ImproveCareNow Engagement
Notes from the Field - The ICN Engagement Campaign
What does an engagement campaign have to do with a healthcare quality improvement network? ImproveCareNow leaders were wondering the exact same thing before we began learning from our friends at 270 Strategies (experts in both political and issue campaigns!) Their team is teaching us how to apply successful campaign strategies to engage a large and diverse community of people in helping kids with IBD get better, now. Quite simply, ImproveCareNow invites clinicians, parents, patients, researchers, and others to learn about our work and to lend their time, talents, and expertise so together we can learn and find innovative new ways to outsmart IBD. And right now we’re learning how to make it easy for everyone to connect with ImproveCareNow in the ways that work best for them and ensure we can harness and value each person’s unique and generous contributions - making it meaningful and rewarding to be a part of our community.In ImproveCareNow we always start with a small test. To that end six of our centers are diving in as campaign pilot centers. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Children’s Mercy Hospital, Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Levine Children’s Hospital, and the University of Michigan CS Mott Children’s Hospital are getting some training, rolling up their sleeves, and re-framing what an ICN IBD team looks and feels like. You will hear more about their journeys in the coming months as they build momentum and start sharing what they have learned with the rest of the community. In the meantime, we wanted to highlight some of the work underway in the early days of the campaign so that you can begin to learn with us now:
Snowflakes and ImproveCareNow
Campaign pilot centers are beginning to reframe their ICN teams with the “snowflake model” in mind. The snowflake model is a way of organizing people that decentralizes leadership and increases two-way communication. Basically it makes it easier for everyone to share the work and contribute to the success. These centers have found that creating a snowflake does not necessarily mean more work for the existing team, rather, it often involves reassigning people in ways that make it easier to get existing work done more efficiently.
“Hard ask?” – that sounds hard!
As part of their training, the participating centers are learning that it’s OK to be really direct about what they need from potential partners. It is lot easier to say no when the ask is soft and non-specific. So rather than saying “Umm…I was thinking maybe you could help us out somehow in the next few months,” they are looking for ways to be very concrete when asking for help, “Please come to our QI meeting next Tuesday. We really need your input on our new diagnosis process.”
Everyone’s story matters, and is important, and can change someone else's story.
More than ever, we are seeing how stories are key to helping potential partners understand what ImproveCareNow is all about and how they can fill important gaps in the community. Our Spring Community Conference is just around the corner and we are seeing some inspiring stories as part of the pre-work, stories that make very clear just how much our Network attracts those who want to join in and become a part of our success.
What this means to patients and families.
We know that growing our community will only make us stronger…indeed, the theme of our Spring Community Conference is “Strength in Our Numbers”! In her beautifully written LOOP post ‘Breaking a Promise’ Sami Kennedy really drove this point home. She reminded us why being part of ImproveCareNow is important and empowering for individuals, just as it is important to the whole community. As she says, “I have been welcomed into an environment where I am encouraged to not only sit at the table, but also to stand up and address the whole room.”
Meanwhile, we still have a lot to learn.
As the campaign unfolds, the ImproveCareNow leadership team knows it has an enormous responsibility to continue to ensure the network’s success, and to help develop a system that offers tools and opportunities for co-producing health and real partnerships. And we will be the first to admit, we have a lot to learn! We need your input as we go. We want to have open, transparent discussions about the challenges and opportunities ahead so we hope to engage more of you on twitter and other social media venues to take part in an ongoing dialogue between Community Conferences and webinars. You can follow @myers3411, @michaelseid11, @PeterAMargolis, and @improvecarenow on twitter and weigh in with your feedback and concerns as we build a bigger, better community together.
From Stories to Full CIRCLE
One of the most challenging things about my job as Communications Manager for ImproveCareNow is trying to take a Network that is as vast, as diverse, as groundbreaking as ImproveCareNow, and distill it down into a single clear message that means something...to Paul Patient, to Prudence Parent, to Carrick Clinician, to Igor Industry, to Harold Healthcare. I think about this a lot. I talk about it with my colleagues. My husband actually asked me to stop talking about it with him.
One day I found myself talking about it with one of the fabulous parent partners who volunteers her time and brilliance to help ImproveCareNow transform care, health and costs for all kids with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis - and she highlighted for me how I'm failing at my job. Yup. I already knew that.
But, guess what, she let me know that she's struggling too. She's tried many times to explain what ImproveCareNow is, and what we do, and each time has been met with a "huh?". Actually, it's not the first time I've heard this story. I think many of us have tried to explain what ImproveCareNow is and been met with "huh?", because we're trying to squeeze the WHOLE story in. I get it. There is so much great work going on in ImproveCareNow; it's irresistible to try and cover it all.
But, let's go back to failure for a moment. In our network we know failure is really just opportunity in disguise. An opportunity to learn something new, to change the way we approach something, to make an improvement.
So, on that note, I've been thinking about opportunities to Improve Communications Now. And I've decided it is not my job. Wait, did I just fire myself?! No. It's not my job because, like so much of what we do in ImproveCareNow, I can't do it alone. It is going to take a village.
And and then occurred to me. The village exists! There's Steve from the Research Committee. Melida from the ICN Exchange. Sarah M. from the Quality Improvement & Executive Leadership teams. Jamie from the Parent Working group. Jennie & Sami and all the PACers from the Patient Advisory Council. There's Noel from the Psychologist/Social Worker group. Michael who is a psychologist, researcher and a parent as well. And more. And they are all here on LOOP.
Ok, so we've got the village. Where do we go from here? Well, I think we should expand the village. Bring more storytellers into mix. In fact, I think you should consider being one of those storytellers. How will you begin? A great way to start is by asking yourself "what is my ICN story?" Write it down. And send it to me.
As for me, I'll just sit back and let you do all the work. I'm just kidding! I'll be here, helping you along the way. I'll work with you as your editor, your collaborator, your writing coach. My job is to help you share what ImproveCareNow is through your story. And it's also to take your story, and the stories of many others, and showcase them together so they reveal the bigger picture. And that is how we will go from stories, to the WHOLE story. That's how we'll go full circle.
- Sarah
When working for becomes working with...
Look on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and many other social media outlets over the past few weeks, and ImproveCareNow is all over the place. Many quotes about “parents as partners,” “real patient engagement,” and “amazing collaboration.” It’s fantastic to see the buzz we are generating. It’s huge, and important, and feels like it will catalyze many others who are working on similar efforts to jump in and do the same. We have a lot to teach now, even as we learn. It’s helping us achieve health outcomes we did not think possible and will probably help others do the same.
But what does this mean at the micro level, in the day-to-day shuffle (and sometimes tornado!) of getting the real work of running this complicated Network done? I don’t pretend not to realize that the care teams out there across in our 65 centers are doing the hard work – planning visits in advance, getting to know our new automated reporting tools, and trying to fit this all into their already complex clinic workflows. They (with the families they serve) are real heroes in this Network. But a lot of work also goes on at the ImproveCareNow leadership and staff levels to make it all possible. And I consider myself very fortunate to be in the position, as part of this team, where I get to see how many of the pieces fit together, and witness the not so subtle shift in what it means to “work for ImproveCareNow.”
I’m going to use our recently completed Spring Learning Session as an example. Even just one year ago, planning the Learning Session meant that the core Quality Improvement (QI) project team and I looked at Network priorities and recent lessons learned, identified who would do a good job speaking about these things, and pieced together what usually turned out to be a good agenda for a good meeting. Parents and patients were starting to attend Learning Sessions, but were on the fringes and some would tell you they spent their weekend trying to figure out where they fit in. We felt good about including them, but we didn’t feel good about not understanding quite how we all fit together.
What a difference a year can make! In planning for the Spring 2014 Learning Session I found myself watching as unprecedented collaborations between clinicians and parents, data managers and parents, took place across the miles. In one instance, what began as an offhand comment about the potential for a parent panel at the Learning Session, which would address how centers can better engage families in QI work, became a series of many, many emails between a clinician, several parents, and ImproveCareNow staff. Over three months we worked together to co-design the objectives and draft a call-to-action that the panel could deliver to the Network. The result was one of the highlights of this Learning Session.
In another instance, a parent asked for permission to use Network remission data in his presentation—the kind of data that he knew could illustrate the ImproveCareNow story best. Again, I found myself watching an amazing email discussion unfold between the parent, our ImproveCareNow data manager and the centers that agreed to have their data displayed in a novel way by a parent. This kind of conversation about data (“send me that,” “no, let’s try it this way,” “yes, that will have the most impact”) happens all the time within ImproveCareNow. But until now, had been limited to QI, data management, communications, and IT staff.
I used to believe ImproveCareNow staff and leadership needed to work for the clinicians, parents, patients and others that make up this Network…they were partners, but also customers and we had to make it all work well for them. I now realize it’s all about working with them so they can help us get things right. So yes, I work with the many care teams who are providing more proactive and reliable medical, nursing, nutritional, social work, and psychological support to pediatric patients with IBD. But I also work with Justin, Jamie, Sami, JenJo, Jennie, Tania, Beth, David, and many, many others who have ideas and experiences that also need to be integrated into this learning health system.
Today these patient and parent partners email me just as any of my other coworkers would. They email me during the work day, but also at 11:00 PM and 4:00 AM, during their time. They do so despite having busy full-time jobs inside or outside of their homes and despite the extra time they already devote to caring for children with a chronic illness. They share their ideas, ask for my input, worry about pushing us too fast (I often hear: “we’re not going to get you all fired, are we?”), worry about not pushing us fast enough, and ask how my kids are doing. I push them to post things on our internal knowledge-sharing platform, the ICN Exchange, just like I push the care centers. They are creating 90-day goals to focus and guide their work just like the care centers. Most of all, they are helping us walk together into a new model for running this Network, understanding we won’t get it right every time, caring about the impact on others who are new to this level of partnership too, and above all, making sure we all stay connected to what this work is really about:
Drum Roll Please...
In only a couple of days, there will be a flurry of texting between Sami and I, sending pictures of packing and potential Learning Session outfits back and forth. Yesterday I sent Sami a few pictures of a sample outfit, to which she instantly texted back, “I like it!! It looks professional and cute!” (Note: said outfit was, indeed, packed immediately)
Last night I was pouring over an email with the Learning Session agenda, clicking on the various hyperlinks for teasers about the plethora of exciting things to come. One link sent me to pictures posted on the ICN Exchange of various ImproveCareNow teams; I chuckled at the Boston Children’s Hospital team’s faces photo-shopped onto duck statues (a la Make Way for Ducklings), the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta team’s matching t-shirts, the MassGeneral Hospital for Children team’s “We love ICN” sign (complete with a full GI tract doodle), and – finally – the ICN Exchange “Team Oscar Selfie” (a gutsier version of Ellen’s now infamous Oscar celebrity selfie).
Nothing like previewing pictures of the big-hearted, gutsy-humored, determined-with-all-their-might-to-change-chronic-illness-care care center teams to get me excited about the Spring Learning Session!
Sami and I have tried (and, notably, failed) at accurately articulating the pure excitement, joy, motivation, and positive energy that’s simply contagious at the Learning Session. Here in text, it sounds cheesy and like ImproveCareNow is prodding us to write down such ooey-gooey sentiments. But, let me reassure you on behalf of Sami and myself, our ooey-gooey praise is exceedingly well-deserved and comes directly from our hearts (read: guts).
In addition to the undeniable culture of optimism and innovative thinking, there are always particular sessions we just cannot wait for. Following are the things we look forward to most at the Spring Learning Session:
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PAC Reunion: The Learning Session is the one time when the PAC Leadership is able to brainstorm in-person (and also eat lots, and lots of candy!). We look forward to seeing each other face to face, and are always astonished by the amount of important work we get done in a couple of days. This Learning Session will be the first where our full PAC Leadership will be in attendance (PAC co-chairs - Jennie & Sami, and Patient Scholars - Katherine & Tyler) – we just can’t wait!!
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QI Fundamentals: Sami and I stumbled upon this last year as we both arrived early, and were quickly enthralled with the phenomenal centers who are our newest family members in the network. This is a wonderful opportunity if you’re in need of some inspiration (note: by the end of the weekend, you’ll be bursting with inspiration!) or a Quality Improvement refresher, and is a fantastic way to meet upcoming superstars in the network.
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Opening Reception: Here, there, and everywhere – the reception is filled with amazing people and is an awesome chance to network, socialize, and get the 411 on the network’s progress and innovations with the variety of poster presentations. Also, keep an eye out for some Patient Advisory Council members who will be reprising their roles interviewing reception attendees!
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The Learning Health System Today and Tomorrow: The opening never fails to deliver in motivating every cell of every attendee, and – who are we kidding – we always love seeing Dr. Margolis and Dr. Colletti (and, if we’re lucky, they’ll coordinate their outfits!).
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Lunch: Food, food, more food, and lots of networking! We always fill up with some nourishment and get the chance to meet new centers, parents, and the clinicians at various centers that we are humbled to call friends.
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The Learning Health System, The Months Ahead: The closing is reliably the time when you will need a stash of tissues compliments of the remarkable speeches from parents and patients. After the excitement of the weekend and the endless research ideas and connections you’ve developed, the closing is a perfect opportunity to digest (yes, pun intended) the entire experience and head home with genuine motivation that you won’t soon forget.
We can’t wait for the collaboration, the innovation, the passion, the insight, and to continue to watch children and their families living with IBD receive better, and better holistic healthcare.
So pack your bags (or join us on Twitter and follow the Learning Session hashtag #ICNLS) and get excited – the Spring Learning Session is just around the corner!
Jennie + Sami
Why is being part of my center's QI team important to me?
For many reasons. But one that comes to mind right away is that we didn't get to opt-in to this disease. We are in - all in. Over the course of this journey, we have had to learn to navigate many paths. We've experienced phone call processes, waiting rooms, treatments, and planning around a disease that at times consumes our thoughts and actions. We didn't navigate these paths for a higher purpose or with greatness in mind. We did it because we had to. And on some many occasions, the work of navigating was hard. We found ourselves exhausted by the tasks and fearful of the next step.
And then suddenly, there was this opportunity. One that I could choose. One that was organized around the idea of improvement. A place to use my insight and experiences - what had become my expertise as a parent of a chronically ill child - to add value and depth. Because, you see, I NEEDED to have a place to use this knowledge I now have. I desperately wanted my work of navigating and fighting to matter, not just for my son...but on a larger scale.
The first time someone on my team asked my opinion or my thoughts...the first time I came to a Learning Session and someone asked me to weigh in on a conversation, our journey became easier...because it was needed.
The PAC wants you...to email them
Jennie David and Sami Kennedy are co-chairs of the Patient Advisory Council (PAC), having taken over for the group’s founder and former chair, Jill Plevinsky. The PAC is a group of young, passionate and motivated patients with IBD who draw from their own personal experiences with chronic illness to educate and enlighten clinicians, researchers and other collaborators on how to design health care innovations that are making it possible for patients (and families) and their care teams to communicate more meaningfully with each other, to work together to investigate lifestyle changes that might have an impact on health and to truly share in decision-making about care – with the ultimate goal of getting more kids healthier, faster (and keeping them healthier longer).
Sami and Jennie – affectionately known as Gutsy 1 and Gutsy 2 or Jami – are not new to us. They have been active members of the PAC since early 2012 – when, without realizing it, they ‘jumped on the fast-track to super high-level engagement’. Since joining the PAC they have been engaged with ImproveCareNow and the C3N Project – and are well-known for their stirring contributions to LOOP. Recently their role has deepened as they have been co-developing educational content and delivering presentations at Learning Sessions (our Fall 2013 Learning Session was approved for a record 14.5 CME and 15 CNE credits for eligible participants), participating on innovation teams and engaging with centers 1:1 to encourage patient involvement network-wide. They do all this on top of already full schedules – because they know, first hand, how transformative this work is.
It is transformative not only for ImproveCareNow and the C3N Project – which are collaborating to change the face of chronic illness care through innovative engagement and self-tracking approaches like the PAC and Passive PRO – but also for the patients themselves. As Jennie and Sami explained at the Learning Session earlier this month – “we weren’t always like this”. Starting as young kids getting handed diagnoses they didn’t ask for – Sami and Jennie have transformed into outspoken patient leaders; mentors and advocates for others living with IBD. It is their hope that many more will join them and that together – with a strong, sustainable culture of patient engagement through the PAC - they will continue to inform, educate and co-design a better way to care – one that takes into account the ‘person inside the patient’ and embraces the unique knowledge and perspective (and yes, expertise) that each patient brings to the table.
Here are Jennie and Sami’s reflections on ImproveCareNow and next steps for the PAC following the Learning Session
As patient advocates, there is something wonderfully refreshing about ImproveCareNow's Patient Advisory Council (PAC). It is unique in the sense that from the network leadership, all the way down to each center, the work of the PAC is celebrated and integrated in ways that outshine perfunctory patient involvement. PAC members are not involved because we have to be, we are involved because a) we want to be and b) care teams want us to be.
Enthusiasm and sincerity are synonymous with ICN, and yet the network is still an exemplary role model for movers and shakers in the pediatric chronic illness world. And so it seems only natural that the PAC emulate the inclusive, collaborative, out-of-the-box thinking as we build our council into an action-oriented, accessible group of patient advocates who actively engage in co-designing health care innovations, in brainstorming new and better ways to engage more patients, and in supporting the incredible efforts of everyone in the network.
The PAC strives to be a thoughtful and accessible resource for ICN care centers - as mentors to patients all the way through to colleagues in research. Over the next six months we plan to strengthen the council in the following ways: firstly we aim to develop and pilot, with the help of several centers, an effective recruitment strategy to welcome energetic and passionate patients into the PAC. Secondly, we believe it is important to create a community and culture of engagement and ownership amongst our PAC members. This is both to ensure members of the PAC are empowered by their experiences and that the council continues to grow and sustain itself. To that end we believe we must develop a sustainable succession plan.
As the co-chairs of the PAC, we remain extraordinarily humbled and thrilled by the endless encouragement and opportunities we have been afforded, and are admittedly a bit blinded by the spotlight. Nevertheless, we are honored to serve as patient advocates and work as part of this incredible network. As always, we will encourage you all (until we're blue in the face or there's a cure for IBD, whichever comes first!) to email us with questions, comments, suggestions, or anything you can think of! Like we said at the Fall Learning Session, we want to be your resources, your cheerleaders, your brain-stormers, and your colleagues.
You can always reach us at [email protected]
Jennie and Sami LIVE
Hear the voices behind the blogs - Patient Scholars Jennie David and Sami Kennedy will chat via LIVE Webcast with Dr. Peter Margolis about their work with the C3N Project and the ImproveCareNow Network this Thursday, June 27. Jennie and Sami are part of the Patient Advisory Council (PAC), where they collaborate with a diverse group of patients to help their generation and the next by working alongside researchers, clinicians and families. What does a PAC member do? You’ll have to tune in Thursday and hear for yourself.
Find out more about the PAC here, and make sure to bring comments and questions to the LIVE discussion - register now!
C3N LIVE Webcast | June 27, 2013 | 12 PM ET
Not available to join the Webcast? Follow and join the discussion in real-time on Twitter.
Michael Seid, PhD
I’m a health care researcher interested in making health care work better for kids with chronic illness. My sister has Crohn's disease and my daughter was just diagnosed last year with Crohn's disease.
Twenty five years ago, my sister was diagnosed when her intestine burst. Her bowels were so obstructed and inflamed, that they started leaking into her abdomen. After her first surgery, she found kind and wonderful doctors. My parents did everything they could for her. But her journey was rough. She ended up having three surgeries, a TPN feeding tube, losing all but 3 feet of her small intestine, and having way too much physical and emotional suffering. She never took her meds because she didn’t think they did anything for her. She felt completely alone and was convinced no one could help her.
Because my daughter is part of ImproveCareNow, her experience has been different. She was connected early on to other kids her age with Crohn’s. She learned how to track her symptoms so she and her doctor could determine that her meds were helping. And she collaborated with her doctor to figure out that Carnation Instant Breakfast helped reduce her fatigue. I’ve connected online with other parents for ideas about how to help and have shared this information with her doctor. Things aren’t perfect, but my daughter has been able to bear the burden of Crohn’s more lightly, in large part because of the way that ImproveCareNow has enabled us all to be more active partners in helping her stay healthy.
Taking ImproveCareNow to the next level is crucial. I want to make a world where everyone can be part of the solution. I intend to continue to work to make it easier for more people to make a difference for their health or the health of their children.
Michael