News Briefs: IHI announces grants to pursue perfection
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) of Princeton, NJ, and Boston’s Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) announced grants to a dozen health care organizations around the nation as part of the a $20.9 million initiative, Pursuing Perfection: Raising the Bar for Health Care Performance.
The program hopes to inspire health care organizations to apply proven systems developed in other industries to improve quality and performance.
The 12 health care organizations are: Cambridge (MA) Health Alliance; Children’s Hospital and Health Center of San Diego; Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati; Hackensack (NJ) University Medical Center; HealthPartners Medical Group and Clinics in Minneapolis; Henry Ford Medical Group of Detroit; Luther Midelfort - Mayo Health System in Eau Claire, WI; McLeod Regional Medical Center of Florence, SC; Mission St. Joseph’s Health System of Asheville, NC; Scripps Mercy Hospital of San Diego; St. Joseph Hospital, PeaceHealth of Bellingham, WA; and Tallahassee (FL) Memorial HealthCare. Each will receive grants to develop comprehensive plans to systematically improve health care quality.
During the first phase of the initiative, each recipient will pursue perfect health care in at least two areas of care and initiate similar efforts in five other care areas, while working to establish a culture that fosters improvements throughout the organization.
At the end of the seven-month planning phase, up to six of the 12 organizations will be selected to receive grants between $1.5 million and $3.5 million to help implement their plans.
The Pursuing Perfection program was launched in May with the release of a survey showing that more than half of health care providers and administrators believe the overall quality of health care in the United States is not good. The survey also indicated that 80% of health care providers believe fundamental changes are necessary in the health care system.
More than 200 hospitals and physician organizations from across the country applied for Pursuing Perfection grants. A national advisory committee, comprised of business and policy leaders, selected the first phase recipients on the basis of a series of criteria, including their ability to develop:
- A strategy for training their organization’s administrative and clinical staff to redesign their processes based on what they learn from pilot tests;
- A strategy for building partnerships outside the organization, necessary to pursue perfect care for patients;
- An internal financial analysis of how net revenue will change as a result of the improvements;
- Plans for directly involving organizational leaders, responsible for assuring continued dramatic quality improvement.
As part of the program, IHI is developing an Internet-based network that will enable all those interested in pursuing perfect health care to benefit from the experiences of the grantees.
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