Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality

(Name)Clinical Community Charter

Purpose
Clinical communities are groups of people who come together to achieve clinical goals related to quality in healthcare. The clinical communities are composed of clinicians, managers, patients and others who are committed to creating a community of action that supports the tripartite mission and vision of JHM.

Sponsor and Support

The Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality (AI) charters and supports Clinical Communities. Providing boundaries and clarity around the types and amounts of support is intended to help clinical communities develop realistic work, and to allow the AI to be a just steward of resources. We anticipate providing each community with resources that include, but are not limited to the following:

  1. A coach to help coordinate the community and serve as a liaison to the AI vertical core
  2. A package of technical support services. Depending upon the community goals and existing expertise, this may include consultation and/or training from experts in implementation science, Lean Sigma, human factors and systems engineering, team work, cultural change, data management, data analysis, and data reporting.
  3. Informatics support to access existing data. This includes cost, patient satisfaction, outcomes from discharge data, core measures and other data needed by the community.
  4. An electronic system to share information and protocols among the community, and support its work.
  5. A forum for communities across JHM to come together to learn, share, and improve together.

Clinical Community Commitments

The chartering process requires that each community designate asmall vertical“integrating core”of lead expertsto guide and facilitate the work. As part of the chartering process,all clinical communities are expected to commit to the following guiding principles:

Live the Johns Hopkins Medicine Values

  1. Take responsibility for setting goals and achieving them, to ensure high quality care for all patients cared for at JHM.
  2. Hold yourself and others accountable for creating a learning organization where all are treated with civility, respect, and trust

Build Capacity

  1. Ensure the community is interdisciplinary, representing all disciplines working in that area.
  2. Create a facilitating “vertical core“teamthat is small and light on its feet, and includes at least one former patient or layperson.

Improve Patient Outcomes and Value

  1. Design your work to improve clinical outcomes, patient reported outcomes and value (i.e. best outcomes at lowest possible cost).
  2. Benchmark performance against other institutions and national standards

Be Accountable

  1. Be accountable for improving quality; report progress twice a year to the Board of Trustees
  2. Help inform what data to collect to ensure EPIC can provide valid quality measures.

Listen, Learn and Share

  1. Meet regularly to share learning, define goals, develop strategies, implement interventions, and gauge and celebrate progress.
  2. Use the best possible science to inform your efforts, but seek and value local wisdom

Advance the Science of Healthcare Delivery ~ Disseminate

  1. Disseminate information about work of the community and make recommendations to AI vertical core regarding how best to organize and support clinical communities
  2. Work to obtain grant funding to advance the science and support continued improvement in the JHM community or to spread interventions outside JHM.

The Chartering Process: Developing the Clinical Community Charter

The AI facilitator for the Clinical Community will work with the group in the first meetings to review key questions and help the community draft its charter. The Charter will be reviewed and approved by the Sr. VP of and Director of the Armstrong Institute at which point the designated community leader(s) will sign the charter. Each member of the community will complete a letter of acceptance agreeing to serve as a member of the community.The Charter should be complete within three months of convening the community.

Key questions to be considered during the chartering process:

  1. What is the specific purpose and goalof this clinical community?

To develop a network that will drive improvements in patient outcomes or increased value throughout each of the JHM entities.To create a culture of sharing that will include shared relevant experiences (challenges and successes) and policies/procedures/protocols. The community will also work on shared improvement initiatives that are measurable and important to all members. A long term goal is to devise the JHM standard of care for all JHM patients.

  1. Who will be included in this community?

Core members will consist of those that have been elected by each entity to participate in the Clinical Community.

Membership will remain porous based on the needs of the Clinical Community and the focus area of interest.

  1. How will the community be accountable for concrete deliverables?

Deliverable dates will be established by the team regarding each initiative. However, there is an expectation that each Clinical Community present, at a minimum, once a year to the JHM Patient Safety Board. There is an expectation that the ______Clinical Community will contribute to advance the science by publishing findings.

  1. How will the communitymeasure its success?

Standard metrics will be determined for each initiative and documented to demonstrate progress. Specific interest in impact on patient outcomes, publically reported outcomes and increased value.

  1. Does the community have any sponsor deadlines and if so, what are they?

There is an opportunity to present progress of the ______Clinical Community to the JHM Patient Safety Board meeting in June.

  1. How often will this community meet?

Monthly in person meetings (with the option of a teleconferencing) will be scheduled. Opportunity for peer-to-peer review will be provided.

The mission of Johns Hopkins Medicine is to improve the health of the community and the world by setting the standard of excellence in medical education, research and clinical care.

The vision of Johns Hopkins Medicine is to provide a diverse and inclusive environment that fosters intellectual discovery, creates and transmits innovative knowledge, improves human health, and provides medical leadership to the world.

The Johns Hopkins Medicine Core Values:

Excellence & Discovery

Leadership & Integrity

Diversity & Inclusion

Respect & Collegiality