Every year our members select three new topics and each year we also spend time reflecting on our previous work, our successes, and how we can improve. This year we will be asking our members to reflect on the Bree Collaborative and would also like to hear from you! Please take a moment to fill…
Behavioral health integration is a hot topic across the country and especially in Washington State. We were recently ranked 48th in the nation by Mental Health America’s 2015 report Parity or Disparity: The State of Mental Health in America – meaning that we have many people with mental illness but low rates of access to care….
The Bree Collaborative is hiring! Since being founded by the Washington State Legislature in 2011, we have developed eight reports and recommendations, three bundled payment models and warranties, and two endorsements. With all this great work and with the support of Healthier Washington, we are focusing on implementation of our recommendations across Washington State and…
The Bree Collaborative is meeting this week – Wednesday, March 16 from 12:30 – 4:30 at the beautiful Waterfront Activities Center on the University of Washington Campus. Join us for coffee and hear how we are working together to improve Washington State’s health care system. Agenda is here. Members will be voting on final adoption of our Oncology Care Report…
One of our new workgroups for 2016 will look into how and when antipsychotic medications are prescribed for children, adolescents, and teens. Among the types of medications that can change brain function, antipsychotics have great potential for being prescribed too often or at too high a dose. These drugs are often prescribed for aggressive or…
The public comment process is a huge part of what makes our recommendations work. We want everyone who is interested, but especially patients, to read our recommendations and let us know what works, what doesn’t work, what makes sense, and where we should push our healthcare system even further. Our Oncology Care workgroup has been…
Balancing effective pain management and patient-centered opioid prescribing is a primary goal for our health care community. Opioids, medications that relieve pain, can be harmful when over prescribed or when prescribed incorrectly. In our State, hospitalizations from opioid overdose and even death from prescription opioids and heroin have increased significantly in the past ten years.[i]…
As we head into the Holiday season and New Year, we look back at the great work done in 2015 and are thankful for the dedication and persistence of our Bree members and many community partners. The best example of this comes from our November meeting. Despite being interrupted by a fire alarm and having…
The Dr. Robert Bree Collaborative “ … to provide a mechanism through which public and private health care stakeholders can work together to improve quality, health outcomes, and cost effectiveness of care in Washington State.” When I was asked to chair the Dr. Robert Bree Collaborative in March of this year I jumped at the…
Prostate cancer is common, but our best way of screening men with the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test is not very accurate. This means that many men who did not need to be treated for prostate cancer are treated and experience the potential for negative side effects or harms from diagnosis and treatment. Evidence conflicts…
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