Mentored Implementation

The Hospitalist. 2009 November;2009(11):

November 1, 2009|The Hospitalist

When Kendall Rogers, MD, signed up for his first mentored implementation project, he remembers being skeptical. After all, it seemed too good to be true. “I wanted to ask, ‘What’s the catch? Are you trying to get us to adopt a certain practice?’ ” says Dr. Rogers, a hospitalist at the University of New Mexico Health Science Center School of Medicine in Albuquerque.

Now, after participating in SHM’s Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) Prevention Collaborative and later mentoring other hospitalists in SHM’s Glycemic Control Mentored Implemen-tation (GCMI) program, he understands the motivation.

“Mentored implementation is unique in that it accomplishes two goals,” he says. “It improves the nuts and bolts of a project, and it also creates new hospitalist leaders and quality-improvement [QI] experts.”

Prior to his work in the VTE Prevention Collaborative, Dr. Rogers had little exposure to QI programs. He has since implemented a VTE prevention program at his hospital, and his mentorship of hospitalists in the GCMI program is helping to create custom programs to optimize glycemic control protocols. He also is a faculty member for SHM’s QI and patient-safety pre-course and is leading SHM training sessions on VTE prevention.

Public Service Involvement Made Easy

SHM’s public advocacy gives hospitalists a voice

For hospitalists and others following the public debate over healthcare reform, it can be difficult to keep all the facts straight. More to the point, hospital-based care is a major issue in many healthcare reform proposals.

Hospitalists have two options for learning more and getting involved. They can spend hours watching or listening to congressional subcommittees, dedicate entire days to reviewing thousands of pages of legislation, or keep tabs on never-ending commentary from media. Or they can spend a few minutes surfing the “Advocacy” section of SHM’s Web site.

“SHM’s Public Policy Committee has taken great steps to ensure that the best information for hospitalists is available online,” says Laura Allendorf, SHM’s senior advisor for advocacy and government affairs in Washington, D.C. “For those hospitalists who are actively interested in public policy, this has become a destination for information and action.”

In addition to providing timely bulletins on healthcare policy activity, the Advocacy section publishes the “Washington Update,” a monthly digest of SHM’s initiatives and hospitalist-related healthcare legislation and regulations.

For hospitalists ready to actively engage their lawmakers on the issues, the “Legislative Action Center” provides state-by-state contact information for legislators, enabling you to quickly e-mail your senator or representative in response to an SHM “alert” about pending issues on Capitol Hill and tips for outreach.

The Public Policy Committee also works to promote the interests of hospitalists and the patients they serve by reviewing proposed legislation and submitting comments on legislation to members of Congress. “Hospitalists are already on the front lines of delivering care,” Allendorf says. “It makes sense that they’re on the front lines in Washington, promoting the best care for hospitalized patients, too.”

The mentored implementation model, he says, is an effective way to get over many of the daunting roadblocks that can stand in the way of a hospitalist-led QI program. “Many people need that spark,” Dr. Rogers says. “This is a highly effective way to be that spark. I’ve seen too many people get disillusioned and frustrated with quality-improvement programs and give up. In these programs, the mentor can help identify and address roadblocks.”

What is Mentored Implementation?

In theory, mentored implementation is a unique and simple approach to both education and QI in healthcare. At its core, mentored implementation is the pairing of a program participant with a subject-matter expert who already has been involved in similar programs and will help the participant implement a QI program of their own.