Resource Center

A key factor in closing the gap between best practice and common practice is the ability of health care providers and their organizations to rapidly spread innovations and new ideas. Pockets of excellence exist in our health care systems, but knowledge of these better ideas and practices often remains isolated and unknown to others. One clinic may develop a new way to ensure that all diabetics have their HbA1c levels checked on a regular basis, or one medical-surgical unit in a hospital may develop a consistent way to reduce pain for post-operative patients. But too often these improvements remain unknown and unused by others within the organization. Organizations face several challenges in spreading good ideas, including the characteristics of the innovation itself; the willingness or ability of those making the adoption to try the new ideas; and characteristics of the culture and infrastructure of the organization to support change.

In 1999, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) chartered a team to develop a "Framework for Spread." The stated aim of the team was to "…develop, test, and implement a system for accelerating improvement by spreading change ideas within and between organizations." The team conducted a review of organizational and health care literature on the diffusion of innovations, and interviewed organizations both within and outside of health care that had been successful in spreading new ideas and processes, including Luther Midelfort Health System, Mayo Health System, Virginia Mason Medical Center, and Dean Health System.

Since then, the Framework for Spread and our deeper understanding of its content have continued to evolve. This white paper provides a snapshot of IHI’s latest thinking and work on spread. It is divided into two parts:

The first part of the white paper describes the major spread projects that IHI has supported through early 2006, and harvests the lessons we have learned about the most effective ways to:

• Prepare for spread
• Establish an aim for spread
• Develop, execute, and refine a spread plan

The second part of the white paper is a reprint of an article published in the June 2005 issue of the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, describing how the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) used the Framework for Spread to spread improvements in access to care to more than 1,800 outpatient clinics.