OGDENSBURG -- Four Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center clinical staff recently completed chronic care professional (CCP) training and certification.

Misty Fishel, Elizabeth Kelley, Traci Harris and Erica Downey attended the training provided by the North Country Initiative.

The CCP focuses on training nurses and care managers that work with primary care providers to provide collaborative care that treats common chronic diseases or mental health conditions. These additional skills and expertise are intended to improve patient care, progressive patient outcomes and functioning, increased provider and patient satisfaction, and reductions in healthcare utilization and costs.

“Claxton-Hepburn’s participation in the training will help our region achieve critical performance milestones for the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) Program,” according to a press release from the hospital. “DSRIP’s purpose is to fundamentally restructure the healthcare delivery system by reinvesting in the Medicaid program, with the primary goal of reducing avoidable hospital use by 25% over 5 years. Up to $6.42 billion dollars are allocated to this program with payouts based upon achieving predefined results in system transformation, clinical management, and population health,” the release said.