Meet AHP Care Manager Tessa Anderson
February 29th, 2016 | Network NewsThis is the sixth in a series of articles profiling AHP’s embedded care managers.
A critical component of AHP’s mission is to partner with physicians and support their efforts to deliver care to patients. The network’s care management program was developed to do just that, and since its inception earlier this year, AHP has funded the placement of many care managers into community-based practices requesting such support. These RN care managers are responsible for working with the practice teams in which they are embedded to support physicians in meeting quality metrics and to assist with both patient-centered medical home and Arcadia implementation. Our care managers also play an essential role in coordinating care between specialists and primary care providers for those high-risk patients living with multiple chronic conditions, and skillful transitions care for patients discharged from the hospital, emergency department, and/or rehabilitation facilities.
Tessa Anderson, RN, BSN began working as an AHP pediatric nurse care manager for the offices of Elmwood Pediatric Group, Goodman Pediatrics, Lewis Pediatrics, Stony Brook Pediatrics, David Breen, MD, and Twelve Corners Pediatric Group in June of 2015. She recently began working with Westside Pediatric Group as well. Tessa earned her associate’s degree in nursing from Finger Lakes Community College and her baccalaureate degree in nursing from Roberts Wesleyan College. Tessa also has an associate’s degree from Bryant & Stratton Business Institute.
Tessa reflects on her nursing career and care management as follows:
My career in nursing has been characterized by continuous personal and professional growth. Nursing has provided myriad opportunities for acquiring new knowledge and personal self-awareness. Having earned my associate’s degree early in my career, completing my baccalaureate degree last year was an important professional milestone as well. As with my previous positions in nursing, I am constantly learning in my role as a care manager. And through interpersonal connections and collaboration with patients, families and practice teams, I find this work quite rewarding.
I have been employed in a variety of acute and outpatient settings in which I have cared for people across the lifespan. I also have worked closely with adults living with intellectual disabilities. These diverse experiences have positioned me well for my current role as a team player in creating, building and developing the pediatric care management team within AHP.
Just prior to joining AHP I was employed locally as nurse care manager for an adult population on a grant awarded to the Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Health Care Innovation Award mechanism. This experience introduced me to the care manager role with a focus on chronic disease and transitions care management. I also worked with data management and tracking tools that supported population health along with a variety of resources aimed at strengthening patient engagement and self-management support.
I also had the privilege of working for several years with an exemplary interprofessional team of pediatric specialists in a Rochester-based public health foster care clinic. The clinic was a medical home for children and adolescents who often required complex medical, developmental, and/or behavioral health care coordination. Clinic care providers also offered evidence-based education, training and resources regarding physical and mental well-being of youth, along with disease prevention and parenting skills for adolescents, foster parents, and biological family members of a highly vulnerable pediatric population, neonates to late adolescence.
I am passionate about my work as a nurse and especially about the many opportunities I have to engage with patients, families and colleagues to support optimal health and well-being. My professional experiences have positioned me well to enact my care management role in thoughtful, meaningful and creative ways. I am delighted to be working with, learning and growing with the practice teams, patients and families entrusted to my care and am committed to supporting them all in reaching their goals in the months and years ahead.
