Administrative Memos

200410

FROM: Theodore O. Will, Chief Executive Officer
DATE: Jul 26, 2004
SUBJECT: Invitation To Statewide Collaborative
IPRO CONTACTS:

Linda Azzato, RN, Performance Improvement Coordinator, ext. 294, Linda Sheils, RN, Performance Improvement Coordinator, ext. 324, Karen Stockholm, RN, Performance Improvement Coordinator, 1-800-233-0360, ext.105

IPRO, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for New York State, would like to announce the launch of a statewide hospital collaborative beginning in August 2004 and continuing over the next 12 months. The framework for this collaborative is based on a modification and expansion of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) Breakthrough Series Collaborative, which IPRO has used to structure previous collaboratives including the Surgical Infection Prevention, Pneumonia and Smoking Cessation Collaboratives. This statewide initiative will focus on multiple topics and give the hospitals an opportunity to participate in quality improvement work on one or more of these clinical topic areas (pneumonia, surgical infection prevention and cardiac care).

This new collaborative will appeal to hospitals in all stages of their quality improvement efforts. For hospitals that have previously participated in a collaborative, this will help them sustain their efforts or make further improvements. For others in the developmental stage of their efforts, the collaborative will give them the opportunity to experience shared learning.

Throughout the year, IPRO will host monthly conference calls highlighting program development models, clinical updates and intervention strategies. IPRO will provide assistance in effectively utilizing indicator results and create a Web-based information exchange tool. Participants can engage in various levels of participation, from basic learning to advanced applications. Basic participation would involve having a dedicated hospital employee to participate in conference calls. More active participation would include the development of teams, implementing and monitoring improvement strategies and sharing improvement efforts.

We have enclosed the following for this initiative:

Please take a few minutes to read through the Checklist for Completing Pre-Work Activities and complete a Pre-Work Activities Worksheet for each of the topics your hospital plans to participate in. Once you have completed the worksheet(s), please fax back to IPRO, attention Eloise Tate, at 516-326-0434 by August 10, 2004.

We look forward to your involvement and will contact you within the next few weeks to discuss your participation in this collaborative. Should you have any questions regarding the collaborative or any of the enclosed materials, please feel free to contact any of the above performance improvement coordinators.