Overview

Colorado Clinical Guidelines Collaborative (CCGC) was founded in 1996 to address the increasing problems resulting from multiple entities disseminating clinical guidelines, often with conflicting messages. Healthcare leaders agreed that a joint effort to develop and support one set of guidelines per disease-state would increase efficiency and serve to improve the quality of care across the state. Many leading competitors in the healthcare market recognized the value of this collaboration and joined the CCGC mission. This alone was a major accomplishment and a significant step toward improving healthcare in Colorado.

CCGC celebrated its 12th anniversary this year, demonstrating the organization’s viability and sustainability. With over 50 healthcare organizations working together, collaboration has been and will continue to be vital to successfully tackling many of the complex issues that plague our healthcare system. To date, CCGC has concentrated its efforts on developing and disseminating guidelines throughout the state, using various methodologies of implementation. CCGC has gained regional and national recognition, becoming the source for clinical guidelines in Colorado.

CCGC has developed eleven guidelines which are revised every one to three years and disseminated to thousands of healthcare professionals throughout Colorado.

Current CCGC Guidelines:

The Colorado Clinical Guidelines Collaborative (CCGC) is a unique non-profit coalition of health plans, physicians, hospitals, employers, government agencies, quality improvement organizations, and other entities working together to reduce fragmentation, and implement systems and processes, using evidence-based clinical guidelines, to improve healthcare in Colorado.

Guidelines in Progress:

Alcohol and Substance Abuse Screening

Moving Forward

Despite the fact that guidelines have been available for years, evidence demonstrates that patients still only receive about 55% of recommended care (NEJM June 2003 and March 2006). Many believe this is due to the increased complexity and fragmentation of healthcare and the lack of proper systems to support the work of healthcare teams. Everyone agrees that drastic changes must occur. Recently, Colorado was selected as one of two states in the country to pilot a new physician-driven initiative called Improving Performance In Practice (IPIP). IPIP was developed through the American Board of Medical Specialties along with the Boards and Societies of Family Medicine, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. CCGC, working with its many partners, was selected to lead the effort in Colorado with substantial support from multiple funders including The Colorado Trust, Caring for Colorado Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE).

The new initiative has three major components:

Performance Measures – Convene health plans, purchasers, physicians and others to agree on ONE set of quality measures for Colorado, using a similar process as with guidelines to promote consistency, decrease fragmentation, and reduce the burden on physicians.

Practice Redesign – Consult with practices using Quality Improvement (QI) coaches to facilitate work in several areas including work flow analysis, Chronic Care Model, advanced access scheduling, team building, and communication.

Information Technology – Catalyze existing efforts to help practices adopt IT solutions by providing consultation on electronic health records and a free patient registry to track patients with various conditions.

IPIP is a natural extension of CCGC’s continuing efforts to integrate evidence-based guidelines at the point of care by offering physicians the tools, systems and support they need to provide consistently high quality care to all patients, all the time. In addition, CCGC has been honored to be selected by STEPP as the Lead Agency for provider tobacco education and systems change, which includes providing grants to other organizations to expand this important work. Through all of these efforts, CCGC has become a strong leader in the healthcare community. CCGC is proud of its reputation, accomplishments, and tremendous potential to significantly improve healthcare delivery for the citizens of Colorado and become a model for other states across the country.

Questions?

For questions and additional information about Colorado Clinical Guidelines Collaborative, please contact the CCGC office at (720) 297-1681.