March 24, 2020

 All quality improvement in health and health care shares the goal of standardizing best practices, and ensuring that staff have the skills, resources, and capability to reliably implement proven and better ways of delivering care. But what does it mean to innovate, improve, and solve problems at warp speed during a time of crisis? Tune in to this WIHI to hear IHI's Chief Innovation and Education Officer, Dr. Kedar Mate, talk with host Madge Kaplan about ways health care can harness innovation to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

 Featuring

• Kedar Mate, MD, Chief Innovation and Education Officer, Institute for Healthcare Improvement

The ability of health care staff to raise concerns or report near-misses is only as strong as leadership’s willingness to listen. As Dr. Neil Baker writes, “psychological safety is quite fragile. People have a strong tendency to avoid speaking up about problems and disagreements.” Dr. Baker joined WIHI to address the  necessity of honest dialogue and psychological safety in the workplace, achieved in part by better understanding and successfully navigating the power dynamics that exist in every organization.

 Featuring:

• Neil Baker, MD, Principal, Neil Baker Consulting and Coaching, LLC

Featured Links:

• IHI Blog Post: Don't Let Your Staff Suffer in Silence
• Neil Baker Tool: Managing the Risks of Power
• IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work

These days, US health systems are employing numerous efforts to address population health, but sometimes, these efforts fail to align. On this episode of WIHI, IHI’s Trissa Torres and Concord Hospital’s Vice President for Population Health, Betsey Rhynhart, discuss the Pathways to Population Health Compass to understand what it takes for a group to create a comprehensive, aligned population health strategy that unfolds over time.

 Featuring:

• Betsey Rhynhart, MPH, Vice President for Population Health, Concord Hospital
• Trissa Torres, MD, MSPH, FACPM, Chief Population Health and Content Development Officer, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)

 Featured Links:

• Pathways to Population Health Compass
• Pathways to Population Health Founding Partners
• Pathways to Population Health Framework

January 23, 2020

The relationship between workload and stress and the risk this poses for practitioners and patients alike need more attention. On this episode of WIHI, IHI's longtime senior safety expert Frank Federico, RPh, and James Won, PhD, talk about the field of human factors in health care, and the role that human factors can play in reducing today’s work-related stress.

Featuring:

•  Frank Federico, RPh
• James C. Won, PhD

Featured Links:  

• What is Human Factors in Healthcare?
• Cognitive Overload, Medical Errors, and a 5-point Communication Strategy to Help Clinicians Stay Focused.
• IHI's Patient Safety Executive Development Program

December 10, 2019

 Featuring:

• John Toussaint, MD, Catalysis Executive Chairman
• Aravind Chandrasekaran, PhD, Academic Director MBOE, Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University

 WIHI is pleased to present a Special Edition Podcast: Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement that Outlasts Your Leaders, featuring John Toussaint and Aravind Chandrasekaran.

 We can all point to leaders who have championed improvement at our organizations, helping to move the dial and motivate many others. But too often organizations see their QI gains stall or, worse, reverse when a leader departs. Drs. Toussaint and Chandrasekaran have been studying this phenomenon and have identified evidence-based approaches that ensure a culture of improvement lasts beyond the tenure of any senior individual – and can be sustained during times of transition and succession.

 This keynote was recorded on December 10, 2019, at IHI’s annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care in Orlando, Florida. The podcast is approximately one hour and six minutes; we recommend that you have the presentation slides handy for reference as you’re listening.  The first person speaking is John Toussaint. “AC” refers to Aravind Chandrasekaran. 

We recommend that you have the presentation slides handy for reference. 

Thanks for listening to WIHI. As an organization dedicated to continuous improvement, we hope you will take a moment to give us feedback on this particular episode of WIHI. We’ll use this information to ensure we keep producing the high-value, cutting-edge conversations on health and patient care. Take the 1-minute survey here: ihi.org/PodcastSurvey.

 Date: November 14, 2019 

Featuring:

• Arpan Waghray, MD, System Director, Behavioral Medicine, System Medical Director, Telepsychiatry, Providence St. Joseph Health; Chief Medical Officer, Well Being Trust
• Scott Zeller, MD, Vice President of Acute Psychiatry, Vituity
• Scott M. Surico, BSN, RN, MICN, Education Coordinator for Emergency Services, Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian
• ​Marie Schall, MA, Senior Director, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)​

 Emergency departments (EDs) constantly handle behavioral health-related emergencies, but what if EDs were able to take a more proactive approach toward behavioral health patients, initiating treatment and better connecting individuals to optimal care?

 Tune into this episode of WIHI, The Benefits of Behavioral Health in the ED, to hear about an eight-hospital system, 18-month IHI initiative, Integrating Behavioral Health in the Emergency Department and Upstream (ED and UP). With support from the Well Being Trust, the ED and UP initiative sought to improve ED culture surrounding patients with behavioral health issues, emphasizing trauma-informed care, and the need to build awareness of, and partner with, community resources. The WIHI panel highlights the importance of changing hearts and minds and practices in the ED with behavioral health patients when they’re most vulnerable, and the impact well-conceived interventions can have on patients, family members, and staff. Treating patients with the care most appropriate to their condition is of critical importance in health care, and we hope you’ll appreciate and learn from this WIHI. 

As an organization dedicated to continuous improvement, we hope you will take a moment to give us feedback on this episode of WIHI. Take the 1-minute survey here: ihi.org/PodcastSurvey.

Featuring:

• Jamie Beach, BSN, RN, Quality Data Manager, Frankel Cardiovascular Center, Michigan Medicine
• Diane Lopez, RN, MSN, Clinical Nursing Director, Michigan Medicine
• Jessical Perlo, MPH, Network Director, Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Caregiver burnout is well documented and on the rise. To address some of the underlying issues and improve patient and provider safety, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has developed a framework and set of recommendations known as "Joy in Work." Organizations across the country are testing how to apply the principles with encouraging results. If you want to learn how one clinical team at Michigan Medicine, spearheaded by Diane Lopez with help from Jamie Beach, has changed what was once a toxic culture in a medical unit, this episode of WIHI is for you.

 IHI Joy In Work Tools and Resources:

 The IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work is the North Star for this work. Other key and helpful materials include:

• IHI Blog Post: In Defense of the Word “Joy”
• Journal of Healthcare Management: Why Focusing on Professional Burnout Is Not Enough
• NEJM Catalyst: Applying Community Organizing Principles to Restore Joy in Work
• IHI Tool: "What Matters to You?" Conversation Guide for Improving Joy in Work

 Currently, IHI is gearing up for a Results-Oriented Learning Network around Joy in Work. The network will kick off in January 2020. Register here to save your spot in a free informational call with Network faculty on November 15, 2019, at 11:00 AM ET.

Looking for in-person trainings? Join us at this year’s National Forum, where Joy in Work is a featured track. (You can browse all National Forum sessions here.) 

October 3, 2019

Featuring:

• Derek Feeley, President and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• Helen Macfie, PharmD, Chief Transformation Officer, Providence St. Joseph Health
• Kelly Logue, MA, Senior Director of Affordability, HealthPartners

The notion of waste in healthcare has expanded in recent years. Today, waste encompasses everything from diagnostic errors and hospital-acquired infections to EHR workarounds and staff burnout. Experts suggest this waste in the US health care system totals roughly one trillion dollars per year. And, as Derek Feeley writes in the foreword to the IHI Leadership Alliance’s Call to Action: “The most precious resources – the [health care] workforce’s time, spirit, and joy – are being unnecessarily drained by wasteful processes every day.”

 So, what if this one trillion dollars could be cut in half by 2025? It’s no pipe dream if every health system doubles down. And, this episode of WIHI, Let’s Get to Work on Waste in Health Care, talks about how. Among our panelists, Helen Macfie will trace how the IHI Leadership Alliance waste workgroup arrived at its key interventions and savings calculations in the Call to Action; IHI’s Derek Feeley will share why he’s championing waste reduction in health care; and Joanna Roberts, and Kelly Logue will discuss the encouraging trajectory of current strategies in their organizations. We hope you’ll tune in.