The Efficiency Collaborative

The Efficiency Collaborative is a year long program aimed at providing participating CA Physician Groups with the right tools to successfully reduce the overuse and misuse of clinical services in five clinical areas. Participants will learn from expert faculty and each other 1) effective processes for identifying and targeting unnecessary practice variation in select measures, 2) which interventions work in these measures, and 3) how to effectively engage physicians to make improvements in these measures.

Approach

The 2008 Collaborative works with teams from Physician Groups comprised of medical group leadership, physician champions, data analysts, project managers, and physician outreach staff. Participants have the opportunity to work closely with expert faculty and their peers at:

Four 1-day onsite learning sessions where they learn from experts and each other about best practices in improving overuse/misuse of services
Bimonthly teleconferences where best practices and lessons learned are reinforced
Website and newsletters where they share experiences and report progress in measures targeted

Data/Analytic Tools: assuring accurate data to identify variation patterns by practice
Reporting Tools: translating data into an understandable format for physicians to
act on
Interpersonal Process: conducting respectful non-judgmental conversations with targeted physicians to promote appropriate use of targeted services

Curriculum

Creating variation charts to review variation patterns by practice and to identify unnecessary variation in select measures
Engaging physicians to explore sources and solutions to unnecessary variation
Sharing interventions and tools for making improvements in the Collaborative measures
Conducting respectful, non-judgmental conversations with targeted physicians to promote appropriate use of services
Continuously evaluating performance in measures selected compared to internal and external benchmarks

Measures

The Collaborative focuses on five measures. Measures were selected by a Planning Group comprised of expert Faculty, Howard Beckman, MD, of Rochester IPA (RIPA) and representatives from CA physician groups with experience in efficiency measurement. Measures were selected based on the following criteria: high volume, high cost, perceived to have significant unnecessary variation, and the evidence available in other settings supports that these measures can be improved with interventions.

Participants are encouraged to work on two measures through the course of the Collaborative. Participants will establish targets in each measure and their progress will be evaluated and reported quarterly.

Collaborative Measures:

Improve cost-effectiveness in selecting antihypertensive medications
Reduce overuse and misuse of non-invasive testing for patients with cardiovascular conditions
Reduce overuse and misuse of extremity MRIs
Reduce Emergency Department utilization for non-emergent conditions
P4P generic prescribing measures
- overall generic prescribing rate
- generic prescribing rate with four therapeutic classes: nasal steroids, proton pump inhibitors, SSRIs/SNRIs, and statins

On-site Session Dates

Session 1: March 5, 2008 - Burlingame, CA
Session 2: April 23, 2008 - Los Angeles, CA
Session 3: July 16, 2008 - Burlingame, CA
Session 4: November 5, 2008 - Southen CA (location TBD)

Faculty/Staff

Howard Beckman, MD, FACP, FAACH - Clinical Director, Efficiency Collaborative
Medical Director, RIPA Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine
Tammy Fisher, MPH, Director, Efficiency Collaborative
Senior Manager, Pacific Business Group on Health
Neil Solomon, MD, Clinical Director, California Quality Collaborative
President, NAS Consulting
Paul Katz, PhD, Measures Advisor, Efficiency Collaborative
Intelligent Healthcare
Amy Rassbach, Coordinator, Efficiency Collaborative
Project Manager, Pacific Business Group on Health

Benefits of Joining

Results from the Rochester IPA demonstrate that the approach the Collaborative is using improves cost efficiency and promotes better physician engagement
Efficiency measurement and improvement is an emerging area; the Collaborative provides a forum for participants to learn from Experts and their peers to make improvements faster than any of us could alone
Collaborative provides infrastructure for Teams to focus on a couple key measures and to measure their progress compared to internal and external benchmarks
Gain access to measure descriptions and specifications in four key areas of overuse

Cost

The cost of this collaborative is $12,000 per organization.

How to Join

Registration for this collaborative is now closed for 2008. CQC will continue working in 2009 and 2010 in the area of Efficiency. If interested in this area, please contact Tammy Fisher at (415) 615-6377 or tfisher@pbgh.org.

Additional Information

Amy Rassbach
arassbach@pbgh.org
(415) 615-6379

Additional Information:

Program Description

Measures

Resources