Ms. Baier is Senior Scientist at Healthcentric Advisors in Providence, RI, coordinating scientific, research, and policy functions. Her research interests focus on healthcare measurement, public reporting (with an emphasis on physician health IT adoption) and patient care transitions. She collaborates with providers and researchers to implement and evaluate sustainable systems change that improves care and experience for vulnerable patients.

Biography

Ms. Baier focuses on healthcare quality, including measurement and public reporting. Nationally, she has been appointed to multiple National Quality Forum panels related to the development and vetting of the Home Health CAHPS survey instrument and publicly-reported measures; locally, she directs ds the Rhode Island public reporting program, helps to lead a Medicare project to improve care transitions, and guest lectures for Brown Medical School graduate class sessions on quality measurement. Her research interests focus on collecting and publicly reporting healthcare data and improving patient care transitions.

Affiliations

Healthcentric Advisors (2002-present; Senior Scientist, 2009-present)
Rhode Island Hospital-Acquired Infections Coordinator, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2009-present)
Secretary, Board of Directors, Rhode Island Public Health Institute (2010-present)

Funded Research

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Rhode Island Department of Health
Rhode Island Division of Elderly Affairs

Teaching Experience

Ms. Baier provides guest lectures on quality improvement and measurement for Dr. Amal Trivedi and Christopher Koller.

Selected Publications

• Yan H, Gardner R, Baier RR. Beyond the Focus Group: Understanding Physicians' Barriers to EMR Use Across a Wide Spectrum of Specialties and Practice Settings. Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety; in press.(IN PRESS)
• Voss R, Gardner R, Baier RR, Butterfield K, Lehrman S, Gravenstein S. The Care Transitions Intervention: translating from efficacy to effectiveness. Archives of Internal Medicine; 2011; 171(14):1232-1237.(2011)
• Baier RR, Gardner R, Gravenstein S, Besdine R. Partnering to Improve Hospital-Physician Office Communication through by Implementing Care Transitions Best Practices. Health/Medicine RI. June 2011.(2011)
• Baier RR, Gardner R, Buechner J, Harris Y, Gifford DS. Creating a survey to assess physicians' adoption of health information technology. Med Care Res Rev 2011 Dec 6.(2011)
• Viner-Brown S, Baier RR. Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) in Rhode Island. Health/Medicine RI 2010 October: 289-290.(2010)
• Baier RR, Gravenstein S [Guest Editors of Special Issue]. Curbing healthcare-associated infections. Health/Medicine RI 2010 October: 260.(2010)
• Baier RR, Voss R, Morphis B, Viner-Brown S, Gardner R. Rhode Island Physicians' Health Information Technology (HIT) Use, 2009-2011. Health/Medicine RI. June 2011.(2009)
• Baier RR, Butterfield K, Patry G, Harris Y, Gravenstein S. Identifying star performers: The relationship between ambitious targets and nursing home QI. J Am Geriatr Soc Aug 2009 57 (8):1498-1503.(2009)
• Buechner JS, Baier RR, Gifford DR. The RI survey of physician HIT adoption. Health/Medicine RI 2008 Feb; 91 (2): 64.(2008)
• Baier RR, Butterfield K, Harris Y, Gravenstein S. Aiming for star performance: The relationship between setting targets and improved nursing home quality of care. J Am Med Dir Assoc 2008; 9 (8): 594-598.(2008)
• Baier RR, Gifford DR, Mor V. Reporting nursing home quality in RI. Health/Medicine RI 2005 June; 88 (5): 186-7.(2005)
• Baier RR, Gifford DR, Patry G et al. Ameliorating pain management in nursing homes: A collaborative quality improvement project in Rhode Island. J Am Geriatr Soc 2004 Dec.(2004)
• Baier RR, Gifford DR, Lyder C et al. Quality improvement for pressure ulcer care in the nursing home setting. J Am Med Dir Assoc 2003 Nov-Dec; 4(6): 291-301.(2003)