Spring Summit Energizes Grantees
Last month, the ABIM Foundation hosted the Choosing Wisely Grantee Summit in Washington, D.C., to promote learning and sharing among the seven grantees and their partners. The meeting came at the end of the first year of their projects, which are funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and focus on the implementation of several Choosing Wisely® recommendations, including reducing the use of antibiotics for viral infections by at least 20 percent in their regions.
The nearly 70 attendees represented grantee organizations and the multistakeholder alliances they have built in their communities across the country. The Summit was designed to foster attendee interaction and sharing, and included relationship-building sessions, presentations from several of the grantees, panel and group discussions, and team planning. The ideas generated from these conversations will help the grantees advance Choosing Wisely within their communities and reduce unnecessary medical care.
Highlights from the Summit included conversations exploring:
- how to implement and track interventions—at both the community and clinic level—in order to encourage appropriate ordering of tests and treatments;
- how to engage patients in important conversations about health care waste;
- how to align Choosing Wisely goals with other quality improvement metrics and provider incentives;
- how to promote price, quality and safety transparency; and
- how to share success stories and data to increase awareness of the campaign.
Attendees had an honest dialogue about the challenges they face to make a difference in the complex health care environment and strategized how to capitalize on emerging opportunities. They took time to share the outcomes of their work to date and discuss what they have yet to explore as they begin the second year of their grant projects.
Takeaways included:
- Projects found success through workflow redesign, audit and feedback, and transparent data display.
- Physicians code conditions differently, which can be a challenge when tracking appropriate or inappropriate ordering.
- It is helpful to align quality goals with goals or priorities of the organization or medical group.
- Think about engaging large employers and reaching out to young people.
In her keynote address, Marta Tellado, President and CEO of Consumer Reports, challenged the group to consider cultural, language and other barriers to quality health care. She contrasted the difference in empowerment consumers feel shopping for products in the marketplace versus the helplessness they might feel as a health care consumer. She also offered a reminder that while health care is often thought about on a site or system level, it is still very much an individual action.
After two full days immersed in thought and conversation, many of the grantees expressed a re-energized commitment to continue their work. ABIM Foundation Executive Vice President and COO, Daniel Wolfson, noted in his closing remarks that while the grantees will continue to collaborate via email and conference calls, the in-person meeting had a powerful impact.
During the next two years, the grantees will continue working to build multistakeholder alliances to implement at least three Choosing Wisely recommendations, including reducing the use of antibiotics for viral infections.
