Foundation for Health Care Quality First Equity Awards Given to Kaiser Permanente Washington and United Health Group

Bree Collaborative Awards Highlight Quality Improvement Successes

SEATTLE, WA, USA, April 23, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Congratulations to Kaiser Permanente Washington and UnitedHealthcare, winners of the Foundation for Health Care Quality’s first annual Mountain Climber Award for Excellence in Equity awards.

Our Bree Collaborative awards system is part of our state-wide evaluation of whether and how Bree guidelines have been implemented into practice. Following our region’s love of the outdoors, we have three tiers from pathfinder to trailblazer to mountain climber. Pathfinder awards are automatically given to all health plans, delivery sites, and purchasers who complete our implementation checklists. Trailblazer awards are given to our community for having high levels of implementation or high fidelity in existing processes to our Bree Collaborative Guidelines. Our Mountain Climber award is given to organizations who apply after having first received a trailblazer award for exemplary implementation efforts that focus on Bree Collaborative pillars of transformation including equity, data exchange and transparency, person-centered care, and accountable financing. Winners are selected by a panel of volunteers who score submissions on key elements, including generalizability of their work, innovation, overcoming barriers, and the breadth of implementation work.

The Bree Collaborative has a strong history of developing guidelines on current, evidence-based best-practices, developed collaboratively and transparently by clinicians and other experts. Guidelines illustrate what each organization’s role should look like in a quality health care system. Our intention is that this award system is to call out and celebrate organizations leading the way in quality care that aligns with our guidelines.

While our panel of judges were impressed with all the projects submitted for the first annual Mountain Climber award, these two projects stood out for their clear connection to the Bree guidelines, excellent examples of measurable impacts, and the comprehensive system change created to support and increase health equity across both organizations.

We look forward to presenting both Kaiser Permanente Washington and UnitedHealthcare with a trophy and certificate at the Bree Member Meeting on May 22nd from 1-3pm and we will be inviting both organizations to present on their equity work at the Patient Safety Coalition's conference this coming October.

We would also like to congratulate our first round of Trailblazer Award winners given to organizations who demonstrate adherence to best practices are concordant with the Bree recommendations.

• HealthPoint
• Arbor Health-Morton Hospital
• Community Health Plan of Washington
• UW Medicine/UW Physicians
• MultiCare
• Kaiser Permanente
• UnitedHealthcare
• The Everett Clinic/PolyClinic, part of Optum Health

About Foundation for Health Care Quality: The Foundation for Health Care Quality (FHCQ) is a nationally recognized Washington-based not-for-profit dedicated to improving clinical care safety, quality, and equity. FHCQ’s Bree Collaborative is a public/private group of Washington State Governor-appointed stakeholders that annually develops evidence-informed clinical guidelines to inform health care delivery, contracting, purchasing, and experience.

Ginny Weir
Foundation for Health Care Quality
+1 206-204-7377
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