Reaching for Excellence
Community Vision and Voices for Western New York Health Care
Reaching Excellence
How to Reach Excellence Together
Western New York's health care leaders are already moving forward to advance system quality in the community's priority areas, as evidenced by numerous collaborative efforts among hospitals, health plans and other regional partners to improve patient-centered care. Building on these efforts, and as a framework for advancing system performance in priority areas, Reaching for Excellence offers the region's health leaders a series of strategic recommendations and local and national best practices. To guide the region's strategic efforts and related investments toward achieving measurable progress, recommendations focus on the top three priorities raised by Western New Yorkers (Make the Human Connection, Lose the Hassle Factor, and Help Me Understand).
Reaching Excellence Together
Engage Providers, Patients and Staff in Identifying Specific Challenges and Potential Solutions
In formulating strategies for revising policies and procedures toward quality improvement on measures of patient-centered care, health leaders should engage those on the front lines of the patient encounter - providers, patients themselves and staff. Intake forms that ask patients about their cultural background, religious views, lifestyle, family, and other factors affecting their preferences could support a more holistic, needs-based approach to treatment. Focus groups, advisory councils and survey tools should also be implemented to engage providers, patients and staff in targeting opportunities for policy change and quality improvement. Several hospitals in the region are already taking advantage of staff insights in shaping more patient-centered care approaches.
NATIONAL BEST PRACTICE
Schwartz Center Rounds
www.theschwartzcenter.org/programs/rounds.html
What if physicians and other providers in the area could learn from one another in strengthening their relationships with patients? The Schwartz Center Rounds offers clinicians this opportunity. Conducted at 165 sites (mostly hospitals) in 30 different states across the nation, the rounds are hour-long forums that bring together a multidisciplinary group of providers to discuss their experiences with patients and share new ideas for patient-centered care. The rounds have been effective in developing provider skills, generating new ideas for supporting patient-centered care and facilitating change in policy and practice within hospitals.
LOCAL BEST PRACTICE
Transforming Care at the Bedside Collaborative
The Transforming Care at the Bedside model engages nurses and other frontline staff in identifying and implementing strategies to improve the quality and safety of patient care for hospital medical and surgical units. Mercy Hospital is at the forefront of embracing this model having funded its own initiative and completed the two-year project. Joining the collaborative are Erie County Medical Center and Medina Memorial Hospital, which have been awarded grants by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Aligning Forces for Quality to participate in this national effort to improve health outcomes.
