Michael Kanter, MD, discusses accelerating best care practices

In a recent article for the Hospital Peer Review newsletter, Michael Kanter, MD, chair of clinical science and professor at the new Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine, shares his insights on how Kaiser Permanente is improving clinical quality by accelerating the adoption of best care practices.

Dr. Kanter, the former medical director of Quality and Clinical Analysis with Southern California Permanente Medical Group, explains that one of the ways Kaiser Permanente facilitates faster adoption of best practices is by employing a project manager who works with hospital units to promote rapid adoption once changes are accepted by chief stakeholders. The process has generated a number of positive outcomes that are currently in place.

“A lot of the best practices we have already implemented, so we’re looking for the ones we haven’t. With a relatively small resource allocation, we have put in about 25 practices,” Dr. Kanter says in the article.

Unlike many other organizations, Kaiser Permanente does not replicate the results of published research nor does it measure the impact of small trial implementation. This tact helps save valuable resources, according to Dr. Kanter.

“We don’t try to reprove the evidence if it’s already been published and accepted as legitimate by our stakeholders,” he says. “That’s a major philosophical change that makes it scaleable.”

One of the implementation methods used by Kaiser Permanente is the E-SCOPE (Evidence Scanning for Clinical, Operational, and Practice Efficiencies) system. The program leverages systematic evidence searches to identify and facilitate the most rapid identification and implementation of new evidence-based practices.

“We scan the literature, systematically looking for practices that will improve quality, reduce costs, improve satisfaction,” Dr. Kanter says. “We try to get at it earlier with a scan that pulls evidence-based abstracts that are reviewed by a group of physicians who determine their initial validity. Then, they are reviewed by senior leadership who determines if the practices have actually been deployed in a system or not.”

The E-SCOPE program delivers about 100 abstracts a month for Dr. Kanter and his colleagues to consider.

To learn more, read the full article on the Hospital Peer Review site.