WIHI: Triple Perspectives on Triple Aim in a Region

Date: July 26, 2012

Featuring:

• Craig Brammer, Director, Beacon Communities, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, US Department of Health and Human Services
• Shelley B. Hirshberg, MHSA, Executive Director, P2 Collaboration of Western New York; Project Director, Western New York Aligning Forces for Quality(AF4Q), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Carol Beasley, MPPM, Executive Director of Strategic Projects, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• Katherine Browne, MBA, MHA, Chief Operating Officer, National Program Director, Aligning Forces for Quality, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
  
  

There’s a lot of interest in the Triple Aim in the US, Canada, and several European countries. And it’s no wonder. Ever since IHI conceived of the framework of the simultaneous pursuit of better health, better health care, and lower per capita costs, a whole array of strategies have opened up for health care improvers. Some of the most interesting and groundbreaking strategies have built as much on insights from outside health care as within.

And, just imagine if the various communities making headway with the Triple Aim started to think regionally? Well, many are and that’s the evolution this WIHI focuses on, tapping into three related but unique endeavors: IHI’s Triple Aim Initiative (with special focus on recent regional work), the Beacon Community Program (a project of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology), and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q).

These three efforts combined have already impacted nearly 200 communities, to the point where many now realize that thinking regionally is the logical next step. Among other things, a regional focus forces an examination of cross-cutting social issues that affect more than a single community — issues such as unemployment, education, transportation, and crime. One community’s solutions to the needs of an aging population, people with chronic conditions, and individuals with complex social problems might benefit the community next door. Further, a regional outlook necessitates building even broader coalitions, drawing on the expertise of health systems operating in multiple locations, state and municipal leaders, public health experts, urban planners, economic developers, and more.  

Our guides for the July 26 WIHI are Craig Brammer, Katherine Browne, Carol Beasley, and Shelley Hirschberg. The AF4Q effort alone has some 270 partners and a portfolio of projects, including health information technology, that point to what’s possible when one starts to act regionally as well as locally. We’ll be identifying other emerging regional “movers and shakers” as well.