1001 Stories and Virtual Tabletops

In October 2009 we welcomed our 1001th collaborative practice - just like Arabian Nights, that's 1001 stories to share!

Practices have been celebrating by generously sharing one of their change ideas with us.

We're posting some of these to this site as 'virtual tabletops'. Please feel free to comment on these stories, and indicate how you might adapt or extend these ideas to use in your practice. We'll try to post a new 'tabletop' each week

We'd love to hear about a change idea that your practice has implemented, or is planning to implement.

Please send your story to tony.lembke@improve.org.au

Recent Stories

The Blue Folder March 7, 2010 Tony Lembke The team at Doctors Grand Plaza have had great success with their version of the patient held health summary – “the blue folder” Melissa Cahill tells their story. Our finest achievement conceived through the collaborative process is our “blue folder”. The blue folder is our version of the hand held record and the patients are [...] Posted in Chronic Disease, Communication | Tagged ehr | 3 Comments	Life in the Fast Lane December 14, 2009 Andrew Knight Why block up a 15 minute slot if all that is needed is a brief appointment for a script, a certificate, a referral or a normal result? A number of practices have told us about variations on this idea that have worked for them. Posted in Access | Tagged appointments | 1 Comment
Tracking Care December 7, 2009 Tony Lembke Have you ever worked out the steps involved in completing a GP Management Plan and Team Care Arrangement? The Doctors of Ivanhoe have mapped this process, and produced a Tracking Sheet to assist in making sure each step is completed. Mary Howe from the practice added this comment to our story on Chronic Care Coordinators. I think [...] Posted in Chronic Disease | Tagged care plan, gpmp, process mapping, tca | No Comments	Purple Time – Protecting Endangered Species December 4, 2009 Tony Lembke ‘Protected time’ is invaluable for improvement work – but in a busy practice it is often hard to find. The Sorell Family Practice came up with a novel way to protect this endangered species. As you know, if you keep doing what you’re doing you’re keep getting what you get. The most successful collaborative practices [...] Posted in Uncategorized | | 1 Comment
The rise and rise of the chronic care coordinator November 25, 2009 Andrew Knight The people at Mt Barker/Balhannah Medical Clinic in South Australia were part of the second wave of the Collaborative back in 2005. They remind us that “care redesign” is one of the pillars of effective chronic care. That is you can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results! [...] Posted in Chronic Disease | Tagged cdm, practice nurse | 16 Comments	Recipe for an Electronic Noticeboard November 16, 2009 Tony Lembke Dubbo Family Doctors took the idea of a practice noticeboard and extended it to better suit their own purposes. As Ai-Vee Chua writes “In the spirit of PDSAs, I am submitting one ’small’ step in the multitude of changes we have made (and will make) at our practice as a result of being involved in the [...] Posted in Communication | Tagged design, noticeboard, waiting room | No Comments
Tracking doctor starting times November 11, 2009 Andrew Knight How much of our capacity is lost bit by bit – chipped away in little inefficiencies? This story from Romsey Medical Centre appealed to me because it underlines a lesson it took me years learn. Here is how they tell it… “It’s hard to choose just one from the most worthwhile collaboratives [...] Posted in Access | Tagged Access, appointments, time | No Comments	Appointment Golf October 29, 2009 Tony Lembke This is the first in our new series of Virtual Tabletops, as part of the 1001 Stories Project. In the ‘Carve Out’ model for appointments, some appointments each day are kept reserved as ‘book on the day appointments’, for patients with acute conditions. In our practice, these are coloured green. If ‘Demand is Finite and Predictable’, [...] Posted in Access | Tagged Access, appointments, measures | 1 Comment