An Early Status Report on the Beacon Communities' Plans for Transformation Via Health Information Technology
The Beacon Community Program is part of a federal strategy for using health information technology as a foundation to improve the nation’s health care system. In particular, Beacon Communities seek to increase the quality and efficiency of health care, improve the health of individuals and communities, and inform similar initiatives in other parts of the country. Each Beacon Community has set quality, efficiency, and health-related goals, and each is deploying multiple technology-enabled interventions to achieve them. Yet achieving large-scale and sustainable health care improvement also requires an implementation framework that can foster innovation and continuous learning from results.
Based on the early experiences of the 17 diverse Beacon Communities, this paper describes program design features that characterize how these initiatives are organized.
April Issue of Health Affairs Focuses on Patient Safety and Health Care Quality
- 1. The Ongoing Quality Improvement Journey
- 2. A Road Map for Improving the Performance of Performance Measures
- 3. The Trade-Off Among Quality, Quantity, and Cost
- 4. 'Global Trigger Tool' Shows that Adverse Events in Hospitals May be Ten Times Greater Than Previously Measured
- 5. Preventing Bloodstream Infections
- 6. Measuring the Performance of Individual Physicians by Collecting Data from Multiple Health Plans
- 7. Measuring Health Care Performance Now, Not Tomorrow
- 8. Despite Improved Quality of Care in the Veterans Affairs Health System, Racial Disparity Persists for Important Clinical Outcomes
- 9. The Importance of Transitional Care in Achieving Health Reform
- 10. An Early Status Report on the Beacon Communities' Plans for Transformation Via Health Information Technology
- 11. A Comparative Study of 11 Local Health Department Organizational Networks
- 12. Public Health Performance
- 13. A Self-Assessment Process for Accreditation Preparedness
- 14. Public Health Delivery Systems
- 15. A Shot in the Rear, Not a Shot in the Dark
- 16. What Predicts Local Public Health Agency Performance Improvement?
- 17. Growth of a Scientific Community of Practice
- 18. Evolution of Coauthorship in Public Health Services and Systems Research
- 19. Resources that May Matter
- 20. Evidence Links Increases in Public Health Spending to Declines in Preventable Deaths
- 21. Public Health Financial Management Competencies
- 22. Decision Science
- 23. Public Health Financial Management Needs
- 24. Data-Driven Management Strategies in Public Health Collaboratives
- 25. Using Geographic Information Systems to Match Local Health Needs with Public Health Services and Programs
- 26. Public Health Systems and Services Research
- 27. Mapping the Multidisciplinary Field of Public Health Services and Systems Research