The development and evaluation of virtual peer-to-peer workgroups as a platform for long-term inter-organizational collaboration in healthcare

• Main Author: Thomas, Daniel
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Health care management; Workgroups; Health care collaboration; Inter-organizational collaboration; Quality improvement
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/2144/23846

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of virtual peer-to-peer (P2P) workgroups as a platform for long-term collaboration in healthcare. Virtual peer-to-peer workgroups were developed and piloted by the Michigan Value Collaborative to increase knowledge and collaboration between providers across Michigan. The workgroups were designed to address barriers to change and long-term collaboration by allowing participants to share their improvement journey and provide feedback and ideas for improvement in a highly accessible platform. The pilot workgroups focused on heart failure readmission reduction initiatives as it is a much scrutinized metric and is penalized by public and private payers. Data on the workgroups were collected using pre and post-workgroup surveys filled out by participants. The results reveal that virtual peer-to- peer workgroups are effective in increasing knowledge and collaboration in the short term, but more study is required to judge their long term effectiveness in improving care at participating providers. Virtual peer-to-peer workgroups can serve as a foundation for increasing regional collaboration in healthcare as it is a very simple platform that does not require major financial or resource commitments.