Awards

HRET Honors Expert

By Chris Serb

Quality expert Brent James, M.D., is honored as HRET Trust Award recipient

The Health Research and Educational Trust will present its 2005 Trust Award to Brent James, M.D., vice president for medical research at Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health Care.

James, a surgeon and biostatician, leads IHC's quality improvement and computerization effort. Under his watch, the system has implemented an electronic health record, designed evidence-based treatment protocols and improved clinical outcomes, while saving money in several areas. James credits system leadership and the clinical staff in shifting from so-called "craft-based practice" to "profession-based practice."

"In the craft-based model, the physician creates a unique diagnostic experience for each patient, with the idea that a personalized, custom approach guarantees the best results," James explains. "In the profession-based model, you take an important work process, hammer it out in detail, and recognize that it won't fit every instance, so you customize parts of it on a case-by-case basis. That turned out to work in medicine."

James says that up to 95 percent of each patient encounter can be standardized. IHC clinical teams have designed computer-assisted protocols, ranging from suggested tests for diabetics to banning elective inductions for pregnancies before 39 weeks. Implementing those cost IHC $12.7 million from 1998 to 2002, but the system also reaped $22 million in savings with newfound efficiencies such as fewer readmissions for cardiac patients, fewer adverse drug events and fewer neonatal ICU stays.

"The trick is that we got the savings not by withholding or short-changing care; we got it from actively pursuing better care," he says.

Previous award winners include Donald Berwick, M.D., president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and David Lawrence, M.D., retired chairman and CEO of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan. The award will be presented on July 28 in San Diego at the Health Forum and American Hospital Association Leadership Summit.

"Brent has been a leader who has not wavered from his scientific pursuits, and has translated that science into practical application in the health care setting," says Mary Pittman, HRET's president. "His work is changing the vision of health care delivery, and he's part of the answer to bridging the quality chasm."

This article 1st appeared in the March 2005 issue of HHN Magazine.

To respond to this article, please click here.