Letter from the Executive Director: Looking ahead to more Choosing Wisely in Washington state
In 2013, the Alliance received a grant from ABIM Foundation to advance the goals of the Choosing Wisely® campaign in Washington state. Thanks to strong partnerships with fellow grantee Washington State Medical Association (WSMA) and the Washington State Hospital Association, our state has been a leader in this national program. We’ve accomplished much in these two years. We formed a task force made up of health care leaders dedicated to promoting Choosing Wisely across the state. We were the first in the nation to publish a state-level report measuring appropriate use of select Choosing Wisely recommendations. We have profiled the work of a few health organizations who are taking the lead on implementing Choosing Wisely recommendations into their existing quality improvement culture and are excited to hear about the efforts underway at many other organizations. We are also working with several major health care purchasers in Washington state who are using Choosing Wisely materials in order to help their employees become more engaged in their own health care decision-making.
As we approach the end of the first grant, we are energized by a number of new opportunities. The Alliance and WSMA were recently awarded a small grant to develop an online workspace space for providers to collaborate and share their Choosing Wisely clinical measure specifications so we can continue to support the implementation efforts underway across the state. The Choosing Wisely Task Force has also set an ambitious agenda for 2015 and we look forward to sharing more about their hard work later in the year.
In addition to Choosing Wisely, the Alliance is also in the final stages of preparing the latest Community Checkup public report. This will be our eighth report and the first public release of medical group and clinic-level results from three new counties: Skagit, Spokane and Whatcom. Soon after the release of the report, we will be visiting these three counties and holding public town hall-style meetings where we will share the results and talk about local quality improvement efforts.
We look forward to sharing the Community Checkup results with our community, and helping all stakeholders move toward better care for all Washingtonians. Thank you for your partnership and support. We couldn’t do it without you!