Dissemination and Implementation

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are an issue of public health importance, as approximately 722,000 people are afflicted by an HAI every year (1 in 25 hospitalized patients) and 75,000 people with HAIs die. Daily bathing treatments with chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) for hospitalized patients is one evidence-based intervention targeting HAIs. However, it is often challenging to implement these daily bathing treatments widely across an organization.

HIP collaborates annually with the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ) to sponsor a learning event on topics of current importance to health in Wisconsin. This year's event will showcase several national and state models that are successfully expanding access and integrating behavioral health services into primary care settings. HIP Investigator Rachel Grob will be speaking about HealthExperiencesUSA and the DIPEx methodology to elevate the patient voice in healthcare. The assembly will be held on October 16 at the Monona Terrace in Madison.

Dr. Pascale Carayon, the Procter & Gamble Bascom Professor in Total Quality in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Dr. Maureen Smith, professor in the Departments of Population Health Sciences and Family Medicine & Community Health, were recently awarded $2.5 million from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to create a patient safety learning lab.

The Wisconsin Surgical Outcomes Research Program (WiSOR) recently released a new tool on HIPxChange, the Shared Decision Making Repository, to enable researchers and clinicians to easily locate and sort through a large collection of current literature on shared decision making instruments and avoid performing redundant literature searches. The tool compiles and catalogs over 70 qualitative and quantitative instruments that measure shared decision making, and can be easily sorted, filtered, or searched based on keywords, measure type, and who the instrument measures. You can view the tool for free here. 

Dr. Andrew Quanbeck was recently awarded two 5-year NIH grants totaling nearly $5 million to implement interventions for preventing and treating substance misuse in primary care.

He will be collaborating with HIP on the project, “Promoting the implementation of clinical guidelines for opioid prescribing in primary care using systems consultation.” The project addresses the change needed in the U.S. regarding the opioid crisis and prescribing practices by determining how to implement safer prescribing practices as efficiently and effectively as possible in primary care clinics. 

Dr. Maureen Smith, HIP Director, was recently featured in a video from the Wisconsin Partnership Program about her disparities project with the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality and the Collaborative Center for Health Equity. This project aims to develop and implement a publicly reported measure of disparity in the quality of care in Wisconsin and examine the sources of disparities in the quality of care. This video was introduced by HIP Outreach Specialist Lauren Bednarz, and shown at the Healthiest State Summit on September 20-21 in Green Bay, WI.

Patient engagement in research has become increasingly prioritized in recent years, as patients can provide unique and valuable feedback to researchers on the design, implementation, and dissemination of studies from the perspective of people the research seeks to help. However, researchers often lack the tools to effectively engage patient advisors in the research process.

HIP Investigators Meghan Brennan, MD and Heidi Brown, MD were recently awarded pilot funding through the University of Wisconsin - Madison Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (UW ICTR).  

The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality released the Rural Wisconsin Chronic Disease Toolkit, and updated the Toolkit for Improving Hypertension Care & Outcomes and the Toolkit for Improving Diabetes Care & Outcomes.

Dr. Sarina Schrager in the UW Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and Terry Little in the UW Department of Radiology recently published the Breast Cancer Screening Shared Decision Making Toolkit. The goal of the toolkit is to help primary care providers engage in discussions with average risk women regarding breast cancer screening. The toolkit includes resources and supporting materials that offer health care providers information on topics such breast cancer risk factors, assessment, shared decision making principles, and benefits and harms of breast cancer screening. View the toolkit on HIPxChange here.