Transforming Health Care for Children and Youth with Epilepsy

To increase access to quality care for children, teens, and young adults with epilepsy, seven organizations that serve children and youth with epilepsy across the United States took part in a multi-year, federally funded learning collaborative. This video highlights some of their work.

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This sustainability resource guide highlights some web-based resources to help with sustainability planning and implementation for health programs or quality improvement initiatives.

These resources, from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, offer a variety of perspectives on how practitioners can build sustainability efforts into their work at any stage of the project. In addition to planning tools, these well-researched resources also examine the challenges of sustainability and offer examples of sustainable practices. While it is not necessary to use every resource presented here, it’s helpful to review the different approaches offered to find the one that aligns best with your work.

Got Transition® Sustainability Strategies

There are five key strategies to support sustainability:

  1. Assign a process lead. This person can be someone on the original team or another member in the practice. They will provide status reports to senior leaders, resume team meetings as needed, watch the data for regression, and manage ongoing improvement. This person keeps the necessary staff informed and engaged, including repeating training and sharing the project’s successes.
  2. Hardwire the process into the practice. Make sure staff are trained and know what to do. Ensure training for new staff. Cross-train critical steps of your process so success doesn’t depend on one person. Encourage people to build generic tools that can be used across divisions.
  3. Continue to measure but less frequently; eventually only twice a year.
  4. Update your leadership periodically to keep the work visible. Use the sustainability checklist on page 45 of the Got Transition® Quality Improvement Primer.
  5. Consider the financial aspects of transition in creating your sustainability plan. For example, better coding and the financial model used at your site like fee-for-service, accountable care, or value-based payment, etc.

Sustainability Tools

The National Health Service (NHS) Institute for Innovation and Improvement Sustainability Guide was developed to pair with the Sustainability Model.

NHS Sustainability Guide
The NHS Sustainability Guide provides accessible information on the 10 factors identified in the Model. Exploring topics such as change and sustainability, this guide is a practical companion to help practitioners access and effectively use the Sustainability Model in practice.
NHS Sustainability Model
The NHS Sustainability Model provides practitioners with a diagnostic tool that helps to identify the strengths and opportunities for improvement in implementation plans. The practical worksheets and ranking systems help teams understand the current likelihood of success.
Sustainability and its Relationship with Spread and Adoption
This guide identifies 14 main factors for sustainability and an additional 6 factors that will also influence the success of sustainability. This useful paper includes thought-provoking questions for practitioners to consider, practical tips for improving sustainability, how to strengthen sustainability work, and how to know if these important factors are present in your organization.

Additional Tools

NYS Health Foundation: Sustaining Improved Outcomes Toolkit
This toolkit provides a framework for assessing and planning for the sustainability of improved outcomes in community programs. 12 key factors for sustainability are identified and explained through the use of examples. Practical worksheets are provided to help practitioners assess areas of strength and opportunities for improvement in the work to sustain improved outcomes.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI): Sustaining Improvement
The IHI offers a thorough resource for practitioners hoping to sustain system improvements. Written through the lens of quality control and improvement, this white paper focuses on establishing high-performance management systems. Practical applications of quality improvement tools walk the reader through building highly functioning systems. Includes case examples and highlights the ways that different tools can contribute to successfully sustaining gains.
Healthcare Excellence Canada, Imperial College London: Long Term Success Tool
This tool identifies 12 factors that impact the long-term success of improvement initiatives. The worksheets included are destined to be used with a team to encourage discussion and assessment of strengths and opportunities for improvement in the work of sustaining programs. The second half of this tool offers a template for teams to plan for long-term success.
Health Quality Ontario: Implementing and Sustaining Changes
This Quality Improvement Primer provides a brief introduction to the tools involved in implementing and sustaining changes through a quality improvement lens. As a shorter workbook, this resource offers introductory information for practitioners who might not have time to work with a longer toolkit.


Creating an Elevator Pitch

View information on how to create an elevator pitch which can be used to spark interest in something you or your organization is doing.

Last Updated

07/22/2024

Source

American Academy of Pediatrics