Reflections on 3 Years of Innovation: Recognizing the Need for Innovation Beyond the Clinical Care Pathway

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Healthcare Innovation
• Design Thinking in Healthcare

Background:

• The Susan and Richard Levy Healthcare Delivery Incubator aims to accelerate healthcare redesign.
• Initial cohorts demonstrated success in implementing improvements and innovations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify key team processes contributing to the success of healthcare redesign projects.
• To understand factors enabling rapid, sustainable, scalable, and transformational healthcare changes.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of debrief interviews and staff observations from 10 completed projects.
• Examination of processes employed by diverse teams within the Incubator program.
• Focus on cross-project learnings to identify critical success factors.

Main Results:

• Successful implementation of improvements or innovations in all 10 projects.
• Identification of nonclinical aspects of care delivery as critical to project innovation success.
• Demonstration that the Incubator's structure facilitates addressing social and political determinants of health.

Conclusions:

• Healthcare delivery innovation necessitates consideration of social and political determinants.
• The Incubator's process and structure effectively enable teams to identify and respond to diverse health determinants.
• Nonclinical factors are crucial for successful healthcare innovation and redesign.