All across the United States, professionals throughout the continuum of care are doing their best to improve practice and outcomes for the patients they serve. In the “News You Can Use” section of this week’s edition of Across My Desk, I share some of the latest news stories and important research that is coming out of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Heart Association, the World Health Organization, and other scientific organizations that provide the evidence for YOU to develop programs that lead to best practices.

Today, two of the buzzwords that we hear about in relationship to healthcare are “transparency” and “collaborative practice.” Learning to work together as a team and share best practices is essential to improving today’s healthcare system. We can accomplish both by sharing information. The result is a decrease in fragmentation and in the variation of treatment that causes errors and complicates the healthcare systems. By sharing information outside the walls of our organizations, we make sure that information gets to employers and consumers so that they can make informed choices regarding their health care.

What are you doing to improve your improve your organization’s performance, your own health, and that of the patients you manage? If you have a Best Practice that you would like to share, consider submitting a Call for Papers for one of the national conferences that best suites your practice. There are many conferences coming up over the next few months. I want to highlight three major conferences that you should consider attending, as well as two that have a Call for Papers that you can submit to if your organization has a Best Practice to highlight.

• URAC’s Best Practice in Consumer Empowerment and Protection. This meeting will be held March 25-26, 2007, at the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel and Golf Club in Orlando, FL. The deadline for the Call for Papers is September 5, 2007. Click here for more information.
• CMSA 18th Annual Conference. The meeting will be held next year, June 17-20, 2008, at the Rosen Single Creek Hotel and Golf Club in Orlando, FL. The Theme of next year’s program is, “Engage Case Management: Raise the Standard, Go Beyond Expectations, Find the Balance.” The deadline for the Call for Papers is August 3, 2007. Click here for more information.
• CMSA’s Collaborative Practice Summit. This program is designed to present the leading edge models, explore benchmarks for measurement and provide networking opportunities to meet and learn from healthcare leaders who are developing and piloting Collaborative Practice Programs. The meeting will be held on October 3-5, 2007, at the Mohegan Sun Resort & Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. Click here for more information.

Take some time this week and talk among colleagues to make a commitment to work together to share your Best Practices.

Have a good week!

Anne Llewellyn, RN-BC, MS, BHSA, CCM, CRRN
Editor-in-Chief of Across My Desk, Case in Point magazine, and the Case Management Resource Guide
allewellyn@dorlandhealth.com