Replacing a joint—especially a knee or hip—is a procedure that millions of Americans need each year. It can give people a mobility and freedom from pain they haven’t enjoyed in years. It’s also a procedure that lends itself to a lot of variation. If best practices aren’t followed, it can lead to complications and hospital…
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…
Bariatric surgery causes your body to lose weight by limiting the amount of food your stomach can hold. This weight loss surgery is becoming increasingly common. Our State’s health care leaders and Bree Collaborative members asked us to look into helping to make this surgery safer and more standard across Washington State. The Centers for…
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…
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…
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…
You deserve to be actively involved in your health. Your health care team should treat you as a partner and work with you to decide what type of care or treatment is best. This is why shared decision-making is so important. Shared decision-making is a way for you and your health care providers to talk…
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