Initiative Builds on Success at UCSF Health System, Expands to SFGH
Marking the expansion of an innovative, grass-roots effort at the UCSF Health System to reduce costs and improve care, the UCSF Center for Healthcare Value (CHV) has announced its latest project awards for Caring Wisely™ 2.0, which now also include proposals from San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH).
“The Caring Wisely campaign is not only successful because of its impressive return on investment, but also because it’s bringing together nurses, physicians, staff and our entire community to highlight the value of innovation,” said Josh Adler, MD, Chief Medical Officer at UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital.
That sentiment was echoed by Alice Chen, MD, MPH, Chief Integration Officer at SFGH. “This is the kind of front line involvement, collaboration and creative problem solving we are trying to foster at SFGH,” she said. “It’s exciting to see teams coming together to not only identify opportunities for improvement, but to address them in a tangible way.”
Caring Wisely 1.0, which began in 2013, awarded three teams from among 20 finalists. Awardees included Nebs No More After 24, Reduction of Red Blood Cell Transfusions, and a project focused on switching medication administration from IV to PO. Learn more
“The first phase of Caring Wisely established a strong foundation to begin to expand and scale this effort,” said Ralph Gonzales, MD, MSPH, director of the CHV Delivery Systems Initiative. “We expect similar success in the second phase, and are setting our sights on how to expand the program beyond the Bay Area, possibly to other UC campuses.”
For Caring Wisely 2.0, the CHV Delivery Systems initiative has awarded funding to seven teams from a competitive field of 172 proposals and then 28 finalists submitted through UCSF Open Proposals:
- RADS: Reducing ct use with Apex Decision rules submitted by Ellen Weber and team members Ralph Wang, Ester Chen, Maria Beylin, Karen Ordovas, John Mongan, Stephen Villa, Craig San Luis, and Asim Mumtaz (UCSF Health System);
- Operating Wisely: Reducing Operating Room Turnover Times at UCSF submitted by Lindsay Hampson and team members Peter Carroll, Maxwell Meng, Matthew Cooperberg, Michael Gropper, Errol Lobo, and Lauren Aichele (UCSF Health System);
- Merged proposals: Perioperative Utilization Data Review submitted by Kent Soo Hoo and team members Andy Goldberg, Kevin Bozic, Kevin Pattison, and Sandy Weinholz; and Reducing Operating Room Costs through a Price Transparency Initiative submitted by Corinna Zygourakis (UCSF Health System);
- Critical Care Early Mobility Program to Reduced Hospital Length of Stay submitted by Bryanna Lamberjack and team members Antonio Gomez, Diane Scarlet, Nora Brennan, Jenny Farr, James Alonso, Laura Martin, and Melissa Nguyen (SFGH);
- Reducing Unnecessary Respiratory Isolation in Patients with Possible TB in the Emergency Department submitted by Luke Davis and team members David Duong, Annie Luetkemeyer, Chris Barton, Adithya Cattamanchi, Chip Chambers, Mary Clancy, Elaine Dekker, Barbara Haller, Julie Higashi, Edward Ochi, Marguerite Roemer, and Lisa Winston (SFGH);
In addition to project funding, each team will receive support from UCSF Implementation Science faculty and staff to develop plans for their interventions, as well LEAN training.
The CHV is administered by the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), which is a member of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards network funded through the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (grant Number UL1 TR000004) at the National Institutes of Health.