Cincinnati Children's Receives Grant, Joins $20.9 Million National Effort to Improve Health Care Quality
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Awards Grants to Support the Development of Systematic Plans for Pursuing Perfection
CINCINNATI - Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati was chosen today as one of a dozen healthcare organizations around the nation to receive grants and participate in a $20.9 million initiative, Pursuing Perfection: Raising the Bar for Health Care Performance, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI).
"This is an important first step in an ambitious program to dramatically improve the performance of America's health care system" said Lewis G. Sandy, MD, executive vice president of RWJF. "Although it often appears as if the health care system is plagued by insurmountable problems, we believe that isn't the case. Pursuing Perfection will help these 12 bold organizations demonstrate it is possible to get more for our health care dollars by consistently achieving higher levels of performance and quality in health care."
Under the grant, Cincinnati Children's will develop a detailed plan for pursuing perfect healthcare. This plan includes two pilot projects involving patient care processes:
- Implementing perfect care for children with chronic illness, with an initial focus on cystic fibrosis. The goal is to design and implement a comprehensive system for care of children and adolescents with chronic conditions that is efficient, effective, safe, family-centered and evidence-based, to maximize medical status and quality of life.
- Building the infrastructure to perfect application of evidence-based care for children with acute conditions, with an initial focus on bronchiolitis. Evidence-based care refers to using research-driven methodology to determine best clinical practice and most cost-effective delivery of care.
"We strive everyday to be the leader in improving child health, and we believe that the RWJF grant will help us move one step closer to achieving this vision," says James M. Anderson, president and CEO of Cincinnati Children's. "We are deeply committed to improving the way we deliver care at our institution, and we're delighted that the projects funded by this grant will set the stage for this transformation. Moreover, we're pleased that we will be able to impact the lives of more children in our community and around the world."
"Receipt of the grant could be the catalyst for the transformational change we desire," adds Uma Kotagal, M.D., director, Health Policy and Clinical Research and leader of the Pursuing Perfection initiative at Cincinnati Children's.
Many industries have embraced a systemic approach as the best way to bring about improvements in quality and performance that, in turn, significantly boost customer satisfaction and produce better results. The Pursuing Perfection initiative will apply the same approach to health care.
IHI, an internationally recognized leader in health care quality improvement, serves as the national program office for the Pursuing Perfection initiative, providing management and technical support. "Cincinnati Children's will join 11 other organizations to create plans that will lead to breakthroughs and improvements not generally thought possible in health care," said Donald M. Berwick, M.D., MPP, president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
"The Pursuing Perfection grantees will help us stretch the limits currently placed on health care by status quo results and aspirations. It has always taken bold thinking to arrive at medical breakthroughs. It will likewise require bold thinking to bring about dramatic changes in the ways we approach and provide care. That's why significant progress will require nothing short of organizational transformation," Berwick said.
The first phase of the Pursuing Perfection initiative awards grants to 12 health care organizations, representing different regions of the country and different areas of health care, to develop comprehensive plans to systematically improve health care quality.
During this first phase of the initiative, each grantee will pursue perfect health care in at least two areas and initiate similar efforts in five other areas of care, while working to establish a culture that fosters improvements throughout the organization. At the end of a 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 percent of medical 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 of business and policy leaders selected the 12 first phase grantees based on 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 learn from and exchange information with the grantees.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates its grantmaking in four goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost; to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions; to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse -- tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs.
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement is an integrative force for improving health care worldwide. By building bridges for people and organizations committed to real change, and by harvesting innovative ideas, IHI leverages the collective energy of health care organizations to accomplish more together than they can separately. Founded in 1991, the institute is an independent, non-profit organization based in Boston.
Contact Information
Jim Feuer,
jfeuer@chmcc.org, 513-636-4420
