Gundersen Tri-County Clinics recognized with first Excellence Emplify’d award

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Gundersen Tri-County Clinics recognized with first Excellence Emplify'd award

In many cases, there can be gaps in care in rural communities when it comes to mental health. But at Gundersen Tri-County Clinics, there's been an added emphasis to use a list of questions to screen patients - each one, not just those showing signs - for clinical depression.

The recognition of this importance, and that extra added step that is now just second nature, has earned the clinic the first-ever Gundersen Region Excellence Emplify'd award.

What is Excellence Emplify'd?

Excellence Emplify'd is a new enterprise team that was developed to promote positive recognition for the work that GPA improvement teams are doing. According to Kelly Callan, quality support for screening for clinical depression team and member of Excellence Emplify'd committee, there are currently 12 GPA teams, and the plan is to recognize one each month in 2025.

Each improvement team will choose a department from the 40 ambulatory clinics in the Gundersen Region that it believes is doing good work and deserves recognition. In January, the screening for clinical depression team selected Gundersen Tri-County Clinics, and this month, hypertension will be the focus. Other areas this year will include diabetes, well-child visits, screening for colon cancer and screening for breast cancer.

Screening for clinical depression was a good place to start because of the emphasis Gundersen has placed on doing so at all yearly annual exam visits. Gundersen Tri-County Clinics has taken it a step further.

"We need to be screening people, even if they're here for a sliver or a cough, we need to make sure that they're mental health is under control," Callan says.

Tri-County success

Through the dedication and determination of Tri-County providers Megan Klomps-McClung, DO, and Rachel Boe, MA, the clinic has made it a point to screen for clinical depression at every primary care visit - not just once a year.

"If (patients) say that they are having thoughts of harming themselves or are depressed, just because they aren't there for it, they're crying out to you for help," Callan says. "They're screening at every primary care visit, so their numbers are there and they're keeping track of their patients. They've really adopted it."

Toni Duch, a licensed professional counselor at the Tri-County Clinics, credits Klomps-McClung and Boe for championing the initiative within the family medicine setting, just as the clinic was beginning to adopt the integrated care model.

"It's really about, how do we break down those barriers, lower the stigma, meet patients where they're at, especially in our rural community," Duch says. "Normalizing it in our family practice clinic."

The clinic's MAs do the screening in family practice, while Duch screens her mental health patients. If an MA flags a patient who indicates suicidal ideations or a desire to hurt themselves, she can be brought into the appointment to address those concerns in collaboration with a medical provider.

Having that integrated care in a rural setting isn't necessarily the norm, and Duch calls the service "a gem."

"If you walk in our door and it is due, you will be screened," she says. "Many times previously, it was just an annual exams."

"If that patient is struggling, if we don't ask, we don't know," Duch added.

Tri-County was also a pilot site for Gundersen's social determinants of health initiative, where patients were asked questions regarding food insecurity, housing instability and other barriers in their lives.

"In rural communities, it's important that we're looking at all areas impacting the patient," Duch says. "I'm really satisfied that we've been able to do that within our workflow."

She's proud of how everyone at the clinic has embraced mental health as part of caring for the whole person.

"It's been really cool to watch the team grow and become more comfortable with mental health issues and concerns in the community," she says.