RESOURCES - Leadership Guide
Section 8 -Champions of Change
At its core, Remaking American Medicine is a glimpse into the type of health care we all deserve. It is about the pioneering work of providers, patients and their families, private purchasers, government agencies and others committed to making health care in America safe, evidence-based, efficient and effective. We believe these people and institutions are best defined as Champions of Change.
Several Champions will be featured in the television series but there are literally thousands of individuals and institutions that deserve to be recognized for their dedication, struggles and contributions to improving health care. As part of the outreach campaign we encourage RAM coalitions to identify and support the work of their local Champions of Change. To facilitate your search and to give you some ideas about the types of individuals and institutions that may be designated as Champions of Change, you may wish to log on to Partner Web sites and other national groups that recognize outstanding individuals and institutions.
For example, each year, the American Hospital Association awards two national prizes:
- The Quest for Quality Prize honors hospitals for leadership and innovation in the creation of a culture of patient safety.
- The Foster G. McGaw Prize recognizes hospitals that have distinguished themselves through efforts to improve the health and well-being of everyone in their communities.
Since 2002, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), in collaboration with the National Quality Forum, has presented the John M. Eisenberg Award for Patient Safety and Quality to individuals and institutions throughout the country. To learn more, log on to JCAHO's Web site and look for Patient Safety.
The Association of American Medical Colleges'
Web site features a rich compendium of quality information and potential Champions. From the home page, click on Focus on Issues and follow the link to Ensuring Health Care Quality. This section provides a list of hospitals that have teamed up
with medical schools and providers to implement
initiatives that advance improvement in the quality
of health care. For example, click on the link to the Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in Hamilton, New Jersey to learn why this outstanding institution was recently awarded the 2004 Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award.
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is a not-for-profit organization driving the improvement of health by advancing the quality and value of health care. Among other things, IHI helps accelerate change in health care by cultivating promising concepts for improving patient care and turning those ideas into action. IHI's recent publication, Ideas in Action: 2005 Progress Report features the 22 "bold individuals and organizations willing to take responsibility for building a better health care system." The report includes McLeod Regional Medical System in Florence, South Carolina; Luther Midelfort-Mayo Health System in northwest Wisconsin; Tallahassee Memorial Hospital in Tallahassee, Florida; Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee; and the Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz County, California, among others.
Another IHI program, Pursuing Perfection: Raising the Bar for Health Care Performance, encourages and supports the outstanding work of such institutions as Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey and the Cambridge Health Alliance in Massachusetts, among others. To learn more about these actual Champions of Change, log on to the IHI Web site.
Other sources for Champions include the Center for Health Care Strategies whose core work is to identify and demonstrate best practices in Medicaid-
managed care. The American Cancer Society's Web site features consumer-driven involvement in quality of care for cancer patients. The American Health Quality Association provides scores of
success stories by clinical settings, and the National Library of Medicine has Changing the Face
of Medicine, which celebrates the lives and
achievements of America’s women physicians.
| Tip: Put a face on quality. Draw public attention to quality improvement and your coalition's work by identifying and highlighting the work of Champions of Change. Nothing will be more powerful in capturing public attention than by telling the compelling stories of quality health care pioneers. See profiles of Champions of Change. |
"Real, meaningful, lasting change usually springs from a simple idea,
a single inspirational source. A novel approach can spark waves of innovation
that ultimately lead to breakthrough results never before imagined."
-- Ideas in Action: 2005 Progress Report
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
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