Overview

Held in 2008, the Efficiency Collaborative was a 12-month program designed to help organizations identify and implement key interventions in high-impact measures that represent high volume, high cost, and unnecessary variation, such as emergency room visits, cardiac testing, MRIs for extremities, and prescribing generics when appropriate. Four of the five participating groups ultimately chose to focus their efforts on reducing inappropriate use of the Emergency Department.

Participants learned to:

• Identify variation to set goals in areas with greatest opportunity for improvement
• Create and analyze variation charts at the group and physician levels
• Identify and validate key drivers for variation
• Conduct effective focus groups with physicians and other key stakeholders
• Set ambitious performance goals based on their analysis and feedback from focus groups, faculty, and peer organizations
• Generate physician level reports and supporting education materials to support improvement at the physician and system level
• Continuously measure effects of interventions for selected measures

The collaborative also allowed participants to work with other groups in California and national experts developing improvements in the same measures. Teams shared experiences to support and expand learning available to all participants.

Faculty

• Howard Beckman, MD, Medical Director, Rochester IPA
• Tammy Fisher, MPH, Collaborative Co-Director (formerly at CQC)

Participants:

• Hill Physicians Medical Group
• Mills Peninsula Medical Group
• Monarch Healthcare
• Physicians Medical Group of Santa Cruz
• Torrance Hospital IPA