Quality, Access, And Affordability Of Health Care
Evaluation of the RWJF Pursuing Perfection Program
The Pursuing Perfection Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is a $26 million quality improvement initiative that is committed to raising the bar for health care performance. Housed at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston, the program is helping seven hospital organizations across the nation to improve patient outcomes by pursuing perfection in all of their major care processes. Since 2002, a team of researchers from Boston University and the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Center for Organization, Leadership, and Management Research (COLMR) has been evaluating the progress of the seven participating sites, plus five other leading health care organizations, in building infrastructure, transforming their organizational cultures, redesigning and changing their care processes, and striving to make the business case for quality improvement in health care.
Now in its fifth year, the $2.6 million evaluation combines quantitative analysis of survey data with qualitative analysis of interview data obtained through multiple waves of site visits to participating organizations. A major product of the study is a conceptual model of organizational transformation that is now being validated in 10 hospitals across the nation, selected for their high- or medium-level performance on CMS measures. The evaluation is scheduled to end in late 2008. The evaluation team, led by Martin P. Charns of the VA and BUSPH, also includes Alan B. Cohen, Joseph D. Restuccia, Michael Shwartz, Sally K. Holmes, and several colleagues from the VA and the BU School of Public Health.
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