Collaboration in New Mexico

Aligning efforts and establishing partnerships across systems is increasingly essential to achieving the Triple Aim of improved health outcomes, improved health care quality, and reduced costs. This type of effort is underway in New Mexico between the New Mexico Alliance and New Mexico’s Quality Improvement Organization (QIO). 

 

In August 2011, the Albuquerque Coalition for Healthcare Quality launched its Regional Transforming Care at the Bedside (TCAB) initiative across New Mexico. About one year later, HealthInsight New Mexico, New Mexico’s QIO, launched the New Mexico Hospital Engagement Network (NM HEN). The Alliance’s Regional TCAB Clinical Leader and the NM HEN program manager began discussing the similarities between the two projects, including an identical core focus on patient safety. The correlation between the two programs and potential mutual benefit was obvious.

 

This spring, to continue the progress made under TCAB, more than 75 nurses representing more than 30 hospitals and health care systems came together to learn more about each of these programs and celebrate the successful completion of the 18-month New Mexico Regional TCAB collaborative. During the event, the Regional TCAB teams shared their stories, insights, results, challenges, and successes with their colleagues that are a part of the NM HEN hospitals. Throughout the day, participants were challenged to think about the possibilities for enhancing care transitions and care coordination across the entire health care continuum.

 

A clear connection with the TCAB model was evident as groups participated in “hands-on” problem solving. HEN hospitals found the TCAB model useful in their work and are embracing the foundation and pillars of TCAB, including processes to conduct quick cycles of change after identifying possible interventions from engaging staff in brainstorming.