Bridging the Learning Divide for Michigan’s Physician Leaders

Practice Transformation Institute is a founding partner with Medical Network One (www.mednetone.net) of the Mackinac Learning Collaborative and leads its curriculum and education delivery. 

A learning collaborative is a learning and innovation community that links a variety of organizations together to rapidly test and implement meaningful, sustainable change within a specific topic area, in this case, physician practices. The Mackinac Learning Collaborative was created to help independent medical practices in Southeast Michigan improve the quality of their care delivery, decrease their costs and improve their income. A primary purpose for the Mackinac Learning Collaborative is to facilitate the adoption, implementation and maximized usage of a population based registry that is all payer compatible and supports the establishment and practice of the Patient centered medical home (PCMH).  The Mackinac Learning Collaborative is the only learning collaborative in Southeast Michigan and one of only two physician learning collaboratives in the state.

Are you a candidate?

The Mackinac Learning Collaborative is comprised of an elite group of physicians and select members of their medical practice team who want to learn new methods for running an effective practice. These physicians/team members are eager to adopt the most advanced approaches and technology for redesigning and nurturing their practices. Because it’s a collaborative, there is an atmosphere of collegiality, not competition, allowing mutual information sharing on best practices, quality initiatives and other elements of managing a medical practice that provides optimum patient care within a business framework that appropriately recognizes the efforts of the physician and the practice team.

Here’s a quick checklist for physicians to help determine if you are a candidate for the Mackinac Learning Collabortive:

·         You are in primary care

·         You have not yet adopted a population-based registry for your practice but are eager to do so because you understand the benefits of technology in improving patient care delivery

·         You are a lifelong learner not only in your medical practice area but on topics that focus on continuous improvement and proven business and leadership strategies

·         You want the benefit of sharing ideas with physician colleagues in a secure, confidential environment

·         You want to learn how to maximize the skills and talents of your medical practice team

·         You are willing to commit to a 15 month effort to explore the learning opportunities and practice building opportunities that the Mackinac Learning Collaborative affords

·         You are willing to invest in your medical practice team to engage them in the collaborative as appropriate

Note: Our Mackinac Learning Collaborative for the 2009-2010 academic year is full, but we are accepting applications for the second class, which will launch in the fall of 2010.

Benefits of the Mackinac Learning Collaborative

The Mackinac Learning Collaborative combines the big picture view of the Chronic Care Model of Medicine with the emerging guidelines of the patient-centered medical home (PCMH).  The collaborative provides strategies for putting patients’ needs first while also addressing the business aspects of a physician practice. Here’s a checklist of benefits the Mackinac Learning Collaborative provides:

·         Comprehensive knowledge of population-based registries and how they can be implemented in your practice to improve patient health and internal systems

·         Knowledge sharing and education among trusted peers, coaches and other professionals

·         Implementation strategies that will align your practice with the patient centered medical home and allow for certification as a PCMH

·         The opportunity to forge meaningful relationships with peer physicians and their teams that will continue long after the Collaborative has ended

·         The opportunity to be an early adopter of the patient centered medical home, one of primary care’s most sweeping and comprehensive initiatives in the history of the primary care concept 

- CME credits

Physicians interested in participating in the Mackinac Learning Collaborative should contact Harmony Rowley at hrowley@transformcoach.org. 

Want to Start Your Own Learning Collaborative?

If you want to build a learning collaborative in your area, Practice Transformation Institute has the tools to get you started and the experience-based guidance to make your collaborative an ongoing success.   Learn how to take the first steps by contacting Ewa Matuszewski.