Collaboratives and Other Opportunities to Participate

Engaging health care providers and family caregiver organizations in targeted efforts to implement Next Step in Care materials is an essential element of the campaign.

A major focus will be on creating quality improvement collaboratives, which have proved effective in changing practice to improve patient safety and clinical care in a variety of health care settings, including hospitals, nursing homes, and home care agencies. In the collaborative model, pioneered by the Institute for Health Improvement, multidisciplinary teams from several different facilities work together over the course of 12 to 15 months to develop, test, and evaluate changes in practice.  The teams select the problem they focus on, meet periodically for faculty-led learning sessions, communicate between learning sessions, collect data, and report on their findings and experiences.

In the Next Step in Care collaboratives, which will be sponsored by United Hospital Fund and limited to the New York area, teams from hospitals, rehab units in nursing homes, and home care agencies may work within their own setting or across settings on specific ways to use Next Step in Care materials to create more effective processes of including family caregivers in transition planning and implementation. United Hospital Fund has extensive experience with the collaborative model focused on palliative care and, in partnership with the Greater New York Hospital Association, on infection control.

In addition, United Hospital Fund will use training resources—webinars, website updates, and presentations at conferences—and small implementation grants to help providers introduce Next Step in Care materials into their standard practice. Outreach and training directed to family caregiver and consumer organizations will help them use Next Step in Care material with their constituencies.
 

Campaign Goals
Defining the Issue
Developing Next Step in Care
United Hospital Fund Family Caregiving Chronology
Funders