Once again we were lucky to share the experience of attending the annual Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) national conference. The conference attracts 6,000 people from around the world and another 15,000 people attending via satellite. It is the Disney World of innovation and learning about health care improvement and is, appropriately enough, held in Orlando, Florida, the first week of December. KP sent more than 30 presenters this year, including CEO and Chairman George Halvorson who gave one of the key note talks. 

The Labor Management Partnership awarded 30 scholarships and the regions funded 22 additional frontline team members. In all, more than 60 frontline co-leads, UBT consultants and improvement advisors were there from Kaiser Permanente.  Our group was mainly made up of co-leads of high performing teams. These team members learned from experts in their fields as well as from other teams that have been successful in healthcare innovation and improvement. When we get this chance to share our experience with other health care innovators, it underscores the fact that KP is on the right track and is in fact a leading innovator in some areas. 

UBTs lead innovation

Sherry Thomas, a physician assistant from the Northwest, said the conference made her think about all that patients must go through if they do not receive timely service. Does the patient have to miss work more than once? she wondered. Does the patient have to set up child care multiple times or ride the bus multiple places to get the services? Or have to wait on lab results or other tests? When you look at things from a patient’s point of view, the Value Compass really takes on new dimensions.

Jeff Mendes, a clinical operations manager from the Mid-Atlantic region, spoke of how proud he was to work for Kaiser Permanente. Conference goers from other organizations recognized Kaiser Permanente as a leader in innovation and expressed the desire for their organizations to adopt some of our practices, he said. Mendes is a born networker. He won the prize for the most business cards collected—52! 

Many of the co-leads are eager to share the improvements their teams are working on. Stacy Helepololei-Grace, a nurse from Hawaii, spoke about the need to share best practices. She was eager to share how her team was reducing patient-handling injuries and learn from other UBTs. 

As an organization we are getting better at sharing effective practices, and the IHI conference provided a great opportunity for team co-leads to learn from each other. But we still have a long way to go. In the coming year, we hope your team can share with others. Please let us know how we can support the spread of effective practices. 

We wish each of you the happiest of holidays. This is always a great time to reflect on the year and get excited for the New Year. We are all fortunate to work with the great people of Kaiser Permanente and look ahead to a wonderful 2011.