THE ROAD TO HEALTH CARE TRANSFORMATION: LookING Back at the Journey

The 2016 annual report offers highlights of the past year, showcases the achievements of our members and sponsors, and demonstrates ICSI’s enduring value to our state and region. All of these health care improvements in Minnesota and the surrounding region are made possible through your continuing support.

Also in 2016, ICSI convened a group of 15 CEOs from our member and sponsor organizations to talk about the future focus of the ICSI collaborative. As a result of these candid and dynamic conversations, in December 2016, 15 CEOs signed a pledge (see below) to work together on pressing health care issues that cannot be solved without broad collaboration. ICSI is serving as the “backbone” convening and facilitating organization in support of these efforts.

“We, the undersigned Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of health care organizations in the Upper Midwest, recognize our role and responsibility to improve the health of our communities, and pledge to collaborate on specific and persistent problems that cannot be solved by any individual entity or solely through competition. These systemic issues cause significant hardships to the populations we serve, and require crosscutting collaboration in order to achieve desired change.

A single approach may not work everywhere, and this effort will require diverse perspectives and may include partnerships with other organizations as needed. We agree that we will jointly select specific pressing problems to address together, commit our collective expertise to designing innovative solutions, and collaboratively implement new approaches to care that lower cost and improve health for all of our patients.

We understand that the success of this work requires our personal leadership and focused influence, as well as the commitment and resources of our respective organizations. We further commit to a constancy of purpose, to ensure that we achieve the aims we set out to accomplish together.”

The CEOs decided to begin their collaborative efforts by focusing on opioids and mental health, and charged two work groups to begin tackling these pressing issues. Their recommendations will be reviewed at the next CEO meeting in April.

• The opioids work group is to recommend a plan to improve opioid utilization in Minnesota based on evidence and/or best practices for prescribing, and the optimal management of patients with chronic pain and/or addiction. This work should build on promising efforts already showing results in Minnesota, such as one integrated care system that achieved a 20 percent reduction in distributed pills after implementing a program to reduce prescriptions.
• The mental health work group is to recommend two to three improvement options that fall within the organizations’ collective sphere of influence. In developing this approach, they should identify where further understanding of problems and bottlenecks is needed as well as other entities that may be required to participate beyond health plans and medical providers.

Updated 03/30/17