Moving at the speed of light brings to mind a vision of a blurred activity moving so quickly it is hard to really see what it is that is being done. Our Pursuing Perfection Project is truley moving at the speed of light. The very concept of transforming our healthcare system across a community and then to spread our learning further and further into the community and across the nation is an amazing feat all in itself, additionally, we are doing all of this in the blinding speed of two years.
In my work as Project Coordinator, I have spent the last year watching the work racing forward, moving so quickly that anyroadblocks we encounter are quickly forgotten as forward momentum takes hold again. In the month of October alone and only looking at the "Big Picture" items, I have an example of how rapidly our project is are moving innovatively ahead of our current healthcare system.
October starts with another visit from the documentary film producers, Remaking American Medicine, www.remakingamericanmedicine.org. We are presenting a Physician CME and presenting the project to physician in the community in partnership with Healthwise www.healthwise.org. On Ocotber 8th Rebecca Bryson, Patient Family Representative and John Hayward, CEO of Peacehealth are making a joint presentation to the Washington State Hospital Association regarding our work towards patient-centered care. www.wsha.org/download/AnnualBrochure.pdf The Robert Wood Johnson Evaluation Team will be making a return visit to our project on October 15th and 16th to do assessment of how effecitively we are moving at the speed of light. We are the featured speakers at the Whatcom Medical Managers Group on the 18th, our project's Leadership Board will be at a planning retreat on October 20th. on October 28th we are sending a contintgent of Project staff members to the Washinton State Health Leadership Summit in Seattle and on the same day we will be hosting the Intstiute of Healthcare Improvement for a technical assistance visit here in Bellingham.
The list above is only the Big Picture items. It doesn't include any of the changes that all of our pilot sites are making or the work of the Shared Care Plan and website. It doesn't include the dedicated effort of our Clinical Care Specialist who are working directly with chronically ill patients using our patient-centered model of care or the accomplishments of the guidance teams and the patient/family representatives who assist us in making design changes to the healthcare system.
If you caluculate the additional momentum of the on the ground work to the velocity of the big picture work that it takes to make this large of a transformation in two years or less, perhaps we are moving faster than the speed of light.
Is it wonderfully possible that through limited resources, limited time and limited capacity that we can make this change become a new reality while still living among the broken healthcare system that we currently calling reality? How do we make this type of transformation sustainable? How can we support the people who are pushing and driving this enourmous and daunting effort? These are a few of the questions I hope we can answer by the time April 2004 arrives.
