As our nation’s healthcare system continues its journey of transformation, CHOIR research is making important contributions on many fronts. For example, our work on patient engagement in ACOs has documented the importance of primary care practices having a patient-centered culture and motivating more activated patients for achieving better patient-reported physical and social outcomes and patients reporting fewer depression symptoms. Three other studies examining ACOs show that they are more likely to participate in quality improvement learning collaboratives and have more advanced performance management systems but they perform worse on many Medicare quality performance measures if they have a high percentage of racial and ethnic minority group patients. Drawing on our longstanding national data base of physician practices, we find that small physician practices continue to increase their adoption of electronic health records supporting the effectiveness of current policies of CMS and others to increase such adoption and use.
The next several months will see more of our work influencing the field. Along with our colleagues at The Dartmouth Institute and the High Value Healthcare Collaborative, we will be launching the National Survey of Healthcare Organizations and Systems (NSHOS) focusing on identifying the factors associated with the adoption and implementation of value-added innovations in healthcare delivery. We are taking the lead on patient engagement innovations. Our companion center, the Center for Lean Engagement and Research (CLEAR) in Healthcare, has just launched, in collaboration with the American Hospital Association, the first national survey of hospitals’ involvement in lean, lean plus six sigma, and robust quality improvement initiatives. We will be examining the relationship between the degree of implementation of such initiatives and various cost and quality performance measures.
We are also playing a leadership role in knowledge dissemination. On June 14-16, 2017, we will be hosting the Organization Theory in Health Care Association (OTHCA) meeting of approximately 50 investigators from around the country featuring some of the most recent research in the field. In related fashion, our CLEAR center is hosting the Lean Healthcare Research Symposium on June 6, 2017 in Palm Desert, CA in conjunction with the annual Lean Leadership Summit. Finally, we are very pleased to announce a robust schedule of presentations by faculty and our doctoral students at the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting on June 25-27, 2017 in New Orleans.
Best wishes,
Stephen M. Shortell, Ph.D., MPH, MBA
Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Management
Co-Director, Center for Healthcare Organizational and Innovation Research
Dean Emeritus, School of Public Health
Professor of Organization Behavior, Haas School of Business
Henry J. Kaiser Endowed Chair in Organized Health Systems
Chair, Faculty Group in Health Policy
Co-Director, Center for Healthcare Organizational and Innovation Research
Professor of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health