The Brigham and Women's Physicians Organization recently received two first place awards from the Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA) Accountable Care Compass Awards for the Brigham and Women's Care Redesign Incubator and Startup Program (BCRISP) and the Innovative Clinical Pathways in Lung Cancer project. The awards recognize and reward innovative and effective patient care quality improvement projects, including projects related to readmissions, the Statewide Performance Improvement Agenda goals, total medical expense reduction, and better outcomes.
BCRISP, which won first place in the Physician Practice Innovations category, was launched at BWHC in the spring of 2013 by Karl Laskowski, MD, MBA, BWPO associate medical director, and Jessica Dudley, MD, BWPO chief medical officer and BWHC vice president of Care Redesign, with the goals of engaging frontline clinicians in promoting value, identifying and evaluating novel proposals for care redesign, and strategically investing in ideas that demonstrate early success. Now entering its third cycle of projects, BCRISP has become the standard mechanism for care redesign at BWHC and has engaged many clinical staff in improving value.
The Innovative Clinical Pathways in Lung Cancer project, which won first place in the Special Populations Category, was launched as a BCRISP project in July 2014 to improve care for vulnerable patients with suspected lung cancer. The new pathway has greatly simplified and improved patient experience and outcomes, reducing time to diagnosis and treatment by a factor of 5. Project leader Yolonda Colson, MD, PhD, director of the BWH Women's Lung Cancer Program, is now examining how to expand the pathway to additional patients with suspected lung cancer.
To determine winners and finalists, independent judges reviewed more than 60 submissions from hospitals, physician groups, home health agencies and other care providers from across Massachusetts, and selected finalists and a winner in the categories of Reducing Hospital-Acquired Conditions and Readmissions; Improving Organizational Efficiencies; Enhancing Culture and Leadership; Providing Care to Special Populations; Improvements Across the Continuum of Care; and Physician Practice Innovations.
