Clinical teams, researchers, administrative staff, patients and care partners–this was the makeup of the 70+ group of learners that participated at DHMC on October 22 to experience Dartmouth Health’s coproduction learning health system in-action. The event titled Rigor with Heart: Bringing a Coproduction Learning Health System to Life Through Improvement, Research, and Education, provided an opportunity for community building, networking and learning across all groups with the goal of achieving better science, better care and better health.
The Promise Partnership, is a strategic collaboration between the Dartmouth Health’s Office of Care Experience at the Value Institute and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice at the Geisel School of Medicine. It aims to deliver on a bold and distinctive vision to bring the collective expertise of the Dartmouth community together to continuously learn, improve, and conduct research in order to provide the best possible care, experience and outcomes for our workforce and the people we serve.
The day provided an opportunity to celebrate successes, share stories and spread what has been learned. A focus on collaboration and active engagement was pronounced throughout the event. In the area of research and education, attendees heard powerful examples of data scientists and researchers advancing translational science in a program known as SYNERGY, which facilitates Dartmouth’s Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA) program. SYNERGY’s goal is to accelerate innovation from discovery to clinical implementation, or getting new evidence-based innovations to more people in healthcare more quickly.
Also highlighted in research and education, was the new Dartmouth Learning Health System Embedded Scientist & Training Center (E-STaR) which focusses on developing the next generation of scientists who can address challenges and unmet health care needs in our region using learning health system approaches. With 5 E-STaR scientists currently involved in projects related to rural health care delivery, their 18-month journey in experiential learning provides the opportunity to refine their research question with patient partners and conduct their research with tailored training and mentorship.
Coproduction and a learning health system designed for improvement and human connection was a theme throughout the day. Embedding mechanisms that capture patient stories, experiences and preferences, alongside clinical data, is key. This ensures that patient voices are a core part of the learning and decision-making. The Care Experience Collaborative is a key initiative in Promise and features improvement teams from across the DH system working to improve care experience. Stories from two of the sites participating in the collaborative included Southwestern Vermont Medical Center’s Patient Family Advisory Council (PFAC) and DHMC’s Patient & Family Voices program. Both provide examples of the community, patients and families who share their time and lived experiences to improve the quality, safety and experience of healthcare services. By understanding what matters most to patients and families, the health system can effectively design programs that meet the needs of those we serve. Dartmouth Health’s Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity provided “lessons from the field” sharing examples of how to effectively develop community partnerships to support and guide research and improvement to our frontline teams.
The “Lightning Talks” portion of the conference provided a unique opportunity to peek into the workings of improvement in action—either from efforts of one of the 14 care experience improvement teams as part of the “Care Experience Learning Collaborative” or from other initiatives in the Promise Partnership. Brant Oliver, PhD, CPXP, Dartmouth Health System Vice President for Care Experience and Executive Director of the Promise Partnership shared that “an improvement effort of this magnitude has never been tried in care experience before. Many collaboratives focus on safety and quality. This is experience driven and focused on coproduction, creating an exciting opportunity for our organization. As experience improves, so will quality, safety and engagement.”
During the “Lightning Talks”, attendees learned, for example, how patient relations at DHMC optimized their services by developing standardized forms of communications and processes that dramatically improved response times. Another group shared their work in positive deviance theory and how feedback through brief patient and employee surveys can improve morale, engagement and experience. Next, the work of universal safety skills and how consistent language and tools can lead to safer, higher quality outcomes was highlighted and could be engrained for rollout in a learning health system. And finally, an overview of ConnectShareCare, an online support community created by patients, care partners, health care teams and researchers, to connect, share information and find support with those who have experienced a loss or are actively caring for someone. All of this work was conducted through coproduction efforts in our local learning health system.
There were also special workshops that attendees could choose from depending on interest in reporting out improvement efforts via the SQUIRE workshop (Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence) or learning about improvement measurement methods and tools to understand the new care experience dashboards being developed to inform strategic planning and improvement work. These options provided additional learning opportunities based on their area of interest or involvement in existing improvement efforts.
The evening culminated with networking, refreshments and to many, the highlight of the day, the poster session. Here, 17 posters were on display showcasing teams across the system that are engaged in activities to improve care experience with support from the learning health system. All teams have unique access to Lean Six Sigma trained improvement coaches and a learning collaborative where they can share best practices and learn from each other.
Amber Barnato, MD, MPH, MS, Co-Sponsor of the Promise Partnership and Chair of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth summed the day up nicely. “This is an incredible partnership between Dartmouth Health and the college and shows the tremendous scope of work across the system. I have seen rigor with heart, and love with improvement of work to make healthcare better.”
These opportunities to share and celebrate milestones creates connections to the purpose and brings a learning health system to life with heart, keeping people—patients, families, providers, researchers, and communities—at the center.
View presentations, posters and pictures from the Fall 2024 Learning Session.
This Article was written and originally posted by Dartmouth Health