How We Help

Amy Boutwell, MD, MPP worked with New York State in our Medicaid Accelerated eXchange (MAX) program as the subject matter expert and the inspirational leader. Dr. Boutwell offered a systematic, methodical approach to working with high utilizers, whom she has more appropriately dubbed Multi-Visit Patients or MVPs and weaved this into the design and implementation of New York’s MAX series workshops. The workshops cover working with the MVPs in the emergency department (ED) and inpatient units. Each hospital unit (ED or inpatient) developed its own plan for staffing, workflows, data reporting, and community engagement. Results of the teams’ efforts consistently demonstrated reductions in readmissions compared to a timeframe prior to implementation.

Dr. Boutwell understands each team starts from a different place with its unique circumstances yet has similar challenges. She provides the teams the language and tools necessary to successfully navigate these issues. She accomplishes this through an equity lens and by encouraging cross-sector partnerships, including with payers. The workshops have been highly rated over the years, with the participants universally benefitting and recommending the series to other providers groups.

I’ve been working with Dr. Boutwell for over a year now and she is truly one of a kind! In my position, I work with many highly sought after national subject matter experts and Amy stands out among this group. Through our work she has coached and guided our community-based hospitals and academic medical centers regarding their efforts to reduce readmissions. She skillfully breaks down the inherent complexities in this work and uses simple examples and teaching tools to help hospital quality leaders learn to think in new ways about their data and strategies to improve their readmissions rates. She has a way of connecting with and relating to the struggles these organizations face, eliminating the authority gradient of her stature as a national subject matter expert and physician. Obviously I think very highly of Amy, but feedback from the teams she’s worked with echo my feelings. Along with extremely positive comments regarding Amy’s teaching, I can quantify her impact on our educational programs. The average satisfactions score from the 9 month long webinar series she provided to our members was an amazing 9.65 on a 10-point scale. To give you some perspective, our overall average score (including hundreds of educational programs) is 8.8. Amy not only satisfies our members, she gets results as well. Teams who received coaching and guidance from Amy improved 30% faster than those who did not. Truly amazing results!

Dr. Boutwell played an instrumental role in the development and implementation of two successful "hot spotter" initiatives at our medical center. The instruction and insights provided by Dr. Boutwell were extremely helpful. Her first-hand experience working with complex patients who have multiple physical health, mental health, and social issues, made these learning sessions most meaningful. Dr. Boutwell is an excellent teacher, communicator, and strategist. She has an uncanny ability to think through challenges and come up with solutions. The results of our work speak volumes about the value of the guidance we have received from Dr Boutwell. For the most recent reporting period, we have recorded a 455 reduction in readmissions among this population.

Our work required us to work as interdisciplinary, cross-setting teams. We learned that we also needed to work as cross-organizational teams - whether formally or informally - in order to achieve success. This represented culture change, a change in skill sets, in communication style, in workflow, and in learning how to effectively co-create a better outcome for the patient and the high-risk, high-needs, vulnerable populations we were targeting in our program. Dr. Boutwell effectively supported our collective learning in understanding how to effectively collaborate across settings, disciplines, and organizations. As a direct result of Dr. Boutwell's technical assistance, we were able to implement system-wide multidisciplinary care plans which decreased length of stay and 30-day revisits to the ED and 30-day readmissions to the hospital.

Dr. Boutwell is a distinguished professional whose reputation for providing expert, individualized, and highly specialized consultation proceeds her. Dr. Boutwell is well versed in foundational concepts, the use of data, targeting, interventions to address clinical/behavioral/social needs, implementation in a variety of settings, and problem solving over time to get results. Dr Boutwell has a depth of knowledge about healthcare transformation and systems change that spans the entire United States. Her work on using data, problem solving and system analysis to reduce readmissions is nationally recognized. In addition to her breadth and depth of her knowledge about healthcare delivery and system change is her ability to convey this knowledge to other professionals in a clear, concise and individualized way. Dr. Boutwell is both knowledgeable and personable which is a winning combination in a consultant.

Dr. Boutwell encouraged us to continuously use our data to drive system improvements. Her ability to relate to varied audiences and to break down complex system theories into workable strategies was invaluable to our team. Dr. Boutwell is gifted at presenting to any level of staff from boardroom executive to community health workers. Her style is engaging and while based on evidence-based research, she had the ability to assess the current culture and to assist those she works with to drive necessary change to achieve specific measurable goals and targets. Most importantly, Dr. Boutwell embraces and is passionate about providing leadership and guidance to those seeking to decrease unnecessary acute care utilization. Through her experience with numerous teams, she knows that “the team” matters and she has wonderful team-building skills.

“We went from a big unknown, and I asked myself at the beginning ‘What is this program? What is it going to accomplish? And how much of my staff’s time is it going to take? And it morphed into a very valuable learning experience. I’ve seen increased awareness on managing these very complex high utilizer patients. Our team learned a lot from the process and were very stimulated, engaged, and inspired. We believe that this work will be very sustainable and have a large impact on our patients.”

Dr. Boutwell’s extensive knowledge, vision and experience nationally with efforts to decrease unnecessary acute care utilization is very impressive. Coupling her experience with her competent leadership style enabled our team to garner knowledge, develop specific intervention strategies and implement process improvements that continually drove our team efforts forward to achieve our goals.

Amy has been called upon by healthcare systems, government agencies, and healthcare quality improvement bodies across the country to introduce and sustain transformative programs that address profound inequities in care delivery approaches and outcomes for the most vulnerable patients in our communities. In particular, Amy’s signature work coaching teams to deliver more accessible, effective, and equitable care for hospital “high utilizers” (whom she calls “multi-visit patients,” or MVPs) recognizes that our current system is failing these patients, and helps reframe their high utilization as a symptom, not as a flaw of the patient’s. Through the person-centered, data- and root-cause informed, and highly reliable approach she has modeled for our teams, Amy has inspired them to embrace the transformative mindset that we can (and have) changed our systems to better meet the needs of those who need us most.

Dr. Boutwell worked with New York State in our Medicaid Accelerated eXchange (MAX) as the Subject Matter Expert and truly was the inspirational leader. Amy brought a systematic and methodical approach to working with high utilizers or Multi-Visit Patients (MVPs) into the design and implementation of the MAX workshop series. The MAX method, based on the Rapid Cycle Continuous Improvement model, allowed the teams to co- design the changed workflow to be used in working with the patients. Dr. Boutwell introduced the concept of the drivers of utilization assessment that was the heart of the strategy and that necessarily brought in community partners to address social determinants and be part of the team effort. Providers have reported how the drivers of utilization approach led to profound changes in how they saw and worked with the patients as individuals as well as integrating new community partners and expertise into their processes.

It is my pleasure to recommend Dr. Amy Boutwell, emphasizing the significant contributions she has made to the field of readmission management and care coordination across the continuum of care, both nationally and for New York State. I have lost count of the number of engagement, from an education program to leading learning networks/collaboratives, she has completed for us in NY since 2012. I have never worked with anyone who has her ability to hear or diagnose the problem(s) and then mold a program that is the perfect fit and answer. Her breadth of knowledge, experience, and complex system thinking with a practical translation to the frontline component, make her a unique and revered consultant for us. She has tackled a broad range of programs and target areas for us, including: basic readmission and discharge planning evidence-based practices, cutting edge practices, vulnerable/Medicaid population work, long term care and its relationship with hospital readmission, home care, and intricate details on the hospital management. Dr. Boutwell will help you on all levels from the initial data analysis to determine high impact areas to target all the way to the integration of the work across all stakeholders. She also has strong skills in all the adjunct areas as well such a performance improvement and change management and gets results. It is with great confidence that I would recommend Dr. Boutwell.

Dr. Boutwell brings unparalleled expertise, authenticity, and consultative skills to every exchange, creating net forward motion that drives transformational outcomes! I have had the opportunity to work with her on various initiatives over the years and am grateful for the rich contributions she consistently delivered. Having her on the team was instrumental in achieving bold aims. Her ability to meet each stakeholder where they're at and make them emboldened to understand their role, infusing their voice and perspective is energizing. Dr. Boutwell is a trusted leader and advisor. Lead, Iowa

Dr. Boutwell has been tremendous to work with. It has truly been a great experience. It has been challenging at times, but the MAX has shifted the way we think the way we approach high utilizers.