Karl Laskowski, MD, BWPO assistant medical director, speaks about BCRISP.

The Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization (BWPO) Medical Management team recently provided a progress report on the BWPO Care Redesign and Incubator Startup Program (BCRISP).

BCRISP is a BWPO-funded and -managed program that encouraged frontline clinicians to submit proposals for care redesign that would improve the quality of care and reduce medical spending (trend) at BWH.

Early this year, proposals were evaluated by an Advisory Council composed of hospital administrators, clinical department chairs, division chiefs, quality and safety experts, and other stakeholders from the institution.

From 41 initial proposals, 14 were selected to receive $5,000 of seed funding, as well as data analysis and project management support for further project development and early implementation.

From these 14 projects, the council elected six that received additional funding of up to $50,000 as well as ongoing analytic and strategic support.

The Final Six

On October 10, 2013, the BWPO Medical Management team held a BCRISP Advisory Council check-in meeting where the six BCRISP teams presented their achievements to date and sought feedback on any challenges that they encountered.

The presentations included:

• Integrating a Community Health Worker into a Patient-Centered Medical Home (Project Leaders: Adam Licurse, MD, Erika Pabo, MD, Stuart Pollack, MD)
• Reducing Variation in Biologic use for Rheumatoid Arthritis (Project Leader: Sonali Desai, MD)
• BWH VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Caesarean) Initiative (Project Leader: Julian Robinson, MD)
• Patient-Centered Integrated Care in Chronic Critical Illness (Project Leaders: Kathy Haley, MD, Anthony Massaro, MD)
• Acute Respiratory Infection Intercept (Project Leader: Jeffrey Linder, MD)
• Coordinating Follow-up After ED Visits for Patients with Diabetes (Project Leader: Ronald Arky, MD)

All six presentations can be viewed online. It is expected that at least 2 to 3 of these projects will achieve meaningful trend reduction at the end of the 12-month BCRISP program on March 2014, according to BWPO Senior Clinical Project Manager for Performance Improvement Sarah Abbett, MD, MPH.

To learn more about BCRISP or any of the specific projects contact Sarah Abbett at 617-525-8363.