Physicians taking the lead to improve patient care

"Quality: putting clinicians in the Cockpit"--a conference about producing measurable, clinically important improvement in the quality and cost of health care--was sponsored by the Institute for Clinical Systems Integration, based in Minneapolis, and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, in Boston. More than 200 persons, including clinicians engaged in clinical improvement activities, medical directors, medical group administrators, and quality improvement staff and researchers, attended the Minneapolis meeting, held October 1-3, 1997.

According to James Reinertsen, MD, who described the strategies that physician leaders can use, the leader's main role is to "establish an environment in which quality can thrive" by removing obstacles to quality improvement.

IMPROVING CESAREAN SECTION RATES: Robert DeMott, MD, reported an initiative conducted in a region in which physicians had strongly held beliefs and long-held approaches to obstetric care.

William Nugent, MD, described the impact of the Northern New England Cardiovascular Disease Study Group, a voluntary regional initiative to improve outcomes in patients undergoing coronary bypass grafting. EVIDENCE-BASED IMPROVEMENT--THE GROUP HEALTH EXPERIENCE: Michael Stuart, MD, commented on Group Health's efforts to develop clinical guidelines so that clinical decisions are based on the best available evidence.

Gordon Mosser, MD, and Donald Berwick, MD, discussed the challenges clinicians face in sharing information in a competitive environment. In a session on making sense of information, Paul Batalden, MD, noted, "There is lots of information; if it were only clear who to send it to for the improvement of health care."