The Value of Innovation to Implementation Program (VIP): A strategic approach to aligning and leveraging academic research and clinical care missions.

Problem: Inefficient implementation of evidence-based care garners increasing attention as a source of suboptimal value of clinical care, and integration of quality improvement methodology into clinical practice represents a potential solution. Academic medical centers (AMCs) often have expertise in implementation science, yet it is not leveraged effectively to solve operational inefficiencies or to rapidly implement evidence-based practices (EBPs).

Approach: To leverage in-house research expertise, the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Medicine and Center for Health Services Research (CHSR) launched a pilot awards program-Value of Innovation to Implementation Program (VIP)-across its health system and six health professional colleges.

A nursing focus on EMR usability enhancing documentation of patient outcomes.

Achieving the healthcare reform goals of broad electronic medical record (EMR) adoption and meaningful use will require that usability of EMR's be addressed. A usability checklist was implemented in a process improvement redesign of nursing documentation in an academic medical center to ensure optimal design of the user interface in the EMR. The outcomes of this framework were based on metrics of usability: efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction.