SNI BULLETIN NOVEMBER 16, 2006
Your portal to quality improvement in public hospitals
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In this SNI Bulletin:

Patient Visit Redesign Success Story: Roybal Health Center

Register Now for the 23rd Annual CAPH Conference

SNI and CHCF Co-Sponsor County Hospital Palliative Care Convening

Palliative Care Training Program – Free for CAPH Members

HCIN Featured in Newsweek

CAPH Members Featured at Cultural Competence Conference

National Research Team Evaluating CAPH Member Language Services

CHCF Sponsors Better Ideas for Chronic Care: Regional Conferences
Chronic Care Improvement Advisor/Practice Coach

IHI Presents Spreading Change: From Collaboratives to Campaigns and Beyond

100,000 Lives Campaign Healthcare Quality Forum

New Learning Opportunities on SNI Web Site at No Cost to Members

CPEHN Workshops on Improving Cultural and Linguistic Services
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Patient Visit Redesign Success Story: Roybal Health Center

When Mike Roybal, the Medical Director at LAC+USC HealthCare Network’s Roybal Comprehensive Health Center, joined SNI/Coleman Associates’ Patient Visit Redesign™ collaborative with his team last year, he was an admitted skeptic. Today, the Roybal center is an undisputed success story—and is regularly showcased to visiting federal and state legislative dignitaries as a model of efficient, quality health care.  Before redesign, cycle times (total time a patient is in the clinic from time of entry to exit) were more than 90 minutes.  By October 2005, at the end of the five-month collaborative, cycle times had dropped to a mere 38 minutes—with no decline in time spent with the doctor. Staff productivity increased 40 percent as well. At Roybal and 32 other participating CAPH outpatient clinics, the California HealthCare Foundation-supported Patient Visit Redesign ™ collaboratives have been a boon for increased patient and staff satisfaction, quality of care, and efficient operations. To read this article in its entirety, click here.

Register Now for the 23rd Annual CAPH Conference

The 23 rd CAPH annual conference will be held at the Marina Del Rey Marriott in Southern California Dec. 6-8. Arianna Huffington, the featured speaker, is a nationally syndicated columnist, author, and radio host, who has been named “one of the world’s most influential people” by Time magazine, and “queen of blogs” by Fortune. Other highlights include one session exploring financial and other levers for quality improvement, and another focused on addressing care disparities and creating more culturally responsive healthcare systems. For more information, click here.

SNI and CHCF Co-Sponsor County Hospital Palliative Care Convening

Clinicians and administrators from eight CAPH member hospitals and interested stakeholders convened at the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) on Oct. 12 to learn about developing palliative care programs in California’s county hospitals (click here for details). Palliative care is an emerging field that manages pain and other symptoms in a cost-effective manner, while supporting those facing terminal illnesses. Additional resources include four just-released reports from CHCF on end-of-life care: Attitudes Toward End-of-Life Care in California, Death and Dying in California, Hospice in California: A Look at Cost and Quality, Press Release on End-of-Life Planning in California.

Palliative Care Training Program – Free for CAPH Members

UCSF-based Palliative Care Leadership Centers SM (PCLC) offers training and mentoring to help hospitals start or expand a palliative care program, and generously waives the training fee for county hospitals. Visit http://www.capc.org/palliative-care-leadership-initiative/ for more information.

HCIN Featured in Newsweek

In the Nov. 6 issue, Newsweek ran an article titled “Hospitals: Rx for Communication”, which features the Health Care Interpreter Network (HCIN). Five CAPH hospitals currently participate in HCIN. Discussing the need for interpreters, the piece highlights the growing use of videoconferencing technology to maximize access to language services by hospitals across the country. Click here to view the article.

CAPH Members Featured at Cultural Competence Conference

CAPH members were featured Oct. 17-20 at the Fifth National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations.Theconference, held in Seattle, brought together 600 people from the United States and other countries to identify and highlight leading work in the areas of health care quality, cultural competence and disparities reduction, and to provide a forum for cross-discipline exchange that promotes integration of these fields in health care practice and policy.

Public hospital executives from Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and San Mateo Medical Center, along with colleagues from New York and Seattle, conveyed how public hospitals are leading the way, in a session entitled, "Framing and Integrating Cultural Competence into Strategic Priorities." The panelists shared leadership strategies for incorporating cultural and linguistic responsiveness into other critical priorities such as patient safety, patient-centered care and customer service. They also described the business case for improving culturally competent care, from reducing medical errors and other cost-avoidance strategies, to increasing competitive advantage and demonstrating the value proposition of public hospitals.

Representatives from other CAPH members, such as Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and San Francisco General Hospital, presented at the conference as well. Highlights from the conference will be posted at www.diversityrx.org in early 2007.

National Research Team Evaluating CAPH Member Language Services

The California Endowment, in an effort to better understand why public hospitals have been such leaders in effective provision of language services, has commissioned an independent evaluation of the advances made by California public hospitals this critical area of patient care and quality. The goal for the study, Facilitators and Barriers to System-Level Change: Providing Language Services in California Public Hospitals, is to strengthen the “case” for language assistance services as well as highlight best practices among public hospitals.

The evaluation team for this study includes senior researchers from the Health Research and Educational Trust, the affiliate of the American Hospital Association, and from the Boston University Health Policy Institute. The project will get under way in early 2007, with a final report scheduled for release in mid-2008. For more information, please contact SNI Director Wendy Jameson, (510) 874-7105.

CHCF Sponsors Better Ideas for Chronic Care: Regional Conferences

Building on the positive response to its 2005 Better Ideas Conference, the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) is sponsoring nine regional networking conferences to foster working relationships among California clinicians who are leading improvement efforts in chronic condition care. These clinicians come from public hospitals, community clinics, commercial medical groups, and small private practices. To register for an individual conference, please see the schedule and corresponding contact people below:

Scheduled Conferences:
Nov. 17 – Monterey County; Darlene Downing, (831) 373-7306
Dec. 1 – San Francisco; Dr. Lisa Pratt, (415) 355-2222
Jan. 2007 (date TBD) – Tuolumne County; Kathy Yarbrough, (209) 754-4181
Jan. 18, 2007 – Alameda County; Marsha Gelt, (510) 835-3700
Jan. 20, 2007 – San Diego; Dr. Athena Philis-Tsimikas, (858) 626-5628
Jan. 27, 2007 – Los Angeles; June Levine, (818) 368-0202

For more information, please contact Hunter Gatewood, (510) 874-7103, or visit the CHCF Web site.

Chronic Care Improvement Advisor/Practice Coach

SNI is engaging an Improvement Advisor/Practice Coach contractor to assist with Chronic Care Model (CCM) activities in 2007-2008. This individual will assist with:

  • A 2007 chronic care learning collaborative for public hospital systems new to CCM;
  • Development and implementation of spread plans at systems that have begun implementing the CCM;
  • Implementation of a toolkit to facilitate efficient and financially viable implementation of the CCM in two public hospital systems.  This component will be under the direction of the MacColl Institute for Healthcare Innovation. 
For details and information on how to apply, see Scope of Work. Letters of interest and resumes are due Dec.15.
IHI Presents Spreading Change: From Collaboratives to Campaigns & Beyond

Healthcare CEOs say that spreading change beyond its original venue is their greatest challenge.  The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) will present successful spread methodology strategies in a valuable and practical seminar for healthcare leaders.   There will be a free informational call with IHI on Thursday, Nov. 30, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., EST. For dial-in information, complete details about the program, and to enroll, click here. SNI is still working to secure scholarship support. If you are interested in attending the event, to be held Jan. 31-Feb. 1, in Cambridge, MA, please contact SNI Senior Program Associate Hunter Gatewood, (510) 874-7103.

100,000 Lives Campaign Healthcare Quality Forum

Last June, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) announced that the 100,000 Lives Campaign had saved an estimated 122,300 lives. Now, IHI’s Executive Director for Performance Improvement, Robert C. Lloyd, Ph.D., will deliver a presentation, “Better Quality through Better Measurement.” This event offers a unique opportunity to hear about successful strategies from participating hospitals and learn about the initiative’s next phase. There is no charge for this in-person event, which will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 28 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. (lunch included). Register now or contact Kevin O’Neal, Project Coordinator, (415) 677-2013.

New Learning Opportunities on SNI Web Site at No Cost to Members

Did you know CAPH members qualify for free trainings and other learning opportunities on chronic care improvement?  Kaiser Permanente regularly holds Clinical Symposia for Southern California CAPH members. This month’s symposium, on Nov. 28, will discuss strategies to deliver optimal diabetes care in culturally unique populations. Participants will also learn about various methods to improve A1c levels. For more information, visit the SNI Calendar or contact Kaiser staff member Alicia Silva.
CPEHN Workshops on Improving Cultural and Linguistic Services

The California Pan-Ethnic Health Network (CPEHN) is providing two trainings to help improve cultural and linguistic services. The first session will take place Friday, Nov. 17, 2006 and will cover:

  • The Business Case for Cultural Competency: Unlocking the Da Vinci Code
  • Interpreter Services: Assessing and Ensuring Quality
  • Tools for Translation

Session Two will be held Friday, Dec. 8, 2006, and will discuss:

  • Collecting Race/Ethnicity and Language Data: Challenges and Opportunities
  • Addressing the Cultural and Linguistic Educational Needs of the Managed Care Workforce
Click here for more information or to register. The cost is $250 for one session or $400 for both sessions.

 

 

 


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