PS1-38: Catalyzing Innovation at the Front Lines of Health Care

Background/Aims: To find new ways for Group Health, its research center and its community foundation to work together, we pilot tested the Partnership for Innovation, a grant program to encourage and seed organization wide innovation. Innovation is defined as new ideas or approaches that have the potential to add value and change the way the organization works. The program gives staff funding to develop, implement, and evaluate innovations within the healthcare system. Evaluations assess the effect of the innovations in terms of costs, patient satisfaction, organizational readiness, and other aspects. These results inform decisions about adopting the innovation organization wide. Methods: We disseminated an initial call for proposals to medical center leaders, and developed a two-step selection process in which we first reviewed brief concept proposals for their innovativeness, likely effectiveness, impact, feasibility, congruence with strategic priorities, and overlap with other efforts. We next invited selected applicants to expand their proposals for review by the program’s steering committee. In step three, the Partnership program itself was refined and improved through Plan-Do- Check-Act cycles after each of the two funding rounds in 2008. Results: We received 19 proposals in 2008 (12 in the first round). Funded proposal topics included nasal flu vaccine for children, an online chronic disease self-management program, infectious disease management for long-term care facilities, and enhancing medication safety for patients with complex medication regimens. The first round of four pilots are currently underway and the second round of two funded pilots will begin in 2009. Viable but unfunded proposals were rerouted to other departments to encourage discussion about whether the idea could be developed through other channels. Conclusions: Offering a pilot grant program to frontline staff may enhance engagement, empowerment, and creativity. Evaluating the pilot programs is an essential component of this initiative, both to improve the pilots themselves, and the innovation program as a whole. The partners found the collaboration promising and worth continued funding in 2009.