Introduction of the NWONE - WSHA In-Patient Care Transformation Project

NWONE in formal partnership with the Washington State Hospital Association had written a proposal on a statewide initiative to transform inpatient care delivery.  This proposal was published in a national journal*, has been approved by the boards of both organizations, and we are now fund raising to launch the work proposed.  $338,000 has been raised to date for the launch of this work with additional grant proposals and donation requests in process.   Though the project remains under-funded we launched a pilot of the rapid cycle arm of the project for rural hospitals in June of 2009.  In preparation for this launch a webcast on the project was done for all rural hospitals in Washington, an Advisory Board for the project was formed, we began to meet regularly and a formal call for volunteer hospitals went out.  Six hospitals were in the original pilot group for TICC including:  Sunnyside CommunityHospital, Othello Community Hospital, Ferry County Memorial Hospital, Enumclaw Regional Hospital, Whitman Hospital and Medical Center and Pullman Regional Hospital.  Multiple site visits have been made to each of the pilot hospitals, focus groups have been conducted and we have led their TICC groups through the process of defining interventions for change, designing the intervention process, defining the measures of success, and writing their action plan and time line for each intervention.  Five of the six hospitals have implemented their rapid cycle improvement work and the enthusiasm for the work in each group and by the CNEs and CEOs is high.  At the end of 2009 the TICC leadership team made a second call for volunteers to include more rural hospitals and our first urban hospital sites.  In response to this call three additional rural hospitals began the TICC process:  Mark Reed Health Care District in McCleary, Mason General Hospital in Shelton, and Klickitat Valley Health in Goldendale.  Three Urban hospitals have also indicated interest and the Advisory Board looks forward to reviewing their applications and initiating them into TICC.

Future plans for the expansion of the TICC work include:

• Holding our first Learning Collaborative on March 22, 2010 where each TICC hospital team will present their work and engage in sharing across the teams.  This collaborative also allows our financial sponsors and other interested hospitals to learn about the work of TICC

• Plans to launch our first multi-hospital research project, that will focus on an intervention launched and tested by one or more of our rapid cycle TICC sites.

• Engage a team in a hospital design project to begin to test and research ideas about the impact of “space” on the efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction of care providers

• Seeing our original rapid cycle sites move into second and third interventional projects

• Begin an assessment on the impact of the TICC process on staff engagement. 

As the work of TICC progresses we wish to thank Bonnie Burlingham of the Washington State Hospital Association Rural Health division for her significant contributions to the launch of our TICC pilot and to also thank Lynn Barrett and Christina Capone, RNs from our organization who have contributed countless hours of volunteer time to this work.  Donors to this project have included individual NWONE members, Herman Miller, Hill-Rom, the Regence Foundation, the Washington State Department of Health and the Washington State Hospital Association’s Health Work Force Institute.  We are so grateful to all of them for their generosity and for their commitment to our work.  Additionally we have realized that we could not have done with essential work without the continual support of the Washington State Hospital Association.  They have been our most generous financial donor and have also given significant in-kind support for the TICC work.