CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), a leading innovator in health and health care improvement worldwide, kicked off its 14th Annual International Summit on Improving Patient Care in the Office Practice and the Community in Scottsdale, AZ. Taking place from April 7-9, nearly 1,200 Summit attendees are on-site to discuss a diverse range of healthcare topics, including new ways to engage patients and communities, innovative ways to confront escalating healthcare costs, new approaches to implementing and spreading patient-centered medical homes (PCMH), and new opportunities for leveraging health IT.
On Sunday, a dozen mini-courses offered participants in-depth learning opportunities focused on how to implement and sustain change taking advantage of sessions on Quality Improvement 101, Lean Analysis to Improve Clinical Flow, and the ACO/PCMH Model at Cambridge Health Alliance. In “The 10% Project” mini-course, IHI VP Pat Rutherford led a discussion of promising new strategies that better match patients’ health conditions to less intensive, less expensive and more appropriate settings for care – with the goal of improving care, improving the patient experience and reducing health care costs. Early estimates of the lower cost, higher quality strategies indicate a potential 10% reduction in ICU days, hospital bed days, emergency room visits, trips to specialists and primary care visits.
This morning, IHI President and CEO Maureen Bisognano, opened the Summit with a keynote address that brought to light new lessons for healthcare from the airline industry. She also walked attendees through four new design specifications for transforming healthcare: dose (level of care), place (site of care), tempo (frequency of clinical interactions) and team (patients as leaders and providers as coaches). Stated Bisognano, “The healthcare industry can take a page from JetBlue, which is teaching their front line employees about empathy in order fulfill its new customer promise to ‘bring humanity back to air travel.’ As clinicians, our new designs for health and health care must start with similar empathy for patients, and focus on designing around their experience.”
A second keynote will be delivered on Tuesday morning by Diane E. Meier, MD, Director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC), a national organization devoted to increasing the number and quality of palliative care programs in the US. Diane will discuss the future of palliative care, and the ways in which palliative care is central to improving the health care value equation.
Other Summit sessions and keynotes on today’s critical health care topics include:
- Is Your Mom on Drugs? The Overmedication of Elders
- Implementation and Spread of Patient Centered Medical Homes (PCMH) in a Safety Net Setting
- Taking the Triple Aim to the Next Level
- Integrating Community and Public Health with Primary Care to Achieve Population Health
- Readmission Prevention: A Community Collaborative Experience
Follow Twitter hashtag #ihi14summit for the up-to-the-minute developments and commentary.
For press credentials, event photos/video footage, or additional information, contact: Sandy George, sandy@cxocommunication.com.
About The Institute for Healthcare Improvement
IHI is a leading innovator in health and health care improvement worldwide. For more than 25 years, we have partnered with an ever-growing community of visionaries, leaders, and front-line practitioners around the globe to spark bold, inventive ways to improve the health of individuals and populations. Together, we build the will for change, seek out innovative models of care, and spread proven best practices. When it comes to raising the quality of health for all, IHI sees boundless possibilities and while we see the walls in front of us, we will not rest until we reach the other side. Learn more at ihi.org.
