The future of health care education at Creighton is collaborative, as outlined in their Interprofessional Education and Creighton Collaborative Care strategic planning forum. Collaborative care leads to better community health outcomes and improves the health and well-being of individual patients, the goal stewards say.
The forum was led by NAP Council Member, Joy Doll, OTD, OTR/L, associate professor of occupational therapy and executive director of the Center for Interprofessional Practice, Education and Research (CIPER), and Michael White, MD, associate professor in the School of Medicine and chief academic officer for CHI Health.
According to the World Health Organization, interprofessional education and collaborative practice has been shown to improve health outcomes in communities. These successful results have driven accrediting bodies of all health science disciplines to require interprofessional education in curriculum.
“Our vision is that we are here to cultivate leaders and transform health care through collaboration,” Doll says. “We firmly believe that that’s possible. And that collaborative care is for all and with all.”
Collaborative care primarily addresses the quadruple aim: improving patient health, lowering the cost of care, improving the care experience and reducing clinician burnout.
Doll says collaborative care efforts at CHI Health, thus far, have shown a 37.5 percent decrease in emergency room visits, a 42.2 percent dip in hospitalizations and increased employee engagement. It has also saved patients $4 million — a challenge when addressing health care systems.
