The University of Louisville (UL) applies to become a Phase II research site addition for the NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) for Health Organization Transformation (CHOT). The American health care delivery system falls short of care that is safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, and equitable. Health care organizations are continually innovating in both management and clinical practices to address care efficiency shortcomings, offer the latest clinical technologies, and remain competitive. To attain significant progress on all of these fronts requires transformational changes in health organizations that fundamentally alter practices and culture, and lead to better health care. UL CHOT applies and refines a comprehensive transformation framework that will guide, research, and advance organization transformation in health systems, especially hospitals, clinics, and physician groups. With health spending rising exponentially, government, industry, and the public share growing concerns about a range of health care issues related to the organization and payment for health care services. New care models also require a shift in the types of clinicians that staff healthcare organizations. UL CHOT is committed to conducting research to understand what the optimal mix of these new services will be under new value-based ways of providing healthcare for the benefit of a diverse patient population.
UL CHOT's multi-disciplinary research team proposes to join the existing CHOT university sites, adding value through its in-depth integration of expertise in population health management, health information system design, and health systems sciences that will create new synergies that allows the research to be highly relevant, and incorporate best practices and the latest technology. UL CHOT will conduct mixed-methodology, applied research on the antecedents, execution, and effects of transformational interventions and strategies that combine evidence-based management, clinical and information technology innovations, and ongoing organizational learning and cultural change. Transformational efforts in health systems frequently ignore or prematurely treat several individual and organizational elements as "fixed" or immutable. Transformational strategies call for significant reexamination and, often, realignment of values, processes, and structures characterizing a health system. Such major innovations (i.e., LEAN, cutting-edge clinical innovations and information systems) call for leadership, significant cultural change, inter-professional alignment, elements of process reengineering, and effective monitoring and feedback. Our industry-guided research program identifies the factors that produce desired results from these kinds of transformational interventions in health systems. UL CHOT will contribute significantly to the efficiency and quality of care offered by industry partners by enabling more effective implementation of the aforementioned tools and strategies.
