I spent the last three months on maternity leave getting to know my daughter. She came into the world like most babies, unwillingly leaving behind a nicer, easier place for the cold and the bright of a hospital room. I can’t say that my first thoughts were of how the health policies we create now…
Suicide is a preventable, public health issue. This is the framework from which our workgroup aims to develop standards for Suicide Prevention. We have been meeting since February, you can see our focus areas in our charter, and we welcome you to join us this month on April 12th. One topic that has come up…
Health Affairs’ blog recently published America’s “NICE”? discussing whether the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) is becoming our country’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). ICER was founded in 2006 as “an independent and non-partisan research organization that objectively evaluates the clinical and economic value of prescription drugs, medical tests, and…
Since January 2017, the Bree Collaborative’s Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias workgroup has been compiling recommendations to align care delivery for patients, as well as families and caregivers, with best practices using existing evidence-based standard of care for diagnosis, treatment, supportive care, transitions of care, delirium, and advance care planning. One of the most common…
After twelve months of tireless work from our volunteers on the Behavioral Health Integration workgroup – I am more than pleased to tell you that our Report and Recommendations has been adopted by our Bree Collaborative members and sent on to the Health Care Authority! We could not have done this without our workgroup members…
One of my favorite movies is Groundhog Day. Bill Murray is hilarious and thought-provoking as a weatherman cursed to re-live February second over and over until he can learn to be a better person. Perhaps this is a lesson for all of us in self-improvement, paying attention to our community, colleagues, and neighbors, and making…
Opioid addiction is driving the drug overdoses which are claiming too many lives in the US. In 2015 alone, 718 people in Washington state died from opioid-related overdoses. The epidemic is growing quickly, devastating Washington families and communities. There are many factors driving this crisis and nobody can solve it alone. Together the Washington Health…
Most of us see our doctors in a fee-for-service system – this is where doctors and hospitals charge fees for each separate service they provide. Office visits, tests, procedures, and even microtasks like individual screenings can be billed separately. One major drawback to fee-for-service is rewarding quantity over quality. This type of payment model can…
On Wednesday, Bree Collaborative members voted on our work for 2017. Along with re-reviewing our Total Knee and Total Hip Replacement Bundle and Warranty our members elected to create workgroups and develop evidence-based recommendations for: – Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias – Hysterectomy – Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Thank you to the many community members who…
Thank you to all who gave us input on selecting new topics. We discussed all these suggestions at our July meeting, decided on six, and will narrow this down to three final topics in September. The topics coming out of July’s meeting are: – Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia – Addiction – Blood and Blood Product…
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