April 2018
Welcome to our True North e-newsletter, which is designed to provide our physicians and AHPs a better vehicle to share information about UCSF Health improvement activities, upcoming events, and perhaps other objectives based on your continued feedback .
What is “True North” and why is it important?
True North  pillars represent our long-term objectives –  what we need to accomplish to achieve our vision -  because they serve as a constant guide for aligning and prioritizing our work. The UCSF Health True North pillars should not surprise you. In fact, we hope the areas of patient experience, quality and safety, our people, financial strength, strategic growth and learning health system reflect active improvement efforts you’ve participated in or have observed in your practice settings. The True North pillars are also important since they serve as a communication vehicle and common language to link our daily work to what's important in allowing us to continually become better versions of ourselves.
How are we doing with our True North metrics?
Please review our  current   True North scorecard that continues to serve as one lens into our organizational priorities and performance. This month's communication focuses on our Zero Harm work and an update about Value Improvement initiatives across UCSF Health.
Can we really achieve Zero Harm?

The past year, we've focused our efforts on trying to reduce a key set of "harm events" –  communicating the events as actual patients harmed rather than simply rates. February represented a remarkable month of accomplishments. It was the first month ever we had ZERO CLABSIs, ZERO falls with serious injury, and ZERO serious safety events across our adult and BCH-SF patient populations. This accomplishment is even more impressive when put in the context of one of our busiest inpatient volume months to date. The following slides share context for and work behind our efforts to reduce CLABSI, CAUTI and C. difficile infections. March will bring new harm events but February should be a month we collectively celebrate.
We've heard about the "Value Improvement Initiatives" across UCSF Health. What are they and how are they going?
 
Our Value Improvement Initiatives were a new effort in 2017-18 that identified strategic opportunities to address cost reduction, revenue optimization, asset utilization and clinical pathways. They touch all of our True North pillars and many of our metrics on the scorecard. In all, the nearly 200 initiatives offered opportunities to focus on challenging problems (e.g., length of stay reduction), invest in important programs to reduce variations in care (e.g., perioperative pathways) and build new programs to better address the needs of our patient populations (e.g., outpatient palliative care and age-friendly health system initiative). The following slides provide an overview of the program and initiatives, which are achieving their goals for the year in improving care and saving ~$80 million (projected). They also provide a glimpse into our F19 Value Improvement plans.
News & Announcements
Caring Wisely Project Contest Winners
The  UCSF Center for Healthcare Value (CHV)  and UCSF Health are pleased to announce the winners of the 2018-19 Caring Wisely Project Contest. From a competitive field of 13 interdisciplinary projects submitted through Open Proposals from across UCSF Health, Caring Wisely has awarded funding to the following projects:

  • Igor Immerman, MD – Implementation of Wide-Awake, Local Anesthesia, No Tourniquet (WALANT) Pathway for Basic Hand Surgeries
  • Conor O’Neill, MD – Integrative Spine Service
  • Ashley Thompson, PharmD – Albumin Stewardship and Appropriate Utilization Initiative

Winners receive $50,000 toward implementation of their value-based intervention, a year of Caring Wisely implementation science support, and connection with UCSF resources such as APeX and clinical systems.
GME Quality Improvement Incentive Program
The Office of Graduate Medical Education and UCSF Medical Center announced the launch of the 2018-19 Resident and Fellow Quality Improvement Incentive Program . This innovative program allows our trainees to select program-specific improvement projects and work with faculty and interprofessional teams to achieve their goals. There are more than 30 programs participating this year, working on a diversity of selected improvement projects . The deadline for proposals is April 19th and we look forward to another collection of meaningful efforts led by our trainees to improve patient care.
Schwartz Rounds
This month’s Schwartz Rounds will take place on April 11 th at Mission Bay’s Oberndorf Auditorium and will feature “Caring for Long-term Patients with Chronic Illness”; as with other Schwartz Rounds, the goal is to foster an open discussion about the emotional impact of caring for patients. Please see the flyer for additional details.
Adverse Event Disclosure Training
How should I communicate adverse events with patients and families? UCSF Health has a strong policy that supports disclosure of adverse event and complications. It's not always an easy conversation to have and we've had cases where speculative or inappropriate disclosure created unnecessary distress for patients and providers. A terrific half-day training course is being offered on May 25th that is case-based and interactive. Please see the flyer for additional details and how to register.
Future Events
3rd Annual UCSF Health Improvement Poster Symposium

Call for Poster Submissions:
Share Your Improvement Work! 
Wednesday, May 30th from 4-7p at Mission Bay Conference Center
Poster Submission Due on May 16th