Quality Field Notes: Regional Collaboratives Can Improve the Value of Local Health Care

Quality Field Notes features key lessons learned by regional Alliances of clinicians, patients, and payers in Aligning Forces for Quality communities as they work to transform local health care and provide models for national reform. The latest topic in this series focuses on regional collaboratives. Regional collaboratives provide unlikely partners—including purchasers, payers, consumer advocates, clinicians, and others—a neutral setting in which collective goals and actionable strategies can be established. For the past eight years, Aligning Forces for Quality has pioneered the implementation of these types of organizations, and successfully transformed health care delivery systems, increased public reporting, and lowered costs in 16 communities across the country.

 

Two case studies highlight lessons learned from Aligning Forces for Quality communities:

 

In Maine, the Maine Health Management Coalition and Maine Quality Counts work side by side to advance improvements in health care across the state.

 

In New Mexico, The New Mexico Coalition for Healthcare Quality released its first public report on ambulatory care less than two years after forming.

 

The entire suite of materials, including an issue brief, case studies, and an interview with Chris Queram, president and CEO of Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality, and Susie Dade, deputy director of the Washington Health Alliance, is available on the RWJF site here.