual harmony, objectivity, enthusiasm, and commitment that inspire teams, participants, and facilitators to become part of the change they want to see.

With almost 20 years of industry experience and an approach centered around person-empowerment, she works closely with individuals, health systems, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), payers, and technology and community partners to promote equitable care. Her unique approach includes closely collaborating with physicians and hospitals to implement data-driven tools, payers, clinical infrastructures, pharmaceutical companies, and community partnerships to promote wellness and improve patient health outcomes, and a collaborative learning platform to promote health equity while integrating value-based care and change management concepts. The framework uses stakeholder engagement as a fundamental component to enable a culture of change while building the infrastructure necessary to drive change over time and evaluate the impact of activities focused on advancing equity, improvement in health outcomes, and quality of care. 

 Mrs. Guzman also served as the Associate Vice President at the Montefiore Health System (MHS), overseeing physician partnerships, community engagement, population health and quality improvement, clinical performance, and health information technology and reporting.

Her business model facilitates revenue and sponsorship opportunities toward, Created to Thrive, a foundation she formed to promote enrichment programs servings thousands of children, women, and homeless adults worldwide. Created to Thrive allows her true mission, coaching, and transformation experience to shine through her advisory, products, and services.

Queen Hatcher-Johnson,
Gender Inclusive Program Manager, Positive Impact Health Centers

Queen Hatcher-Johnson is a woman of transgender experience who works at Positive Impact Heath Centers as the Gender Inclusive Program Director and community liaison. She is also a dedicated community advocate, peer, and public speaker. She has been featured in commercials that address housing discrimination, such as "Beyond I Do" and "The Reality Flag" by HRC, as well as campaigns emphasizing the importance of voting.

 Her accolades include features on Heart Radio and a Time magazine documentary. A portrait of Queen is showcased in the Marta train station with the message, "Being homeless isn't a crime." She has been a special guest and speaker at both Sir Elton John's Oscar Party and President Joe Biden's tribute to Sir Elton John. Furthermore, she's been featured alongside luminaries like Smokey Robinson, EJ Johnson, Billy Porter, Kandi Burruss, and Donatella Versace.

 Queen firmly believes, "My Transgender Experience will not dehumanize my human experience!"  Queen joins  us on our journey and conversation about health equity for every voice!

Maris Harmon, MSEd

Maris is the VP of Educational Strategy for SmartRise Health and a Co-Founder of Emergent Change, a DEI consultancy created by former classroom educators who know how to teach. Maris worked for years as a high school humanities educator, which gave her the tools to develop clear and compassionate teaching strategies that translate across age and skill set. 

A deep understanding of schema and justice-rooted pedagogy enabled Maris to translate years of community and skill building in the classroom to hands-on trainings in the healthcare sector for everything from SOGI data collection to depression screening collection to intersectionality as a core understanding for population health. With an emphasis on team-building, Maris emphasizes deep listening and pedagogical clarity into all of her educational work. 

Maris earned her BA from the University of Michigan and her MSEd from the University of Pennsylvania.

Sonia Frazier, MPH, CPHQ

Sonia Frazier has over 20 years’ experience within healthcare including as Director at a large Medicaid plan, consultant and as Manager/Senior Accreditation Manager at the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). She has been an NCQA Surveyor since 2012.  Her expertise is in guiding organizations through NCQA accreditation and certification preparation and supporting corporate clients and complex organizations. She currently serves as a subject matter expert (SME) on Multi-Cultural Health Care and the Health Equity Accreditation.

Prior to consulting, Sonia was the Senior Accreditation Manager at NCQA, where in addition to her responsibilities as an Accreditation Manager/Accreditation Survey Coordinator (ASC), she was responsible for managing several of NCQA’s corporate customers.  Before joining NCQA, she was the Director for the second largest Medicaid plan in the Philadelphia market for seven years, where she was responsible for accreditation, HEDIS roadmap and audit preparation, disease and case management, quality credentialing auditing, EPSDT, and the high medical needs program.  The organization had several other product lines, including Medicare, Adult Basic and SCHIP products.  In 2011, she led the organization in obtaining the nation’s first health plan to be awarded NCQA’s Multicultural HealthCare Distinction (now Health Equity Accreditation).

With her background in various programs, Sonia moved to NCQA in 2012 as an Accreditation Manager and was later promoted in 2017 to Senior Accreditation Manager.  After joining NCQA, Sonia facilitated the accreditation and certification processes and surveyed organizations for Health Plan Accreditation, Credentialing Verification Organization, Multicultural HealthCare, Case Management, Disease Management, and Wellness and Health Promotion surveys.  Following her promotion in 2017, she managed several of NCQA’s corporate customers, providing survey support, ensuring that corporate policy issues were addressed, and ensuring inter-rater reliability across all corporate surveys.

Sonia holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Drexel University School of Public Health in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Biology from the University of Pittsburgh.  Sonia also received her Certification in HealthCare Quality (CPHQ) in 2020.  She currently resides in Dixon, IL with her husband, two sons, and dog. 

Continuing Education

In support of improving patient care, the National Committee for Quality Assurance is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) to provide Interprofessional Continuing Education for the healthcare team. 

This educational activity is approved for: 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit^TM.

This educational activity is approved for 1.5 nursing contact hours.*

This live course grants 2.0 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) points for PCMH Certified Content Experts.  

* Please note – You must attend the entire program to be eligible for total number of contact hours.

Disclosure of Relevant Financial Relationships

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) endorses the Standards of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education which specify that sponsors of continuing medical education activities and presenters at and planners for these activities disclose any relevant financial relationships either party might have with commercial companies whose products or services are discussed in educational presentations.

For sponsors, relevant financial relationships include large research grants, institutional agreements for joint initiatives, substantial gifts, or other relationships that benefit the institution.  For presenters or planning committee members, relevant financial relationships include the receipt of research grants from a commercial company, consultancies, honoraria, travel, or other benefits, or having a self-managed equity interest in a company; or having an immediate family member or partner with such a relationship.

Disclosure of a relationship is not intended to suggest or condone bias in any presentation but is made to provide participants with information that might be of potential importance to their evaluation of a presentation.

Relevant financial relationships exist with the following companies/organizations:

Faculty:
Vanessa Guzman: 
Maris Harmon: 
Sonia Frazier: 
Queen Hatcher-Johnson: 

Additional Planning Committee Members:
Crissy Crittenden: