Join the Research and Evaluation Committee and the San Antonio Conference Planning Committee for this special webinar on Tuesday, March 12th at 12pm ET // 11am CT // 10am MT // 9am PT.

Measure repositories can be a useful resource for researchers, clinicians, and healthcare system leaders when designing studies and evaluations of clinical practices. This presentation will discuss some of the effective practices for making measure repositories maximally useful for a diverse user base. It will also provide tips for developers and curators of measure repositories with the aim of being pragmatic and rigorous.

Many members of CFHA have expressed interest in learning more about program evaluation, quality improvement, and research, yet it can be difficult for those in clinical roles to find effective mentorship in these domains. At the same time, it can be challenging for those with more experience to be effective mentors while balancing competing demands. In this talk, Dr. Jeff Goodie will share some strategies he has used to mentor junior colleagues in scholarly activity, as well as common pitfalls to be aware of. He will be joined by mentee Claire Demming. Following Dr. Goodie’s presentation, we will engage in conversation around how the REC could assist in facilitating research mentorship connections.

The Lean Toyota Production System (TPS) principles are not new but relatively new to healthcare as an evidence-based approach for improvements. Lean supports business operations focusing on:

• Customers and their values.

• Key processes to meet the customer values.

• Tasks within the processes that do not contribute to the customer values.

• Redesign of processes for effectiveness and/or efficiency to meet customer values.

By creating a culture where: 1) staff feel comfortable to engage and take part in improvement initiatives and 2) managers teach, mentor, and facilitate collaborative conversations, there are measurable improvements in outcomes including streamlined processes, cost reduction, improved quality, timely delivery, and increased satisfaction among employees and customers.

This talk will explore:

• What it means to have a culture change to think “Lean” as a quality improvement philosophy.

• Key Lean quality improvement tools and techniques.

• Measurements for success with quality and performance improvement initiatives; and data-based decision making.

• Examples of healthcare organization projects that applied Lean and the improved outcomes as demonstrated by data.

When adopting Lean throughout the system of a healthcare organization individuals participate, witness, and see the evidence of improvement in the data collected. The result is greater confidence and participation in quality improvement initiatives, leading to sustainment of Lean processes.

Description: We will be discussing about substances use disorders among Latinx/e population and what to consider during exploration, specifically alcohol use, cannabis use and opioids.

Objectives:

1. Explain common substance use disorders among Latinx/e population

2. Describe the prevalence and treatment

3. Provide recommendations to explore further the criteria/symptoms

4. provide interventions adjusted for Latinx/e population

Organizational memberships are becoming increasingly popular at CFHA. These organizations have more systematic interests around research supporting healthcare teams in providing integrated care within their clinical practices. This talk will provide examples of how organizational members use existing infrastructure around training, quality, and compliance to support and grow research activities and support evidence-based practices in their systems. Then, we will discuss what resources organizational members may tend to utilize or could utilize more fully to support these efforts. Finally, we will discuss the level of interest and opportunities for the REC to support organizational members in these efforts.

Identifying ways to collect data from multiple clinics is essential to efforts to learn about best evidence-based practices across settings and disseminate the findings. This talk will describe what Practice Based Research Networks are and how they assist providers and researchers in their efforts to identify best evidence-based practices. We will share our lessons learned from being a member of a PBRN and experiences within CFHA when a research network existed. We will also identify issues to address if such a network is to be sustainable. Finally, we will discuss interest and opportunities for the CFHA’s REC members to support members’ engagement with a PBRN or other ideas on how we can collectively join our efforts to identify best practices.

A robust behavioral health workforce is essential to address the country’s worsening behavioral health crisis. Yet, addressing behavioral health needs requires unpacking state and federal policies that drive behavioral health service provision and payment. This talk will provide examples of how federal initiatives to expand the behavioral health workforce poses both opportunities and challenges for the field and will describe why education and loan payment, scope of practice regulations, licensure, and reimbursement are key levers to sustaining the behavioral health workforce. We will describe the health policy research agenda of the UNC Behavioral Health Workforce Research Center and future opportunities to collaborate. Finally, we will discuss opportunities for CFHA’S REC members to use the UNC Behavioral Health Workforce Research Center to obtain grant funding to examine policy issues.

A qualitative research approach can be useful at various stages of a quality improvement project – from developing a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of your problem, to designing an intervention that addresses the factors influencing relevant practices, to evaluating both the intended and unintended impacts of your improvement efforts. However, the opportunities for a qualitative research approach to optimize a QI project are often missed. The objectives of this session are to: – Provide insight into how qualitative research is relevant to your QI work – Share some qualitative research principles and methods to use in your QI work – Explore practical next steps to build capacity for qualitative methods in your setting